Secretary Information File - Vol. I

Table of Contents - Clink on topic for which you desire more information.

1. Rotary Foundation - Club Recognition Summary
2. Attendance and Membership Report
3. Updating Club Directory Information with Rotary International
4. Rule of 85
5. Tips for Completion of Your Club's SAR
6. Membership Development
7. New Club Identification Codes
8. How to Read and Understand a MCR Report 
9. How to Read and Understand a CRS Report
10. RI and District 7280 Dues and Assessments
11. Postal Abbreviations
12. Election of Club Officer

Rotary Foundation - Club Recognition Summary

Since your Club Rotary Foundation Chair does not have access to the on-line Club Recognition Summary (CRS) you, as club secretary, are responsible for printing out this report from the RI Website on a regular basis and giving it to your Foundation Chair.

You should review your club's CRS for accuracy prior to distribution. Look for duplicate entries of a Rotarian's name. This could have been caused by different spellings or abbreviations of the person's name when contributions were made years ago. Several years ago, RI decided to merge our original identification number with our Foundation number, causing the duplicate entries. If you find duplicates, you should call Rotary Foundation Contact Center at 866-976-8279 or email  the Contact Center at contact.center@rotary.org to explain the reason for the duplication and to ask  to combine the two accounts.

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Attendance and Membership Report

The one item that is required each month by Rotary International from the District Governor is an Attendance and Membership Report.  This report will be placed on the District website so you simply have to enter your club’s figures and hit the ‘Send’ button to complete your report. You may also email your report to Peter Richdale at peterjody@zoominternet.net and PDG Lee Ahlum at ahlum2@verizon.net or snail mail it to PDG Lee Ahlum, 239 Meadowbrook Drive, New Wilmington, PA 16142, by the 10th. of each month.

Your report should contain your club name, your total number of members (excused and non-excused, but not honorary), and the number of meetings held and the percent of non-excused members who have attended the month’s meetings either at the home club or through make-ups at other clubs or club board approved activities.  The RI Constitution defines Excused Membership as follows:

Article VIII, Section 2 — Excused Absences. A member’s absence shall be excused if:

(a) the absence complies with the conditions and under circumstances approved by the board. The board may excuse a member’s absence for reasons that it considers to be good and sufficient.

(b) the aggregate of the member’s years of age and years of membership in one or more clubs is 85 years or more and the member has notified the club secretary in writing of the member’s desire to be excused from attendance and the board has approved.

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Updating Club Directory Information with Rotary International

On the Rotary International Home Page ( www.rotary.org ), click on Member Access (on the Topics bar to the far right side) and you will see the Log In screen.  That will either allow you to log in, if you have previously registered, or sign in as the new Secretary.  Do this by entering your District Number (7280), Club Number (which is on your SAR and also on your Foundation Report) and your own Rotary Foundation number.  This number may be found on your Rotarian magazine label.

Next, look down the selections on the left and find the Update Club Directory.  Click on this once. This will open the Official Club Data Form and, if you or your predecessor has already entered this information, you should see your club statistics, such as Club Name, Year of Admission and your current number of members.  Once again, this will be accurate only if you have been keeping current with the RI Website. If there are errors or blank boxes, correct them. Fill in all of the boxes that apply.  Be sure to give directions to your meeting place so strangers can easily find it.

Finally, scroll down to the Assign Officer Positions section and enter the names of your Club President and Club Secretary for both Rotary Years 2004-05 and 2005-06. Simply click on one of the Year buttons on the right, and then click on the Name Field to see all of your club members’ names. Scroll down to the correct one and that name will remain in the box. Do this for both positions for both years, and then scroll to the bottom of the page and click on Submit Changes (You can make only one change at a time). On this screen you can also report any changes that occur during the year.

We hope this will get your year off to a good start. We will review this procedure at our Secretary Training Seminars

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Rule of 85

The following is an explanation of the Rule of 85 and how to apply the rule to calculating membership attendance:

The RI Constitution defines Excused Membership as follows:

    Article VIII, Section 2 — Excused Absences. A member’s absence shall be excused if

(a) the absence complies with the conditions and under circumstances approved by the board. The board may excuse a member’s absence for reasons that it considers to be good and sufficient.

(b) the aggregate of the member’s years of age and years of membership in one or more clubs is 85 years or more and the member has notified the club secretary in writing of the member’s desire to be excused from attendance and the board has approved.

