The 2023–24 RI Board of Directors met in April and in January 2024 at One Rotary Center in Evanston, Illinois, USA and reviewed committee reports and recorded various decisions. here are a few of the highlights.
The Board
strongly encouraged clubs to set three-year rolling goals; and zones to develop three-year rolling regional plans to help the clubs reach their goals; and further encouraged districts and zones to support these three-year regional plans;
approved two new strategic initiative in 2024-25:
- The Club Experience, aims to enhance club activities and increase member satisfaction through consistent, cross-functional efforts that will bring enhanced products and tools to best meet member needs;
- Evidence-based Decision-making, aims to improve decision quality, enhance innovation, optimize resource allocation, mitigate risk, and enhance accountability by transitioning towards an evidence-based approach to decision-making processes.
The Board
received an update on the February 20-22, 2025 Presidential Peace Conference in Istanbul, Turkey to celebrate Rotary’s contribution to peacebuilding and to coincide with the first cohort of Rotary Peace Fellows studying at Rotary’s newest Peace Center in Bahçeşehir University. Planned plenary topics include: Peace in a polarized world; Making peace last; Technology, media, and peacebuilding; and Environmental issues in peacebuilding.
The Board
as part of its effort to transition Rotary’s culture from one focused on training its members to one that is participant-centered and focused on member learning, changed the titles and event names of the following:
Original Name >> New Name
Governor-elect training seminar (GETS) >> Governor-elect learning seminar (GELS)
Governor-nominee training seminar (GNTS) >> Governor-nominee learning seminar (GNLS)
GETS general trainer >> GELS facilitator
GETS team leader >> GELS team leader
International Assembly Learning Facilitator >> Rotary International Learning Facilitator
International Assembly seminar trainer >> International Assembly seminar leader
Council trainer >> Council on Legislation learning leader
The Board
- tentatively selected Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA to host the 2029 Rotary International Convention
- adopted a worldwide membership growth goal for Rotary clubs of 1,250,000 members by 1 July 2030 in celebration of Rotary's 125th anniversary;
The Board
- reaffirmed its decision that upon the certification of polio eradication, to advocate in preselected countries for implementation of the polio post-certification strategy, as developed by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative;
- approved a new strategic partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme;
- renewed Rotary's service partnership with Ashoka;
- changed the name of the Rotary Citation to the Club Excellence Award, effective July 1, 2024.
The Board
- agreed to President-elect Urchick's plan to hold a Presidential Peace Conference in Istanbul, Turkey, in February 2025;
The Board
- agreed to sunset new presidential initiatives starting with Rotary year 2025–26 and encouraged future presidents to follow a designated process for any proposed new programs;
- agreed to eliminate the creation of an annual presidential theme and logo starting in Rotary Year 2025–26;
- agreed to submit to the 2025 Council on Legislation enactments to:
- remove the requirement to hold an annual district conference;
- remove mandatory reports from the Rotary Institute in order to make Institutes optional;
- provide for a uniform process for removing officers and committee members for cause;
- provide that disputes must be appealed to the Council on Legislation to exhaust all remedies in the constitutional documents;
- amend the process for removing a governor for cause;
- amend the process for determining per capita dues;
- amend the titles of president-elect training seminar and district training assembly;
- increase per capita dues and amend the process for determining per capita dues;
- eliminate challenges in the election process;
- amend the criteria for determining the composition of zones;