RLI International is a grassroots level programme of Rotary districts implementing a leadership development training for"potential"leaders of Rotary CLUBS.
Established in 1992, RLI has become a worldwide organization with divisions in every Continent of the world. It has substantial support of a number of past Rotary International Presidents and current, past and incoming R.I. Directors. The R.I. Board has adopted a resolution recommending RLI to the districts and the Council on Legislation has twice recommended RLI to the Board.RLI believes that excellent CLUB leadership (all types of club leaders) is essential to the future of Rotary in a complex and fast changing world. Most Rotarians have not been exposed to the great scope of Rotary around the world and have not considered what leadership skills are necessary to move Rotary forward.
RLI strongly believes that a good Rotary Club leader must know the evolution of Rotary, its current status and activities in the world and have a vision for what Rotary can be in the future. Therefore, RLI provides a three part non-consecutive basic course in both Rotary knowledge and leadership skills, especially for voluntary organizations. In addition to the specific leadership skills sessions, all the RLI sessions have a leadership component.
In addition to the basic three part course, RLI holds in-depth seminars on important Rotary subjects, including Leadership, Rotary’s structured programmes, Grants management, Membership growth, Public Image and Vocational service and Ethics as Graduate courses for the Rotarians who have completed the basic 3 courses.
The mission of RLI is to have the clubs in the member districts identify those with the potential for future club leadership and send them to RLI courses. All member clubs may send any club Rotarian to RLI courses and any Rotarian may attend any course at his/her own initiative .
The overriding goal of the courses for club Rotarians is to create ENTHUSIASM for Rotary by opening up to them the world of Rotary outside of their own clubs and also showing them the great potential of Rotary service for the benefit of the world that can be furthered with excellent leadership in our clubs.
RLI is a general education programme, while most Rotary International training programmes are “job-specific”; that is R.I. trains Rotarians for specific positions. RLI is not a PETS, SETS, AGTS, District Training Assembly, DTTS or any other district training programme, but graduates of RLI bring a greatly enhanced background in Rotary when they later attend job-specific programmes. They would do very well and understand better if they had been exposed to RLI training.
Rotary Leadership Institute came to India in 2002 and has become a very popular programme. For example, our Zone 5 Division consists of 11 Rotary Districts and all of them are well aware of the usefulness of RLI and they want us to do many programmes in their Districts.
But we can train only about 25 people in a group and to complete RLI Parts 1 and 2, it takes 2 full days. We work hard to do as many programmes as possible to spread the awareness of Rotary. If a District has to aim for a goal of 95% Retention of their members, I feel that at least about 10% their Rotarians should be exposed to some parts of RLI training preferably Parts 1 and 2. For example if a District has about 5000 Rotarians, at least 500 of them should have had RLI exposure. This means, every district must have about 20 RLI sessions!!! This is possible only if we have enough Facilitators in each District who are equipped thoroughly enough to do the programme at least twice a month. This is my dream and I am sure that we will be able to do this with all your help, hard work and perseverence.
After the training, the Rotarians get a good perception of Rotary and they start loving the organisation. They in turn will start spreading the goodness of Rotary. This will help us to retain members which is the greatest problem in Rotary today.
When we had about 28,000 Rotary clubs, we had 12 lakhs of Rotarians. Now we have less than that number (11 lakhs and 60 thousand) Rotarians in about 37,000 clubs. As a result, we have a smaller clubs with less number of Rotarians with lesser knowledge.
Rotary Leadership Institute will build stronger clubs with knowledgeable Rotarians. The Rotarians will stick on to Rotary because :
- They know the different programmes of Rotary and can widen their horizon of service.
- They understand our great Rotary Foundation and love to contribute to it and do bigger, bolder and brighter projects to serve the needy here and abroad.
-They understand how they can make friends all over the world and locally. - They know that they can mould and shape the youngsters into good leaders and responsible citizens.
- They understand that they themselves can become great leaders while serving others.
- COME !!! LET US LEARN TOGETHER AND MAKE ROTARY THE BEST ORGANISATION IN THE WORLD .
