This years GSE team to the Philippines now has a blog. Follow their experiences at www.gsephilippines2009.blogspot.com.

District 7910 Communications Network

Testing a new tool for online collaboration. Check out my vision for a virtual social network utilizing blogs as a communication conduit.

District 7910 Communications Network

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Blog presentations

Dan LeBlanc and Ken Masson of the Merrimack Valley club will be putting together a presentation for clubs interested in developing their own club blog and connecting to the district. We will be rolling the presentation out to neighboring clubs in December.

If you would like us to visit as a speaker, please contact us via the district website. If you have WiFi access we can give you a live demonstration of blogs and possibly help your club develop it on the spot.

District Social networks continue to grow

The two social network site for the District continue to gain new members. LinkedIn is now up to 14 District members. If you have a LinkedIn account, please join the group "district 7910" to meet up with other district members. Typically, LinkedIn is for professional connections.

Facebook is the other network that seems to have caught on with more fevor. I created a new group this morning which can be accessed here http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=42217610849.

Community Teamwork, Inc. recognizes local Rotary clubs

The Billerica, Chelmsford, Dracut, Lowell, Merrimack Valley, Tewksbury, Tyngsboro/Dunstable and Westford Rotary Clubs were honored by Community Teamwork, Inc. (CTI) at the 15th annual Evening with Local Heroes. District Governor Klaus Hachefeld joined the club presidents for reciept of the presigeous President's Award and stood in for a brief photo opportunity with the attending club presidents. All clubs were represented at the event and it was nice to see recognition from the community on the many projects that these clubs contribute to each year.

Congratulations on a job well done!

2009 Group Study Exchange to the Phillipines

District 7910 will be hosting a Group Study Exchange (GSE) team to and from the Phillipines this year. Applications for a team leader and four team members are now being requested. If you know of a non-Rotarian between the ages of 25 and 40 that would benefit from a once in lifetime experience, learning about another culture, here's their opportunity. Have them contact a District 7910 Rotarian today.

What's in a blog...

OK... we've defined what a blog is, the difference between blogs and websites and that blogs will play a crucial role in the district for years to come. So what's in a blog?

There are many blog Widgets that can easily be inserted to give life and personality to your club's or groups blog. The hardest thing is decide on what to include. Remember, appropriate and thoughtful Widgets will increase readership and induce repeat visits.

Here are Widgets that should be included in every club blog:

Feedblitz - enables the reader to subscribe to your articles that get posted. This turns your blog into an electronic newsletter.

A site language translator - Google provides a blog and website translator that works very well. Remember, your blog will be viewed by the world, not just club members. Why not allow the world to see what you're doing?

Links to other blogs and websites.

Other widgets are available through Google such as the video bar and metric sites such as Sitemeter that will give you optional functionality that makes your blog more interesting.

You're only limited by imagination!!

Networks and blogging - a Vision for our future

There are so many wonderful things that this District does that go unrecognized by the general public and even our own clubs. Over the last 5 years I've heard the same story and as I travelled from club to club as an Assistant Governor the resounding reply was " I didn't know that" or "How do I find out how to ..." . What occurred to me is that we need a stronger communications network that ties in all the clubs, the District, the Foundation and associated programs while at the same time giving each and every member in our District a voice. Technology has given us the opportunity to bring Rotary communication to a whole new level.

As mentioned in my previous post, blogs are a excellent way for clubs to gain public exposure, recruit new members, chronicle club activities, inform current members and link themselves to other clubs in the area, as well as the District.

Linking the clubs and the District via hyperlinks serves a number of benefits to our District. First and most importantly our placement on Internet searches when people surf the net. The more links we generate, the higher our placement becomes with various search engines. This is how you generate readership and subsequently generate a readership on all the activities and programs we develop. This will translate into a larger membership and greater fundraising potential.

My vision of an inter-District blog network is incredibly simple and will generate a quantum leap in club communications. First things first. We need to have each and every club within 7910 develop a blog of their own and post on a semi regular basis. Next, each of these blogs need to be hyperlinked to and from the District Blog. Concurrently, each club blog should be hyperlinked to a neighboring club which will complete the District network. Once this is complete all members can easily view the activities of a neighboring club for ideas, support and membership escalation. To the public, it will show the cohesiveness of the District.

My next post will detail the content needs of a club blog and some additional products that will enable the clubs to get a running start for the future.

Dan

What's a blog??

Soo... sometimes a restart is required to allow people to grasp a concept. I apologize to those who have been listening to me speak over the months about blogs , what they can do for the District, clubs and groups affiliated with Rotary. In my diligence it appears that my readers don't understand the differences between blogs and websites. Since the differences can be a conceptual it will be easier to describe what a blog is and isn't, so here it goes:

First off a blog is short for Web Log or in layman's terms an electronic diary. An excellent example of a blog in the district is the Merrimack Valley's blog which chronicles events that occur among the membership.

A blog is an ongoing dialog of events, pictures, references and links which are stored in reverse chronological order.

A blog is designed to stimulate a dialog with it's readership. This is opposite of a website which has static information available for download.

Blogs are normally maintained by many authors and readers and allow for comments, websites are maintained typically by a single Webmaster, designed to deliver information only. Comments can only go to the Webmaster, not the site.

Blogs are an intricate part to modern public relations.

Blogs do not require specific knowledge to design, maintain or distribute, whereas Websites do!!

There are many things that blogs are or blogging is. One thing for certain is that a blog is different for every user, topic or objective. The importance of blogs and the rapid pace in which they are growing in usage is undeniable. It's growth is far outpacing Websites and will continue for many years to come.

