Why Your Club Needs A Public Image Chair

It is important that Rotary and Rotaract clubs tell their stories in ways that help communities understand what Rotary does and why our work matters so as to inspire others to get involved.

 

Appointing a club public image chair can increase your success at making the club’s communications consistent, impactful and unmistakably Rotary.

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

Why your club should have a public image chair
When a club promotes itself and its work, it is increasing Rotary’s awareness in the community. But it is also difficult for those club members who are organizing service projects to be responsible for marketing them too. A club public image chair can help with all of that. They can manage the club’s public relations, press, and marketing in a coordinated and consistent way throughout the entire Rotary year, across projects.

What a club public image chair does
The chair is responsible for designing graphics, flyers, posters and other imagery needed by the club for its activities and events; designing and managing club campaigns (e.g. People of Action or End Polio campaign); writing press releases and announcements for dissemination to the public; updating your club website and managing the club’s social media content and presence to ensure adequate and up-to-date information is always present and that consistent engagement is a priority; and, making sure the club logo and all club branding follows RI guidelines and are used properly and consistently. Ideally, the club public image chair would manage a team with the appropriate skills to help, with all persons on that team working together to showcase the club and its members as people of action.

What qualifications are needed
The public image chair and members of a public image team for a club should ideally have some experience in marketing, journalism, copywriting, digital media, etc. or at least have worked under and with a previous chair with such experience. Photo or video creation and editing skills are also a plus, as is having existing contacts to local journalists. However, keep in mind that like most other positions in a club (e.g. club secretary, club treasurer, club membership chair, etc.), the most crucial and valuable qualifications for a club chair are commitment, a willingness to learn and great organizational abilities. Once a person demonstrates these attributes, anyone can be trained and taught on the specific skills needed to accomplish particular task or surround themselves with persons who already are experts or be provided with a list of relevant (3rd party) resources.

 

Whether an incoming (or existing) club public image chair or public image team member already has certain skills sets or experience, it is strongly recommended and encouraged for everyone involved in club public image assignments to be exposed to a minimum amount of orientation and training when it comes to public image in Rotary. The best place to start is with the Club Public Image Committee Basics Learning Plan on the Rotary Learning Center – this 8 course plan covers the essentials such as role as public image chair, how to tell Rotary’s story to the public, ways to effectively promote your club’s projects and activities and can be effectively completed in a little over two (2) hours cumulatively. There are several other courses within the Rotary Learning Center which will also prove valuable to a club public image chair and team members and time should be set aside by all to explore and exploit them. Additional training and tutorials for specific skills and applications may be found online either via an applications own website support services / help centers or via video services such as YouTube or Vimeo. The District 7030 PI Team has accumulated many such videos and put together several playlists via the District 7030 YouTube Channel.

Available resources to help you succeed
The Rotary Brand Center contains templates that are extremely helpful in creating club and other Rotary-related logos, as well as, other prefixed graphics for clubs to download and use. Concurrently, club public image chairs and team members can research and access a vast array of online information and resources on recommended tools for public image tasks such as:

Club public image chairs and team members should always feel welcome to contact the the District 7030 Public Image Team if there are any questions or concerns; if they would like to share ideas and strategies; or, if there is ever any doubt or uncertainty as to what to do next..