Introduction

Pathways Rotary Club is the first online Rotary club of Rotary District 6600. Although the club was started within District 6600, it has evolved to include any current Rotarians worldwide who may not find that their local club fits their needs but want to continue to be a part of Rotary.

We provide a link to Rotarians and to those who have been touched by Rotary through their experiences with many different Rotary alumni as former Rotary Youth Exchange students, RYLA, Group Study Exchange members, and Global and District Scholars and Vocational Training Teams (members and leaders). In addition, anyone who would like to put service above self and become a new Rotarian can feel welcome to begin their Rotary experience with our club in a format that fits their lifestyle.

Our purpose is to help make the world a better place while promoting fellowship among our members. Our members can do service wherever they are physically located in the world in concert with other Rotary clubs and come together as a club to further our goals of literacy and building better lives for people around the world while helping to preserve the planet we all share.

1. Executive Summary

Executive Summary

Opportunity: We can help people serve and create fellowship through Rotary in a new way using online resources.
Mission: Facilitate globalization of Rotary by expanding exposure to projects in various parts of the world and country and enabling a higher degree of geographic connectivity.
Solution: By bringing service-minded people together to share projects and experiences in other parts of the world thus bringing broader exposure and experience to bear tackling these problems.
Areas of Focus: We have five areas of focus, literacy, bringing clean water to the world, improving, and sustaining the environment, promoting youth to experience other countries’ cultures, and bringing medical supplies to those in need.
Competitive advantage: Our online format allows us to reach people around the world, not just in one location. Without having to provide a meeting venue and meals, our dues are very low.
Ownership: Rotarians worldwide

2. Club overview

Our club was chartered on April 24, 2015. We meet online monthly using the Zoom app, with other meetings for fellowship, special events, and committee meetings.

We are proud of our diverse membership. Our membership ranges from brand new members who are new to Rotary to longtime Rotarians including five Past District Governors. Ten of our members are Rotary Alumni, six former Group Study Exchange participants, and five former Rotary Youth Exchange Students and Rotary Youth Exchange Officers. Ten of our members have served as presidents of other Rotary Clubs.

Whether we have been Rotarians for more than forty years, or just a few months, we are all bonded together by service above self and an online club is the right fit for us at this period of our lives.

We have members residing in nine different states in the United States and six other countries. In addition to the base of our members that reside in Rotary District 6600 (Northwest Ohio, USA), we also have members living in other Rotary Districts of Ohio, California, Connecticut, Indiana, Michigan, Georgia, Florida, Texas, and New York. Our international members reside in Australia, Guatemala, Germany, Finland, Japan, and Taiwan. And we are growing!

If you think an online Rotary club is right for you, if you have service to others in your heart, we would love for you to consider joining us as a member of the Pathways Rotary Club.

3. How our club serves

Our club’s primary areas of focus for service projects are global in scope, in keeping with our global membership. We endeavor to serve while trying to meet several of Rotary International’s prime goals. Among them are promoting education, saving mothers and children, promoting local economies, providing clean water, sanitation, and hygiene, protecting our environment, and promoting world peace through better international relationships.

Literacy: The Guatemala Literacy Project part of the Cooperative for Education https://coeduc.org/ is a sustainable project to break the cycle of poverty in Guatemala by bringing books and technology to children there. While many nonprofits spread their resources across many countries, CoEd builds long-term relationships with our beneficiaries in one country, providing them with multiple, layered programs that combat poverty. Our approach to “deep” development will bring about long-term, systemic change in Guatemala. Our club currently sponsors four students in the program and many of our members sponsor other students individually. Several members of our club work in the program and one of our club members is one of the founders of the organization.
Medical Equipment and Supplies Abroad: MESA is District 6600’s premier project to help better the lives of people throughout the world. In the United States, there’s a huge wealth of usable medical equipment and supplies that are no longer in service. The second-hand surplus in our country is often state-of-the-art to the healing needs of developing countries. Rotarians have the resources to collect, sort, identify, store and ship millions of dollars of still-usable medical supplies and equipment. The supplies and equipment go from MESA’s warehouse in Fostoria, Ohio into a shipping container, and then into the port of a local Rotary Club for distribution. https://www.rotarymesa.org/ Working with MESA, some of our members have been able to get vitally needed medical supplies and food supplies to indigenous people in Mexico.
Bringing Clean Water to the world: In partnership with Rotary clubs in Chihuahua, Mexico, businessmen’s organizations there, and other groups, such as Creation Care International https://www.creationcareinternational.org/en, our club is working on obtaining a Rotary Global Grant to bring water to homes that have never had that vital source of life.
Cultural Connections is an online program developed by the Pathways Rotary Club for two students and their families to experience each other’s cultures.
Operation Pollination: With a global membership we realize the world begins in our own backyard. Operation Pollination is a movement within Rotary to rebuild and expand the habitat of the world’s pollinators to help preserve our planet and our food supply. No matter where you are located on the globe, you can make a difference, no matter how small that can create real change for the better. Our members can team with Rotary Clubs local to them and do service to help create a better environment for all of us or just plant a few pollinator-friendly plants in their own backyard. https://www.rotary.org/en/rotarians-pledge-restore-monarch-butterflys-disappearing-habitat