Example: Member John Doe will be 65 in June 2005 and he will have 20 years of service in October 2005. This qualifies him for exclusion from attendance starting in October 2005. 

This will not affect his membership status in any way but will simply allow you as Club Secretary to exclude him from your attendance percent if he does not make a meeting. However, if he attends a meeting he should be counted toward your overall percentage.

Examples:

A club with 50 members, 10 of whom qualify and have been approved for the Rule of 85.  At a given meeting, 36 of the non-Rule of 85 members were either in attendance, given credit for a board approved service activity or had a make-up in another club, and 8 of the 10 Rule of 85 members were in attendance.  The percentage of attendance would be calculated as illustrated:

A club with 35 members, 5 of whom qualify and have been approved for the Rule of 85.  At a given meeting, 21 of the non-Rule of 85 members were either in attendance, given credit for a board approved service activity or had a make-up in another club, and all 5 of the Rule of 85 members were in attendance.  The percentage of attendance would be calculated as illustrated:

A club with 40 members, 12 of whom qualify and have been approved for the Rule of 85.  At a given meeting, 25 of the non-Rule of 85 members were either in attendance, given credit for a board approved service activity or had a make-up in another club, and none of the Rule of 85 members were in attendance.  The percentage of attendance would be calculated as illustrated:

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Tips for Completion of Your Club’s SAR

Here are a few tips to simplify the completion of your club’s SAR:

1.   The first confusing item you may have noticed is on the top right of the Green Cover Sheet. Both the Issue Date and the Due Date are printed with the International Day/Month/Year format, but we know them, for example, as Issued on June 06, 2007 and Due on July 1, 2007. Also, keep in mind that additions or deletions that you made on the RI Member Access site after June 8 will NOT be reflected on this report.

2.   The next bit of confusing information is on the reverse side of this Green Sheet. If you can figure out how RI has computed the plus and minus items you are a far better Club Secretary than either of us. What they are attempting to show us are the additions and deletions of club members during the past six months, but they provide little in the way of explanation as to how they have arrived at these amounts. Our advice is to accept it as is unless you feel there are obvious errors, and, in that case you, should call our District Representative, Gloria Spanitz, at 1-847-866-3484, or better yet, send her an email at Gloria.Spanitz@rotary.org and leave your District Number, Club Number, your name and phone number and she will return your call.

3.    Please note that you are charged $3.45/member on the July SAR for Club Insurance, and $1.00/member for the Pro Rata fee for the Council on Legislation. These two items are charged only once a year on your July SAR.

4.   The Worksheet is self-explanatory and should be completed after you have reviewed each member to see that their information is accurate. Make sure that every member of your club is listed. You have the option to make any informational changes to this report, but better yet, go to the web site and make the changes right on each member’s page. Next, line out any former members and use the New Member Form to add members not shown on your report who you admitted between June 9 and June 30, 2007. Members added on July 1 to the present will be billed on the next SAR. Also review your Honorary Subscriptions to The Rotarian.
 

5.   Now, have your club President sign the form with you and send in your check (or credit card information) along with the Top Portion of the Green Sheet and all of your Member Pages with the New Member Sheet if applicable. You MUST make payment within three months or your club will be in the early stages of TERMINATION proceedures and it will be costly for you to get reinstated.

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Membership Development

In 1996, our district had nearly 1,900 members in 47 clubs. Since that time, membership has been declining at an alarming rate. Today, we have fewer than 1,600 members in 44 clubs. That is a loss of 300 members in nine years! This brings up the question – what is your club doing to increase membership?  Do you have an ongoing Membership Chairperson?  Do you talk about membership at least one time a month?  When was the last time you held a new member drive?  Do you challenge every member to bring in one new prospect annually?  Do you have a membership retention committee to speak with those members who are considering leaving your club?  What do you do to keep your meetings interesting? Do you assign every club member to a committee responsibility? These are just a few questions to help you stand back and look at your club from a membership point of view.  If you would like to discuss your membership campaign with someone, please email Pete Richdale at peterjody@zoominternet.net or call him at 724-482-2916.

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New Club Identification Codes

The new Club Identification Codes are as follows:

It is hoped that these new codes will make it easier to identify a member’s club in the alphabetical member listing.

