South Tyler President, Beth Blaisdell said, “Our club visioning workshop helped us collaborate as a team to define our direction and goals for the next several years. The visioning team of 15 reported to our club members at our weekly meeting, sharing our vision results. The enthusiasm and commitment from our club has South Tyler Rotary on a very positive path for community service.”
According to District 5830 Visioning Chair, Sam Scoggins, there are three measures of success for club's that complete a Vision. (Click on read more for details) Facilitated Visioning Events
A major priority of District 5830 and DG Mike Groom is that every club in the District will complete a timely “Facilitated Visioning Event”. Many District clubs conducted Visioning Events in 2017 and 2018. Those clubs should consider a refresher to rejuvenate their strategic plans and program priorities. Clubs that have not conducted a Visioning Event should arrange one at some point over the next 12 months. To do so, contact the District 5830 Visioning Chair, Sam Scroggins, via email at scroggins789@gmail.com.
Why is Facilitated Club Visioning important? There are at least three measures of success for club’s that complete a Vision Facilitation:
- An immediate benefit will be consensus among the membership for meaningful three-year goals and priorities for the club, its members, and its community.
- These priorities can be readily woven into the annual plans of the current, incoming, and succeeding Club Presidents. This leads to continuity and consistency of programming as club leadership changes from year to year.
- Finally, the long-term mark of accomplishment will be in three years when the club advances from where it is now to where it wants to be with its membership level, fundraising activities, service to the community, leadership development, and its support for the Rotary Foundation.
Rotary International (RI) has established its Vision: “Together we see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change across the globe, in our communities, and in ourselves.”
The RI Vision provides the framework for its strategic priorities and objectives: Increase Our Impact, Expand Our Reach, Enhance Participant Engagement, and Increase Our Ability to Adapt. To achieve these objectives, every Rotary club needs to develop goals and a roadmap with subsets of these objectives in mind.
WHAT is a Facilitated Club Visioning Event?
A Facilitated Visioning Event is a four hour session that will assist key leaders and interested members of a Rotary club to prioritize and achieve consensus for its major plans and programs for the upcoming three years.
The facilitation session is intended for participation by club leaders and other Rotarians who are interested in the future of the club. Participants should include some of the newest members along with the most tenured. The breadth and depth of the Visioning exercise is most effective when past, present and future leaders and a group of opinionated members participate.
A Vision Facilitation Team of 3 or 4 experienced Rotarians from other District clubs commit many hours of volunteer time to prepare for each event. Thus the expectation for the club hosting the event is that:
- Attendance at the event will include the present board members, including the current President, President-elect, President-elect Nominee, Immediate Past-President, Secretary, Treasurer and two or more other Past-Presidents. Other participants should reflect a cross-section of the membership gender, age, race, and occupational demographics.
- All participants will commit to the entire 4-hour exercise and prepare a brief but important written assignment in advance.
- There should be a minimum of 12 participants for smaller clubs and up to 24 participants for larger clubs (over 50 members). The cap of 24 is to help maintain the time schedule while allowing fair and full input from all present.
Each club requesting a Facilitated Visioning Event will designate a “Club Coordinator” to work with the District Visioning Chair to provide all the information and direction that the planned participants will need in preparation for the session. There is also a $50 fee that will be charged to the club by the District Treasurer to help defray the costs of consumable Visioning Event materials.
During the Visioning session, the team of Facilitators will lead a multi-step process consisting of an Overview, a Writing Exercise, a Data and Idea Collection step, Consensus Voting, and a Breakout Exercise to develop a sample Action Plan. The club will then be provided with a “Vision to Success” guide to help direct their development of Action Plans for each goal that becomes an element of the club’s 3-Yyear Master Plan.
There is never a time better than now to schedule your club’s Facilitated Visioning Event. Contact the District 5830 Visioning Chair soon.
