LITERACY MONTH, WHY, WHAT AND HOW

Implications for Individual Rotary Clubs:

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

Note: There is a literacy aspect to most of the other Rotary theme months. For example, October is Vocational Service Month. So the members in charge of the club’s menu of literacy projects should consider literacy projects involving the 4-Way Test and other character building programs, career orientation and job shadowing projects and even basic adult literacy projects or GED projects which enable functionally illiterate adults to become employable.

Richard Hattwick

RI World Literacy Coordinator

February 2010

PHOTOS:Brazilian student shows her study project; PPRI Herbert Taylor shows the Four Way Test in his office; Richard Hattwick, RI world Coordinator for Literacy; Roger Howard, Literacy Area coordinator in USA (RI Zones 31 and 32) and editor of one of Literacy official websites; RI President Nominee  Kalyan Banerjee greeting the students in the streets after his nomination; Jane Goodhaal in Birmingham, her deep respect for nature is one fabulous lesson about caracter literacy; Jack Lang, former french minister for culture and education, had an important role on literacy in his country and in Europe; PPRI Rajendra Saboo.