RI’s LITERACY MONTH – Implications for Individual Rotary Clubs:
Why? What? How?
A. Why did RI establish theme months in the first place? Why did the RI Board 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
2
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 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.