RI’s LITERACY MONTH – Implications for Individual Rotary Clubs:

Why? What? How?  

A. Why did RI establish theme months in the first place? Why did the RI Board Board of

     Directors designate March as Literacy Month?

     1. There are only 12 months in a year ---- So when the RI Board of Directors

         agrees to set aside a particular month for a particular theme, the message is

         clear – The topic of the theme is an area to which all clubs should try to give

         priority.

     2. Literacy Month used to be in July. But most clubs are just getting organized

         for the new Rotary year in July. So few clubs were able to do anything with respect

         to literacy in July. Therefore, three years ago upon the  recommendation of  the

         RILRG general coordinator at the time, Dr. Eileen Gentilcore, the RI Board of

         Directors moved Literacy Month from July to March. 

B. What should highly motivated Rotary clubs do to promote and celebrate Literacy

     Month?

     1. Create Awareness – Within the club; within the local community

     2. Undertake a project ( or projects) – basic literacy, functional literacy,

                                          character literacy

     3. Qualify for the District Literacy Award – 5 literacy activities required

     4. Initiate the club’s literacy project planning process for 2010-2011

     5. Celebrate the club’s literacy project successes during 2009-2010

C. How might the highly motivated club do any or all of the above? Here are

     some suggestions. Creative club members will surely have additional ideas

     and some of those may be better than the ideas which follow:

     1. Create awareness

            a. Schedule a speaker on a literacy topic for a regular meeting of the club ( or at a

                special meeting)

            b. Present a literacy award or recognition  at a regular meeting of the club ( or

                at a  special meeting). Recognize teachers, or students, or civic leaders who

                have promoted the cause of literacy in the community. Or recognize your

                club’s own literacy project leaders.

            c. Sponsor a newspaper advertisement, a radio or television advertisement or

                a billboard with a message about Rotary’s work with literacy

     2. Undertake a project

            a. Do a basic literacy project

            b. Do a functional literacy project

            c. Do a character literacy project – Give special attention to the 4-Way Test

     3. Qualify for a District Literacy Award – Any of the activities in C-1 and

            C-2 count as one of the five required literacy projects. If the club does a

            dictionary or book gift project and includes a 4-Way Test sticker in the

            dictionaries or books, that counts as two of the five projects required

            for the District Literacy Award.

     4. Initiate literacy project planning for 2010-2011

            a. Review the three short basic documents provided by the RILRG

                ( The first two are posted on www.rotary.org/literacy and also on

                   the literacy section of http://www.rizones30-31.net/)

                * 2009-2010 Guide to Literacy Service Projects and Awards for Clubs

                *.2009-2010 Literacy Awards Brochure

                * The Rotary Awareness Month message sent to all districts the first

                   week in January ( and soon to be posted on www.rizones30-31.net)

            b. Recruit a member(s) with a passion for literacy and a tolerance for detail to

                review a selection of district reports of club activities and produce a short

                list of project ideas for the club to consider. A wealth of club and district

                reports is available at http://www.rizones30-31.net/. The amount of useful

                information posted there is extensive and that is why the member(s)

                of the club assigned to this task should have a passion for literacy.

                Without that passion your member(s) won’t take the time to dig into the

                 wealth of good examples available.

            c. In scanning for ideas and  screening to produce the short list of project ideas the

                empowered club  member(s) should try to include literacy project ideas which

                cover the  following classifications:

                * Each of the three categories of literacy – basic literacy, functional literacy,

                   and character literacy.

                * Each of the FOUR AVENUES OF SERVICE – Club Service literacy

                   projects, Community Service literacy projects, Vocational Service literacy

                   projects and International Service literacy projects

            d. In scanning for ideas the empowered club member(s) should review the

                information located on the RILRG’s two web sites AND/OR the reports

                which the RILRG will start sending to clubs at the beginning of February.

            e. Evaluate the options and choose a MENU of projects

     5. Celebrate

            a. Celebrate within the club by devoting a March meeting to recognizing the

                club’s literacy project successes and the members who made them possible.

            b. Or hold the event at a separate time, thereby giving it more emphasis and

                making it easier to include the actions suggested in point “c” which follows.

            c. Turn the celebration into an opportunity to create Public Awareness of the

                club’s work by inviting community leaders and literacy project partners to

                attend the event.

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