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How to Read and Understand a MCR Report 

The Rotary Foundation provides two reports for review by clubs that are accessible 24/7 from the Rotary website at www.rotary.org. The Monthly Contribution Report (MCR), summarizes efforts of every club in the district to support the Rotary Foundation.

To understand this report you must understand the period for which the report is issued.  This information is in the fourth line of the header on each of the four pages of the report.  The period always starts on 1 July and concludes with the end date of the last month of audited figures.  The MCR is at a minimum 15 days out of date and can at times, due to the large volume of funds being entered into the system, be 30 to90 days out of date.

Pages 1 and 2 provide individual club information under the following columns:

CLUB:  Includes both the RI Club Identification Number and the official name of each active club in alphabetical order, with District 7280 being the first entry.

No. of Members:  This is the number of active members (honorary members are not included in this count) in each club reported to Rotary International on the club’s 1 July Semi-Annual Report.

APF Goal Amount:  This is the club’s Annual Program Fund Goal, which is set by the club‘s president at PETS.  For this past year, due to time constraints, the goal was arbitrarily set at $50 per member.  Starting 1 July 2005, the goal will be the amount submitted by each club at PETS.

APF Goal % Achieved:  This is the percentage of the Annual Program Fund Goal that has been achieved.  It is calculated by dividing the period Annual Program Fund Giving by the Annual Program Fund Goal, rounded-off to the nearest whole percent.

APF Per Cap $:  This is the Annual Program Fund Giving calculated on a per member basis.  It is calculated by dividing the period Annual Program Fund Giving by the number of members, rounded-off to the nearest cent.

Annual Giving – Month:  This is the amount of Annual Giving received in the past month from each club and all its members.

Annual Giving – Period:  This is the total amount of Annual Giving for the entire period of the report from each club and all its members.  This is the column used to calculate the “APF Goal % Achieved” and “APF Per Cap$.”

Restricted Giving Period:  This is the total amount of Restricted Giving for the entire period of the report from each club and all its members.  This is the column in which giving to PolioPlus is recorded, as well as, to specific Matching Grants and other items.

Permanent Fund Period:  This is the total amount of Permanent Fund Giving for the entire period of the report from each club and all its members.

The last line on Page 2 of the MCR is the District 7280 Total for each column.

Page 3 provides a description of the three basic funds of the Rotary Foundation and how they operate.

Page 4 provides some very useful information:

Top Clubs Ranked by Annual Giving per Capita:  The top three clubs for Annual Fund Giving on a Per Capita basis are listed.  Awards will be given to these clubs.

Top Clubs Ranked by Total Annual Giving:  The top three clubs for total Annual Fund Giving.  Awards will be given to these clubs.

SHARE SUMMARY:  There is much useful information in this section, but the most important is “50% of Share Total to District Designated Fund.”  This determines the amount of money the district will have available for Scholarships, District Simplified Grants, Matching Grants, etc.  Remember, a single Ambassadorial Scholarship requires $26,000 in DDF funds.

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How to Read and Understand a CRS Report

The Rotary Foundation provides two reports for review by clubs that are accessible 24/7 from the Rotary website at www.rotary.org. The one we will explain this month is the Club Recognition Summary (CRS) that reports each club member’s contributor status to The Rotary Foundation.

The information in this report is both club and date specific. The header at the top of each page includes the District Number (7280), your Club Number with Rotary International, number of Paul Harris Fellows in your club, number of Benefactors in your club, and your club’s All-Time Giving.  The last three items have been accurate since 1977 when TRF began formal record keeping.

The first line of the report lists your undesignated club contributions.  Remember, these recognition points can be awarded to whomever the club so designates.

The following is a detailed explanation of each item:

Account No.  This is the member’s Rotary Foundation account number, as well as the Rotary International membership number.  At one time these were two separate numbers, but they were combined in 1998.  If a member has two or three account numbers, it will be necessary for the club secretary to determine which is the current membership number, and then call Aja Castillo in the TRF Donor Services Office (847-866-3368) to merge all the accounts into a single account.  This account number must be used with all contributions to TRF to ensure correct posting of funds.

NAME  This is easy to understand; it is the member’s name.  If a correction is needed, the club secretary has to make the correction through Membership Services.

Club Member  A “Y” indicates that this person is a current member of your club, and a “N”’ indicates they are not a member.  Once a contribution is made, the name will be listed permanently unless they join another Rotary club.

