From the Desk of Your District Governor Betty Gill

January is the designated month for Public Relations according to Rotary International. Rotary's best PR representatives are Rotarians themselves. According to the January issue of The Rotary Leader online magazine, here's how to help bolster our public image:

Beneficiaries of Rotary’s community service projects are well aware of the good work Rotary does, but the general public often is not. A 2010 RI-commissioned public image survey spanning six countries found that while respondents had heard of Rotary, they did not know much about what it does. This is where Rotarians come in, says Pauline Leung, general coordinator of Rotary public image coordinators.

“It’s the responsibility of each and every Rotarian to tell the story of Rotary service to our communities,” says Leung, a member of the Rotary Club of Taipei Pei-An, Taiwan. “When we talk of promoting Rotary, we have to do it through effective channels. The most credible way is to have the media tell our stories.”

In addition, mentioning Rotary to business colleagues, friends, and others is an important way individual Rotarians can spread the word about what we do, one person at a time. Person-to-person dialogue about Rotary makes a difference. The 2010 survey, consistent with another done four years earlier, also found that people are much more likely to know about Rotary and perceive it positively if they personally know a Rotarian.

During January, Rotary Awareness Month, Leung encourages all Rotary clubs to look at their current practices for promoting Rotary and to implement a plan that makes sense for them. “It’s not an easy task. Sometimes, if Rotarians do too many things, it gets people confused about Rotary,” says Leung. “We must have consistency when promoting the image of Rotary. There must be training for Rotarians to understand our position, our vision, our values, and our focused areas of service.”