GRANTS DEADLINES & NOTICES

SUBMIT

19 September

For proposals for breakout sessions at the 2017 Rotary Convention in Atlanta, 10-14 June

1 October

For nominations for the Rotary Service Above Self Award

1 November

For nominations for the Service Award for a Polio-Free World

For nominations for the Vocational Service Leadership Award

ATTEND

30 September

To apply for a booth in the House of Friendship at the Atlanta convention

15 December

To register for the Atlanta convention at the lowest rate

NOTICES

Rotary has changed its official travel management company to Raptim Humanitarian Travel. Learn how this will enhance your Rotary travel.

A full-length PDF version of the Official Directory is available with a My Rotary account. Only an abbreviated print version of the directory is now available and can be purchased by contacting rotarysupportcenter@rotary.org.

Plan to celebrate World Interact Week with the Interact Club you sponsor, 31 October- 6 November.

Mark your calendar for Rotary’s World Polio Day live-streamed event on 24 October.

Suzette Ramdanie-Linton was almost ready to give up on a clean water project that her Rotary club had initiated in St. James, Jamaica, last year, because the funding simply wasn’t there.

She and fellow members of the Rotary Club of Montego Bay Sunrise in Jamaica did a community assessment in 2015 and found that

11 schools and one children’s home in rural St. James were in desperate need of new bathroom facilities. The club contributed nearly

$4,000 to get a project off the ground.

But that sum was far from enough to address the need, says Ramdanie-Linton, who served as club president in 2014-15. “We needed to find partners to complete the project. Unfortunately, we weren’t finding the funding fast enough.

I was a little frustrated at the lack of progress we were making,” she says.

The district governor at the time, Paul Brown, encouraged her to promote the project on

Rotary Ideas. Two weeks after she put a project outline and photos on the Rotary crowdsourcing platform, she received an email from Naude Dreyer, a member of the Rotary Club of Central Cayman Islands.

Dreyer was looking specifically for water projects in Jamaica. “It was a perfect find for us,” he says. “Rotary Ideas is a really cool site and a great way to fundraise.” The Central Cayman Islands club ended up being the biggest donor, contributing $8,000 toward the $40,000 global grant from The Rotary Foundation, Ramdanie-Linton says.

“Their generosity and partnership pushed the project forward.” The project was expected to have been completed in July.

Rotary Ideas helps clubs seeking volunteers, partnerships, and in-kind donations, as well as funding, connect with one another. More than

1,220 projects have been posted on the platform since it was launched in August 2013. And unlike other crowdfunding sites, Rotary Ideas emphasizes partnerships over dollars. The two clubs already are collaborating on another project, to provide dictionaries to third graders in St. James.

“A lot has come out of a simple post, and the platform was really easy to use,” Ramdanie-Linton says. “I think any club faced with insufficient funding should give Rotary Ideas a chance.”