The same is true at Rotary throughout the year – in fact, the One Rotary Summit focused on connecting to each other through storytelling. As you meet with your club this month, challenge your members to take note of the good deeds of Rotarians throughout 2020 and share your stories. 

Remind each other through the power of storytelling why you joined and continue to stay engaged. And use your time together this month to finish laying the foundation for projects you’ll work through in 2020 – and the stories you’ll remember next holiday season. Enjoy your December. Have a safe and healthy holiday season!

Celebrating Good Works in Your Community

Throughout the year, your club conducts multiple projects, from beautification and organization to health and wellness initiatives. But often, our humility prevents us from describing the details of our projects with the community and sharing the results.

However, storytelling is not the same as bragging about your club’s accomplishments. Rather, it’s a way to encourage ongoing community partnership. Sharing stories of good works – and of the people who make them happen – can pique the interest of prospective future Rotarians and help drive recruitment.

As you work through 2020, consider launching a storytelling program to share the good works your club has conducted in the community. The story below offers tips to get started. 

Telling Your Rotary Stories

At One Rotary Summit, clubs around the state were supplied with Personal Action Plans and One Rotary Toolkits to help Rotarians tell their stories in their communities. These tools can support storytelling initiatives for members with any level of experience.

As you plan for 2020, consider not only which projects your club will undertake but also the methods in which you will recruit volunteers and share the results of the endeavor. Through the power of storytelling, you can share the reasons why individuals should contribute as opposed to just asking for help. 

Throughout a project, you can use social media and email to visually share with your audiences how the project is going. At its fruition, offer insights into how you achieved a specific result and what that means in relation to your overarching goals rather than data dumping, which offers limited context and no recommended next steps. 

The power of storytelling allows you to share more than just data – it helps you share experiences. And experiences are what Rotary is all about!