The following is a copy of an email I sent to all our members. Please review and complete the Meeting Feedback form available from the [Members] Main Menu button. Links to e-Club Information
Dear GKeRC Members,
This is a rather long email; however, please bear with me as I explain about our web site and the NEED to participate in our site. For those members who have not yet viewed our web site, please take a look at www.GKeRC.org. We are an e-club. That means our primary form of communication and participation must be through a dedicated website.
According to Rotary International, “because the meeting venue is on a website, e-clubs must have:
A dedicated website
Online meeting software to host a meeting
Private sections of the website that protect members’ online personal data and only members can access
Online financial transaction systems for dues payments from members, contributions, and remittances”
Though we have had two dedicated members of our club, Amor Canono and Andrew Rimando from the Philippines, who have dedicated their time and effort to maintain an official website since the inception of our club, it has not been used effectively. Most of our projects and events have been in California, but we have not properly submitted information to our webmasters in the Philippines. Additionally, our main core group in Southern California regularly meet in person once a month—sometimes more often. Thus, the use of and the need to update and use our official website seems to have become the secondary, rather than the primary, means of communications and participation.
Fortunately, we have had a Facebook Group and a Facebook Page since the inception of our club; however, a Facebook group/page is not a substitute for a dedicated website as described by Rotary International. You will notice that we have an option on our main menu at www.GKeRC.org for our Facebook Group. Consider using www.GKeRC.org as our official web site. FYI, our projects and live meetings will be highlighted on our web site. We will have links to additional photos, comments, etc. displayed on our Facebook Group.
Regardless, please consider using www.GLeRC.org, not our Facebook Group as our primary resource for Global Kalinga e-Rotary club activities.
Further, Rotarians of regularly clubs meet weekly. Likewise, e-club members should participate weekly on their web site. According to Rotary International, “Rotary e-clubs follow the same policies as all Rotary clubs. The key difference is that an e-club conducts its weekly meeting on the club’s website. Rather than being physically present at an appointed day and time, members may attend meetings at any time and any day of the week.”
Thus, our monthly meetings are not a substitute for our weekly participation on our web site. Regretfully, we have not participated online on a weekly basis. In fact, I sincerely believe that a few have not even seen our prior or current web site or even our unofficial Facebook Group.
As the Club Director for GKeRC and a long time Rotarian, these are my recommendations for members of our e-club.
Use our new official website, www.GKeRC.org, as our primary source for participation in our e-club. If you have photos, videos, news articles, etc. of any GKeRC activities, consider clicking the Facebook option on the Main Menu and post them on our Facebook Group. The web administrator(s) will highlight these activities on our web site and link to the Facebook photos, etc.
There should be only one Facebook site for Global Kalinga; however, there have been a handful of different sites. The oldest site is the Global Kalinga e-Rotary Club Group with nearly 600 members. As such, this shall be our official Facebook site whick is linked from our official web site. We request that all other GK or Global Kalinga Facebook pages/groups be closed to avoid anyconfusion and limited access to photos, comments, etc.
Also, if you take any photos/videos of any events, projects, or other club related activities, we request that you post them to our Global Kalinga Group first and then, if you want, share them to your own page or group.
Again, to participate as members of Rotary of an e-club, you are responsible for participating for a minimum of 30 minutes each week to qualify for an official attendance. We will have Weekly Updates available for review, including highlights of our live meetings, Rotary in Review, Philippines related activities suitable for Rotary, such as Gawad Kalinga, and eventually, we will have live global meetings via video conferencing. After spending a minimum of 30 minutes each week, you may complete a Meeting Review form found under Main menu option, [Members], and clicking on [Member Review] and follow the instructions. We do have an option for a donation in lieu of attending and paying for a lunch.
For those in the local Southern California area, we have an RSVP for our upcoming Valentine luncheon on Feb. 14. If you are planning to come to our in-person meeting, you may RSVP by going to [Members] and clicking on the [RSVP] option from the dropdown menu.
We also have options for other Rotarians to makeup and to join our club. Please promote our site to your Rotary friends to use our site to makeup, and non-Rotary friends to join our club. Since any new member must be approved by the existing membership, only the membership application is available for a potential member. Once the member is approved, that person will be sent a link to pay for his one-time fee and dues via PayPal. That member will be required to sign in as a member (located under [Members]).
This leads to my final recommendation. You must sign in as a member by going to [Members] and clicking on [Login/Signup]. Once you have signed in, you will have access to members only pages, including financial statements, minutes, member contact information, and more. I plan to ask the board to approve two Facebook Groups specifically for members and another for the board. These two Groups will be hidden from the public and available only to the members/board to discuss, approve, and otherwise comment on our activites and projects.
I will have other recommendations later. For now, please sign in as a member if you haven’t and begin participating for at least 30 minutes each week. A couple of members have already spent up to 2 hours reviewing the web site at www.GKeRC.org. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me.
Yours in Rotary,
Frank S. Adamo Club Director