From this exercise it was concluded that we were an aging club and in much need of younger blood to revitalise us and take us in the direction that we identified as an essential for survival of our club.
The problem appeared that we had no direct appeal or access to youth, and youth in general were motivated to causes not clubs.
At this time Lane Perry an Ambassadorial Scholar was attached to both the University of Canterbury and our Rotary club so we sat down together and conceived a program that we felt would meet both the needs and expectations of young people and provide our club with the results that we were seeking.
We named our project the "ROTARY ASSOCIATES PROGRAM"
The resource pool from which to draw our proposed candidates from was to be the "Emerging Leaders Program" at the University and the test target was to be the Papanui greater community.
It had been clearly demonstrated after the Christchurch earthquakes that there was a desire to contribute to the community by young people and the example of this was the well documented performance of the UC Volunteer Student Army.
Our concept was as follows:
1) our pilot program initially would select only four students from the University Emerging Leaders Program
2) They would commit to the program for the University year
3) they would attend a full Rotary meeting as our guests at least once every term - minimum
4) During the year they each would contribute a minimum of 20+ hours of community work under the direction and banner of our club
5) During the year each candidate would have a fire-side meeting (an informal meal) at the home of a senior Rotarian to discuss the principals of Rotary, our community, and their views on the development and effectiveness of the program
6) At the end of the period each candidate would address our full Rotary meeting and give a full presentation of their involvement and experiences during their association with Rotary at work
In return we supported the candidates when ever possible and this included
1) Discussions and general mentoring
2) We sent two of our candidates to "The Aspiring Leaders Forum" which is held annually in Wellington
3) We nominated two students to represent us at RYLA in January 2013
4) each candidate was formally presented at a full Rotary Meeting with a certificate jointly signed by the current University Coordinator and myself to recognise their contribution and achievement
We had a lot of fun working with the students over the year and the results and benefits of this association far exceeded our initial expectations for this program. Together we worked as a team on projects such as - Packing Emergency Boxes, Maintenance and gardening for a widow of a Rotarian, Fund raising projects, Christmas Gift Wrapping at Northlands, Business directory survey, Beautification program trees for Christchurch, and two of our students developed, coordinated and produced a "Big Day Out" family day and picnic for disadvantaged families which was a great success
From this experience we have identified the strengths of our program and areas which we felt could be improved. Using the original four candidates as coordinators and mentors for next year we intend to expand and take this concept to the next level prior to presenting it to the wider Rotary Community as a successful working scheme that they can individually adopt and benefit from as we have
I am confident that at sometime in the future all our candidates will become active and very productive Rotarians and New Zealand's future Leaders
Tony Taylor
Rotary Club of Papanui
Director Youth & Community
