Justine Murphy—Vocational Service: The New Vision
Vocational service was the first avenue of service within Rotary. However, members often do not understand what vocational service involves and clubs struggle with what to do. It lacks a clear identity and overlaps with other avenues of service such as youth and international. The District Leadership Team manages a range of programs for various avenues of service, but the vocational area only has one—the police mentoring program. A new approach is clearly needed.
Justine proposed a new alignment of avenues of service, where vocational service is not placed alongside the other ones, but rather is an underpinning support to all the others. Vocational service will be transformed from program management to program support. The District Committee will move from running programs and will start to support other programs by providing skills.
The District Committee’s future role will involve:
- District Vocational Skills Bank
- Data on ‘best practice’ vocationally based programs
- Promote ethics through all vocational training
- “Vocations in Service” brand
- District awards
- Speakers on vocational topics
- Thought leadership events
The changes will be introduced over 3 years to allow succession planning. There will be a new Vocational Service Committee which is seeking members with the range of skills needed.
Justine led a discussion among members about what they thought of this concept. Some specific examples were discussed: life after stroke project, taking surgeons overseas, Camp Getaway maintenance. Some of the projects that could be run may be at the cluster level rather than by individual clubs.