LITERACY, THE NEAR FUTURE

A. Work remaining to be done by zone coordinators
April 15th is behind us. Our major work has been accomplished. Now it is time to join with our successful clubs and districts in celebrating their successes in the area of literacy.
Those of you who are in active contact with your districts still have work to do in terms of answering questions about literacy awards; approving zone awards; and recommending area awards to your area coordinator. For those of you in the European area, consider me to be your area coordinator for the purpose of approving of area awards. If you receive questions about other awards just contact me.
Finally, be sure to send a short final report to your area coordinator and me in June and be sure to send a copy to the Rotary Coordinator who will replace you.

B. Optional actions for zone coordinators – Creating Awareness in May/June
1. In a little more than two months a new team of district governors and club presidents will take office. Some of them are already aware of literacy project opportunities and are making plans to take actions. Many others are not aware of what could be done.
Yet, particularly at the club level, they are still making their plans for 2010-2011.
Clearly, May and June are two months when most clubs are receptive to new ideas about literacy projects which can be initiated in the coming year.

If those who are unaware could be made aware of literacy project success stories and role models from the current year, surely many of them would decide to add one or more new literacy projects to their club’s plans for next year.

2. Over the past five years the job of creating that awareness in May and June was the responsibility of the RILRG team that officially took office in July. In other words, we had a process in place that was similar to PETS, only with a focus on literacy. But since the RILRG will cease to exist as of July 1st, literacy project promotion will lose the special emphasis and organization it has had.
3. The new Rotary Coordinator structure will keep in place something roughly similar to the current zone coordinators. But they can only share information with their districts if there is someone else to provide that information. In future years the plan might be to have RI staff provide this service. But this year therewill probably be a gap due to the inherent nature of the transition.

4. Consequently, this year’s zone coordinators can provide a great service to next year’s Rotary Coordinators by:
a. Continuing to share information about literacy projects with your districts (and their clubs) in May and June.
b. In your final act as zone coordinator, make the RC who will replace you aware of the literacy leaders and literacy project standards of excellence in your zone and beyond.

C. Celebration at the Montreal Convention
If you plan to attend the Montreal convention, be sure to attend the two literacy breakout sessions and be sure to drop by the RILRG literacy booth. If you would like to help us staff the booth for a few hours, let Roger Hayward or me know.

D. About this week’s downloadable attachments – Courtesy of District Literacy Coordinator Jacqueline Russell and Zone Coordinator Lloyd Gray.

For any of you who wish to continue creating awareness in May and June the area coordinators and I will continue to share with you examples of interesting literacy project reports from around the world.

This week’s examples will come to you as separate attachments to this week’s management bulletin.
The first of the two downloads which I am attaching this week is a PowerPoint presentation describing the accomplishments of the Olympia RC in the state of Washingon, USA. That club completed 21 literacy projects. When district governors-elect or club presidents-elect view this PowerPoint they should pay attention to the large number of club members who were involved. Clearly, literacy projects offer an opportunity to get members involved and that means…RETENTION OF MEMBERS!
The second of the two downloads provides an example of the strong “adopt-a-school” project supported by the Clover Park RC in the state of Washington, USA.

A «strong strong adopt-a-school» project is defined as one where the Rotary club gets involved with a variety of sub-projects all of which contribute to the quality and quantity of education which the school is consequently able to offer. Earlier this year we heard about a similar “robust” adopt-a-school project in India (the RC of Bombay’s Bhavishya Yaan project which was also sent to you in the form of a PowerPoint presentation). Next week I plan to share with you an equally inspiring example from the Philippines. Are there any such examples in your zone? If so, be sure to make your districts and clubs aware of them.
Richard Hattwick
World Literacy Coordinator
April 2010
PHOTOS: Madonna, she wants to sponsor a school in Africa; UNICEF Schools in Africa; children playing in Africa; UNICEF Schools in Africa; vision of Hope Community School in Africa;  all should feel good where they live; a plaint growing well like a child who learns; Malaika Thorme in Dansa, for the Project Build a School.