Leadership Project Proposal - Gina Marie's Brain Forest

%% #🌱 #🟠 %% # Onboarding New Members and Developing Leaders in a Rotary Club ![[Puget_Creek_Natural_Area_01.jpg]][Joe Mabel](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Jmabel), [Puget Creek Natural Area 01](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Puget_Creek_Natural_Area_01.jpg), [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode) --- ## Background [Rotary](https://www.rotary.org) is an international organization made up of local service clubs that are organized into 530 districts around the world. At every level - international, district, and club - the top leadership positions change over every year. I am currently serving as president of my Rotary club, a role I filled once before almost ten years ago. Rotary clubs are made up entirely of volunteers and engagement looks different for each member. Some attend nearly every weekly lunch meeting, and most fellowship and community service events. Some go further and take lead roles in organizing those events, leading committees, or serving on the board of directors. Others attend less frequently but may get very involved in a project or activity of particular interest. As with many volunteer groups, the operations of our club often falls into the model of the [[Pareto principle]], where 20% of of the club does 80% of the work. That's fine, except when that 20% are the same individuals year after year. For our success as a club to be sustainable and to avoid member burnout, it is important that we encourage and empower more members to get engaged and find ways to do the work more efficiently. ## Goals & Objectives My thinking around this project started with a question of how to identify, recruit, and prepare new club leaders - especially in the role of club president. In talking with our current president-elect, it became clear that it's less about traditional leadership development and more about helping newer, less-experienced Rotarians understand the many aspects of Rotary and how our club operates. We have several newer members serving on our board of directors this year, and they pointed out that understanding Rotary and our club is not just important for leaders, but for all members of the club, which led me to thinking about how we onboard new members. This started to sound like a very large-scale, long-term project, or perhaps several integrated projects with three primary goals: 1. New members are confident in their understanding of how the Rotary club works and how they can get engaged. 2. Club has renewable pipeline of members ready and willing to take on leadership roles. 3. Club leaders are well-prepared and confident in their ability to successfully fulfill their leadership role. ![[Rotary Knowledge Management Mind Map.png]] I realized that the thing that underpins all three of these larger themes - onboarding members, succession planning, and leadership development - is knowledge management. How do we capture the knowledge (both tacit and explicit) of all the many aspects of our organization and share it with members? And how can developing consistent processes for all our tasks and activities help our club be more efficient and effective? So, the focus of this initial project is to build a knowledge management system for our Rotary club. There are two main goals, each of which have several objectives: 1. Club members and leaders will have a clear understanding of how Rotary, and our Rotary club in particular, works and know how to find information and resources. a. Identify existing knowledge assets b. Create new knowledge assets c. Build an accessible, user-friendly repository for all knowledge assets d. Develop plan and processes for knowledge sharing 2. Our Rotary club has clear and consistent processes that make the operation of the club and our various activities more efficient and sustainable. a. Identify and evaluate current processes b. Improve existing processes and create new processes where none exist c. Create templates and checklists that help make processes more efficient d. Establish process for regularly evaluating projects and activities ## Indicators & Measures of Success 1. Club members feel more knowledgeable about Rotary and the club 2. Club members know where to go or who to ask for information - Qualitative surveys 3. Club members and leaders access/use and contribute to repository of knowledge - Website/database usage statistics 4. Common processes and procedures are documented, which could include: - Policy & Procedure Manual - Board Manual ## ORGL Competencies Building a comprehensive knowledge management system will give me the opportunity to draw on many of the theories and tools I have learned over the course of the ORGL program. I will be particularly focusing on the following learnings: 1. Using the [[Change Path Framework]] and [[Kotter's 8-Step Change Proccess]] to establish stakeholder buy-in and a collaborative process for change. 2. Drawing on [[Design Thinking]] to support the creation of the website. 3. Using [[Appreciative Inquiry]] to guide communications and ensure that conversations with stakeholders are meaningful. --- *Created on:* 2022-10-22 *Last modified on:* 2022-11-14