In a few days I will share my vision of blog networking for the district and how your club can get started with blogging. It's simple, it's fun and it's important for the growth of the District and membership as a whole.

Dan

Technology team virtually meets again.

Once again the team did an online conference and the main topic was again online registrations for district events. The challenge at hand is offering multiple choices to registrants. The example is for meal selections. Currently, Club Runner is not set up to accept this type of registration but other services such as www.Regonline.com could offer a solution without investment of thousands of dollars.

Brief discussions about the Billboards and locations were discussed. Multiple points were made about the layout of the entry page of the district website. A 3 person group has been selected by Klaus to review and make changes to streamline the look of the site.

Are you LinkedIn??

Are you the missing link?? District 7910 now has it's own LinkedIn group which is now open all members of District 7910. If you're a current member on the District website and request to join the group, I'll approve your membership.

To access, go to the groups section and do a search on "Rotary District 7910". Let's get connected!!

District Technology team virtually meets again...

The usual cast of characters met again to continue the discussions about advancing the communication technologies of the district.

The meeting started on the topic of improving the registration issues and better utilizing Club Runner to handle the cash flow. The discussion included using Paypal to minimize the paper transactions and District follow up on overdue balances. The registration forms would need to be kept simple since modifications would be expensive to modify. Decision was made to implement Paypal on the District site for registration.

Steve Von Lichtenberg is working to update the District membership database. Many of the member emails are not yet listed on the District website club sections. If the members took care of their own information updates the task could be completed in short order. Some members are still having issues logging into Club Runner, others feel it's the club Secretary's role. This has been a challenge across the District for years. These updates will enable an accurate District membership directory going forward.

A breif discussion ensued about the value of LinkedIn and Facebook. Social networking will benefit the District in the short term and a LinkedIn group has been created to help District members connect. Check out District 7910 on LinkedIn groups to join. Blogs will play an increasing role in the District technology plan. Education through webinars and possible the District assembly will be given to help publicize the clubs of the District.

Next virtual meeting will be in 3 weeks.

District technology team kick off meeting

The kick off meeting of the District 7910 Technology Team took place this evening. Greg Roche, PDG lead the teleconference meeting in an effort to streamline the District communications and to bring 7910 to the front as a technology leader within Rotary International.

Topics discussed included; Broader use of the district website as a registration tool to better manage district events, database management, expanding the use of teleconferencing, webinars for website training of the clubs, extension of the use of blogs as a communication tool to its members, and email rules standardization.

Next teleconference is set of July 21 at 7:30pm in the comfort of your home. Join us...

District 7910 Conference Had It All!

In between the meetings and the food, Rotarians had some fun at their District 7910 Confer enc. Shown are Sumo Wrestling and Wii events

Bicycle Ride To Raise Funds For Rotary Foundation

Ralph Hammond, PDG, District 7910 is the driving force behind an upcoming Pan District Challenge designed to raise funds for the Rotary Foundation.

The first part of this semiannual event will take place in Eastern Massachusetts on May 17, 2008. Ralph recently told the Merrimack Valley Rotary Club that the bicycle riding event will have two starting points. One is in Sturbridge and the other is in Gardner.

Both bike routes will cover all the towns where there are Rotary Clubs in District 7910 and will finish off in Needham. Clubs can sponsor riders (both Rotarian and nonrotarian) to take part in this event by contributing $100 per rider to the Rotary Foundation. In addition, to Rotary Clubs sponsoring riders, there are a number of opportunities for corporate sponsor.

For more information: http://www.rotary7910.org/

Shonda Schilling to Speak at the District Conference

Shonda Schilling, founder of The Shade Foundation will be the keynote at the Saturday night District Conference Dinner on May 3rd. For those of you not familiar with Shonda, she's also the wife of Curt Schilling of the Boston Red Sox. Get your reservations early, it's sure to be a sell out event.

Merrimack Valley Rotarian Carl Good Talks About His Rotary Trip To Bangladesh

Merrimack Valley Rotarian Carl Good, fresh off his Rotary trip to Bangladesh, told the MV Club members that his three week excursion was an experience of a lifetime. He said that all of the 17 Rotarians that were with him all paid, their own way for the trip, which was designed to help rid the area of polio.

Inoculation Day

He told the group that the area had been Polio free since August 2000. But in 2006 there were 18 cases, which they believe were the cause of people coming in the area from India who had polio. While there, Carl took part in an Polio Inoculation Day which involved 700,000 volunteer inoculating 24 million children, all in one day.

Centre For Children

While there Carl took a special interest in a Centre For Children With Special Needs in Madanpur. The Centre, which is a project of the Rotary Club of Banani Dhaka provides rehab services to children in the area who have various disabilities. The objectives of the Center include:

To provide community based rehabilitation

To train parents to take care of their children with disability

To impact a socially compatible living to children with disabilities

To change the attitude of the community toward children with disability

To establish school and vocational institutions

The organization of services for these children depend on both community based and institutional approaches to rehabilitation. The main work is to take the service for these children to their doorsteps so that mothers can avail it more easily. They have 40 children enlisted.

Support Is Needed
The Merrimack Valley Rotary, under Carl's direction and vision will help this organization by raising funds through the Club's own efforts and then to apply for Matching Grants. Anyone interested in helping us with these efforts can contact the Club by either writing to mvrotary@gmail.com or by calling Club President Ken Masson at (978) 446-9366.