Fellow ROSNF members:
In my first chat, I’d like to summarize the events of a very busy week. First the new board consisting of 11 members has been confirmed and is published here.
The new board has been very busy brainstorming on a number of issues including goals, committees, ongoing projects, and more. Jon Deisher has volunteered to be our Parliamentarian, to help the board more efficiently handle issues in orderly manner without letting some things get lost.
Thanks to Simone for organizing this new blog which I hope members will find useful. Thanks to Mel and Mary Kathryn for getting ROSNF bank account opened with $440 from donations and ROSNF button sales at the RI Convention in New Orleans.
The proposed list of ROSNF goals under discussion includes the following:
1. Sponsor campaign with training and contest to encourage Rotary and Rotaract clubs to create pages on Facebook to communicate with club members and also with the public at large.
2. Sponsor ROSNF Booth, general meeting, social event, and workshop classes on social networking at the RI Convention in Bangkok.
3. Engage more members in ROSNF working committees and fellowship activities to grow and retain membership.
4. Implement first ROSNF Facebook application for use by Rotarians and Rotaractors to assist in locating and networking with others on Facebook. This application will also connect with RI One Rotary database to access district and club information in real time.
Next week I hope we can finalize initial set of goals and committees so committees can expand and get to work on goals.
Two other activities of particular note this week include Rotary Survey Lab which is a group of 20 volunteers working on development of survey about how RI can help clubs and Rotarians improve communications. This survey effort grew out of a discussion on the RI Discussion Group on LinkedIn. Three ROSNF board members, Simone, Philip, and I are participating in this group which includes several RI staff members.
Another project starting up is the evaluation of the new social network launched by Google called Google+. A number of ROSNF members are already on the pilot implementation and I’m sure there will be lots of discussion about it in weeks to come. I think Google is a worthy competitor, and both Facebook and Google users will benefit going forward.
This is an exciting time for ROSNF members which now number 873 up from 852 a week ago. Members are encouraged to participate in discussions on the ROSNF Member Forums, ROSNF Facebook group , or ROSNF LinkedIn group. I also hope many members will get involved and volunteer to work on the ROSNF committees. This year we will continue to look for ways that we can utilize social networks to help look within to embrace humanity. Feedback and suggestions are always welcome.
Don Higgins
ROSNF Chair 2011-2012