For Clubs

For Rotarians

Part of a Director's job is to be useful. Here is what this office can actually do for your club.

ASK ME TO COME

Part of a Director’s job is to be present. If your club, district or institution has an installation, a charter, a project handover, a conference or an assembly, you are welcome to invite me. I cannot accept everything , the diary is genuinely difficult and the zone is very large, but every request is read and every request receives an answer.

Please give us as much notice as you can. Ninety days is comfortable. Thirty is tight. Anything under two weeks is unlikely.

HOW A GOOD IDEA BECOMES A BUILDING

The most common thing I am asked by club presidents is some version of: we have an idea, what now? Here is the honest answer, drawn from a blood bank, a peace centre and rather more failed attempts than anybody puts in a biography.

Start with a death you can name.

Not a need, not a gap, not a stakeholder analysis. Something specific and human that your project will prevent. If you cannot name it, the project will not survive its third year.

Find the institution that will run it after you.

Rotary builds well and operates badly. Mengo Hospital runs our blood bank. Makerere runs the peace centre. Decide the operator before you decide the budget.

Check it against Rotary’s areas of focus.

Global grant funding follows those categories. If your idea does not fit one, either reshape it or fund it another way. Do not pretend.

Get a district grant first, and do it properly.

A clean, well-acquitted small grant is your credit rating for everything that comes after.

Find an international partner club early.

Global grants require one, and the relationship takes longer to build than the paperwork does.

Budget for the boring parts.

Equipment, training, maintenance and the first two years of running costs. Buildings are the cheap bit.

Write down who takes over when your term ends.

Presidents change every twelve months. Projects do not.

Then take it to your Assistant Governor and your District Rotary Foundation Committee. The official rules, forms and current grant terms live on My Rotary and always take precedence over anything on this page.

Zone 22 resources

District directory for Zone 22, with governor contacts and websites
Rotary brand centre: logos, templates and the correct club lock-ups
Public image toolkit: photography guidance, social templates, press release outlines
Membership tools: club health check, member satisfaction survey, new club formation guide
Foundation: giving forms, recognition levels, global grant lifecycle
Youth: Interact and Rotaract formation packs, RYLA guidance, youth protection policy
Calendar of zone events, institutes and conferences

All Africa Zone Institute 2026

Kampala, 1–3 October 2026

The All-Africa Zone Institute brings Rotary leaders from across the continent together for training, workshops, fellowship and the sort of conversations that only happen when people are in the same building. This year Uganda hosts it, and the Rotary International President, President-elect, General Secretary and fourteen members of the Board of Directors are expected to attend — the first time the Board convenes in a single country in this way.

I will say plainly what this means. For three days, the people who decide how Rotary is run will be sitting in Kampala, listening. Bring your district. Bring your project. Bring your questions.

Come to the All-Africa Zone Institute, and I promise your personal care. As you enjoy the year, let us continue to create a lasting impact in the world.