Service through partnership: While the traditional model of being in service as a Rotarian with a weekly meeting and service projects just in a local community may not fit our members’ lifestyle, we encourage our members to reach out to their local community club and see how they can participate. Being a member of our club means you are also a member of a 1.2-million-member organization, Rotary International, doing vital work to make this a better world and can attend Rotary meetings anywhere around the world. Lending our hands and hearts occasionally to our local clubs while having the pleasure of fellowship with Rotarians around the world we feel is one of the greatest assets of our group.

4. Why belong to an online Rotary club?

You want to put “service above self.”
You have a busy life that may not fit being expected to attend a weekly luncheon meeting.
You would like to meet other like-minded individuals from around the world.
You would like to explore what it is to become a Rotarian.
You have a busy travel schedule. You can stay abreast of Rotary and belong to the Pathways Club, thus enabling you to “attend” or catch up on meetings and presentations at your convenience 24/7.
You have been a Rotarian in a local club and have now moved away but would like to retain a connection with your fellow Rotarians.
You have had experience with a Rotary project like Youth Exchange or Group Study Exchange.
You may now have to do (or like to do) traveling that restricts your ability to attend your home club’s meetings and events.
You might have mobility problems that preclude your ability to attend weekly meetings.
You are looking for a lower-cost alternative to a local club. Without having to pay for a venue for meetings, or for food and beverages at those meetings, our club has a very low operating cost and consequently, very low dues.
SWOT A SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis looks at both how we can continue to thrive and improve and where we face challenges.
We are always striving to make the club better for both our members and those we serve.

5. Operating Plan

We meet online using the Zoom app monthly with other meetings as needed for fellowship or other purposes. Our board of directors will meet at least bi-monthly.

Technology: The Zoom application for online video meetings is our primary tool for meetings. Members must be able to have the ability to access the internet and run the Zoom application on whatever device they have for internet access. They must be able to use an internet browser to connect with Rotary International’s My Rotary https://my.rotary.org/en/ They must have an email address to be able to receive club communications and provide it to the club. They need to be registered on the club’s preferred club management website, DACdb.
Officers: Officers are elected by the club including President, President-Elect, Immediate Past President, Secretary, and Treasurer. Other board members are outlined in our club bylaws.
Facilities: Without a physical terrestrial location, our club is currently part of Rotary District 6600, Zone 31 of Rotary International which is composed of members from around the world. Our club was founded in Lorain County Ohio and is part of Areas 13 & 14 of the District.

6. Marketing Plan

Building our membership into a group that is connected and involved is one of our biggest challenges as an online organization. We can use tools available to us in the online community, such as Facebook, Instagram and our website https://www.pathwaysrotary.org/ to present ourselves to potential members and keep our current members informed and involved. As part of this, each member is expected annually to present an online program (TED Talks are one source) that not only informs members but provides a way for Rotarians to get meeting credit. These are posted weekly on our website.

Key messages: We must make it clear what an online Rotary club has to offer both to make it attractive to become a new member and keep current members. We must communicate the message that this is a different kind of Rotary, “not your father’s Rotary club” but committed to the same goals as traditional clubs. We need to communicate that this is a new, exciting challenge that requires individual commitment greater than that required of the old typical Rotary club.
Marketing activities: How can we best get the word out about our club?
Use of Rotary International Channels
Word of mouth
Digital Marketing

7. Financial Plan

Currently, our club is self-financed. We primarily rely on member donations to fund our projects. We can leverage funds that members contribute to the Rotary Foundation through District and Global grants, but we need member contributions or other fundraising sources to access those foundation funds.

Develop new ideas for fundraising We have done small fundraising projects like a logo t-shirt sale and using genealogical research to raise money for the Polio Fund, but we need to explore options to bring more donations into the club. We need to explore opportunities to collaborate with local clubs in their fundraising events and look at some of the models they use to raise money such as online classes or events to help fund our projects beyond membership donation.