Rotary’s Learning Center remains a severely under-utilized resource. Each year, our districts offer Presidents-Elect Seminars, Training Assemblies, Vibrant Club Workshops, and Team Learning Seminars. And many districts recycle old training materials or worse, start from scratch to create the content. These districts and the training leaders are doing it the hard way by failing to make use of the voluminous training materials ready and waiting in The Learning Center. There, you’ll find complete courses and materials for each of these district events.

Haven’t used The Learning Center much or at all? Not to worry, get Tuesday, December 8th at 8:00 p.m. (Central) on your calendar and register for the webinar that evening to be among the first to hear about the coming changes to make it more user-friendly and to discover what’s new, get inspired, and see how easy it is to use the resources there to learn, plan, and lead your club and district.

And you don’t have to be at a computer to take advantage of these tools. Help the clubs and leaders in your district by encouraging members to download or update the Rotary Learning Center mobile app. With it, members can have courses with them on their mobile devices wherever they go.

Poliovirus cases and positive environmental isolates reported this week:

Established in 1981 by the United Nations General Assembly, on September 21st of each year the world observes International Day of Peace, as a period of 24 hours of non-violence and ceasefire. The day goes beyond the simple absence of war. It calls for building societies where people are treated equally, cooperation thrives, and systemic issues like poverty, discrimination, and inequality are actively addressed. It honors everyday peacebuilders working in local communities

Since 2002, Rotary Peace Centers have trained more than 1,900 fellows in peace studies and sustainable development. Peacebuilding and Conflict Prevention is one of our seven Areas of Focus and it is fitting that our clubs and districts support Rotary’s commitment to peace.

In how many of these will your members, clubs and districts participate?

• Download and share International Day of Peace graphics, available in several languages.
• Promote peace in clubs and communities with images, videos, and other materials from the Brand Center.
• Learn how Rotary members and peace fellows are building peace all over the world.
• Follow the Rotary Peace Centers Facebook page for updates on the program and stories about peace fellows during and after their studies.
• Become a Global Peacebuilder District by contributing $25,000 in District Designated Funds or district cash to support Rotary Peace Centers or the peacebuilding and conflict prevention area of focus.
• Plant a Peace Pole
• Join the Rotary Action Group for Peace
• Observe a minute of silence on at noon on Monday.
• Volunteer, host community conversations, or promote messages of hope using the hashtag #InvestInPeace.

Registration for our next International Convention starts in only two days. Register NOW and save hundreds of $$$$$$$. Register at: https://convention.rotary.org.

What is getting in your way as you’re trying to create a new club?

What challenges are you facing in building a Companion or Satellite Club?

What’s preventing that next club from happening?

Where is the process getting stuck?

What question do you need answered?

Get answers to these and more questions you may have about developing new clubs in an upcoming series of webinars hosted by R.I. staff. The sessions will be built around the challenges being submitted by Rotary leaders across North America. You can submit your own question at: https://forms.gle/RDJ1iQQFcU5q5vx96.

JOIN THE SEPTEMBER SESSION and ADD IT TO YOUR CALENDAR: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86851107986?pwd=b3hKT09QQlo8h2t8eDt2YWa6b6qPIa.1

And if you’d like to participate in the entire MAP series, REGISTER FOR ALL MAP SESSIONS at: https://www.dacdb.com/Register4/index.cfm?EventID=77666881

Proclaimed by UNESCO in 1966 during its 14th General Conference and first celebrated in 1967, Literacy Day is celebrated globally every year on September 8th to highlight the importance of literacy as a matter of dignity and human right. This coincides with September’s Basic Education and Literacy Month in Rotary, offering an opportunity to celebrate the ways Rotary members work with communities to improve schools, reduce gender disparities in education, and increase adult literacy. Today’s 60th anniversary global event is being held in Chiapas, Mexico, featuring the UNESCO International Literacy Prizes ceremony.

Quick global illiteracy stats:

Some of Rotary’s 500,000+ Rotary alumni are in your District. They may have participated in any one (or more) of these:

• Interact or Rotaract clubs
• Rotary Youth Exchange
• Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA)
• Rotary Peace Fellowships
• Rotary Scholarships (including Global and District Grants, or former Ambassadorial Scholarships)
• Group Study Exchange (GSE) or Vocational Training Teams

You have only ONE WEEK to the September 15th deadline to recognize them for their work by nominating them for one of two Rotary Alumni Awards:

• Rotary Alumni Global Service Award – Recognizing an individual alumnus for exceptional service and impact 
• Rotary Alumni Association of the Year Award – Honoring an alumni association that demonstrates excellence in engagement and service

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Unfortunately, other than perhaps a recitation of The Four Way Test, visitors and members attending many Rotary meetings see little there to distinguish these gatherings from the meetings of any other civic or service club. Many new Rotarians are receiving minimal, if any, orientation into what differentiates us from those other associations. If our members don’t know who we are, and our meetings don’t reflect how we differ, there’s not much hope for growing  and retaining our membership.

Fortunately, the materials in Rotary’s Learning Center can form the basis for giving our new members a good foundation on which to build. They also can feed the curiosity of all members about subjects in which they have an interest. BUT, as leaders, WE have to make sure they know about these tools, use them ourselves, and continually reinforce their use.

Learning leaders in some clubs and districts are even laying out course paths tailored to each member’s talents, role in the club, or interests. Rotary’s made it easy for us to receive reports telling us who has completed which courses and is ready to take on a leadership or committee role in those areas. To use these reports, just complete the Access to Learning Center Reports course in the Learning Center. To take this course: 

1. Go to learn.rotary.org
2. Sign in to My Rotary if you’re prompted to.
3. Use the menu in the upper left to go to My Dashboard.
4. If the course doesn’t appear under My Courses and Learning Plans, search for “Access to Learning Center Reports” in the search box.

We can also encourage members to take advantage of these tools by:

• Downloading the course catalog to find out what’s new in the Learning Center.
• Subscribing to Learning in Action, a monthly newsletter.

In this month’s Rotary magazine:

The Rotary Club of Claremore Oklahoma (D6110) got a “shout-out” in a letter to the editor, mentioning its project to sponsor park benches along the Will Rogers Highway. 

Also in that letter, the Rotary Club of Tulsa and the Will Rogers Rotary Club of Tulsa (both in D6110) were mentioned for their project to bestow the Spirit of Will Rogers Award, recognizing good citizens.

And the issue also included a letter from Wendy Mercer, a member of The Rotary Club of Jackson-Old Hickory (D6760), praising the June issue’s story about Petina Dixon-Jenkins.

If you didn’t make it to page 59, you missed the details for the Alligator Festival, hosted by The St. Charles Parish Rotary Club (D6840), coming up September 24th-27th.

And on the same page, news of The Monteagle-Sewanee Rotary Club‘s September 26th Hunger Walk fundraiser. 

And you may have missed the recap of the 2026 International Convention, at which our President-Elect Larry Lunsford of the Rotary Club of Kansas City-Plaza, Missouri (D6040) was introduced.

(See what you miss when you set your magazine aside in your “read later” pile?)