Recognition Amount  This is the total of contributions made by the member, as well as, recognition points awarded to the member by the district, club or another contributor.

Sustaining Member Date Achieved Current Year   This is the date the individual’s contributions to the Annual Program Fund during the current Rotary year totaled a minimum of $100.

Sustaining Member Date Achieved Previous Year   This is the date the individual’s contributions to the Annual Program Fund during the previous Rotary year totaled a minimum of $100.

Current PHF Level  This is the current level of giving to TRF.  See last page of CRS for explanation.  This information should be entered into the District Directory database.  It is also important to ensure that each member has a current pin to reflect their giving status.  The pins must be requested.

PHF Date  This is the date the contributor received their original Paul Harris Fellowship.

Foundation Recognition Pts  These are the Foundation Recognition Points that the contributor can award to other persons for Paul Harris recognition.  Contributor can award these to family members, other Rotarians, or community leaders.

After the pages with the contributor information there are two informational pages.

Click here for additional information

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RI and District 7280 Dues and Assessments

You need to be aware that District 7280 annual dues are being increased by $1.00 a year per active member beginning in 2007-2008.  Also starting in 2008-2009, Rotary International annual dues will be increasing by $1.00 a year per active member.

An examination of your club’s dues structure is strongly recommended.  How does your club “cover” the Council on Legislation Assessment of $1.00 per active member that is billed once a year on your July Semi Annual Report?  Also, how does your club “cover” the RI assessment of $3.70 per member for Pennsylvania Liability Insurance that is also charged once a year on your July SAR?  And finally, how does your club “cover” the $12.00 per year per member charge by RI for The Rotarian magazine?

In addition, some clubs ask their members to donate to the District Governor’s Project and to The Rotary Foundation on their dues statements.  Please remember that any contribution to The Rotary Foundation is treated as a donation and that no Rotarian can be forced to donate as a requirement for membership.  But if your club is working toward Rotary International’s goal of “Every Rotarian, Every Year,” you may wish to show this donation on the members dues statement.

Your board needs to review your club’s dues structure to determine if you collect enough from each member to sustain a viable club.  The following is a year by year listing of your club’s obligation to Rotary International and District 7280 on an active member basis.  In addition there is a $12.00 charge for each Honorary Member to cover the cost of The Rotarian magazine.

YOUR MEMBERSHIP OBLIGATION FOR 2007-2008
Annual Expense per Active Rotarian

YOUR MEMBERSHIP OBLIGATION FOR 2008-2009
Annual Expense per Active Rotarian

 YOUR MEMBERSHIP OBLIGATION FOR 2009-2010
Annual Expense per Active Rotarian

YOUR MEMBERSHIP OBLIGATION FOR 2010-2011
Annual Expense per Active Rotarian

We hope this financial review helps your club plan for the future.  After you have made your review, we suggest you present it to the full membership so that they know what it will cost each Rotarian in the future.  A proactive presentation can turn a negative into a positive.

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Postal Abbreviations

The following postal addreviations should be used for reporting all information to the district:

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Election of Club Officers

During November, the club president should select and announce to the club the Rotarians serving on the Nomination Committee.  In early December, the Nominating Committee should provide a slate of candidates for the club’s consideration.  Elections should be held at a subsequent meeting, allowing nominations from the floor.

The 2004 Council of Legislation requires clubs to elect their club president 18 months to 24 months prior to assuming office (Club Constitution, Article 9, Section 5 b).  For example, during December 2005, clubs should be electing their 2007-2008 club president, who on July 1, 2006, assumes the title of President-Elect and will automatically become the club president on July 1, 2007.  While the results of this election can not be posted on the Rotary International website until July, you are expected to report them to District 7280 immediately, using the “Change in Club President Reporting Form” found on the Club Secretary’s Page of the district website (www.district7280.org) using a July 1, 2007, effective date.

Also to be elected in December are club’s vice-president(s), secretary, treasurer, board members, and any other positions in your club bylaws that require election.  The results of secretary election must also be reported to Rotary International via their website and to District 7280 immediately using the “Change in Club Secretary Reporting Form” found on the district website using a July 1, 2006, effective date.

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CLA Associates

Rotary Graphics have been supplied compliments of Tord Elfwendahl. The Rotary Club of Stockholm Strand, RI District 2360 Creator and Curator of a very extensive Library of Rotary Graphics.