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At midnight on 30 June, thousands of Rotaractors celebrated in the new Rotary year together, not only to welcome the New Rotary year of “Rotary Opens Opportunities” but most significantly Rotaract’s ongoing evolution, which include the expansion of Rotary membership to include Rotaract clubs. This ongoing evolution Rotaract serves to redefining Rotaract’s place within Rotary.

“It’s really exciting, we are part of Rotary. It is a new era for Rotaract,” says Alan Yip (DRR of Rotary District 3450)

Rotary International has removed the upper age limit on Rotaractors from 1 July 2020. This reflects a change of mindset: Rotary now sees Rotaractors as critically important to the sustainability of our organization.

The latest 5-year Action Plan of Rotary International has revealed a strong calling made to all Rotary Districts and clubs to make Rotary more attractive to young people for them to stay, such as all clubs should consider changing their meeting format, governance structure, meal costs etc. accordingly.

The District Youth Committee has invited me to be in charge of overseeing this very important task and visiting different Rotary clubs to seek opinions and build consensus.

What then are the main changes to Rotaract?

1. Rotaract is now a type of Rotary membership;
2. Rotaract clubs will be allowed to sponsor other Rotaract clubs or establish themselves without a sponsor;
3. Rotaract will be open to all young adults 18 and over. There will no longer be an upper age limit of 30;
4. The Trustees encourage Rotaract clubs to work with Rotary clubs on global grant projects;
5. Rotaractors are now eligible to serve on district-level and RI committees;
6. Rotaractors will enjoy greater support, training, and access to tools from Rotary;
7. In 2022, Rotaractors will pay annual per capita dues of either $5 or $8.

Why Rotary International set forth the above changes for Rotaract? The main goals are as following: 

1. Doubling the number of Rotaractors by 2022

2. Increase the number of Rotaractors joining Rotary clubs by 20% by 2022

3. Increase the number of reported Rotaractors worldwide to 1 million by 2029

In order to achieve these goals, our Rotary clubs should continue to work closely with Rotaractors at meetings, events and on service projects.  It is indeed an exciting time for Rotary to be more appealing and welcoming to young professionals and the way to go about would be to build up better relationship & collaboration between Rotary & Rotaract!

How to encourage Rotary & Rotaract’s Collaboration? We have some tips collected amongst successful Rotary / Rotaract alliances for Rotarians to consider:

1. Eagerly participate in Rotaractors’ activities;
2. Invite Rotaractors as guest speakers;
3. Invite them to participate in Rotary club meeting, service projects and annual ball; encourage jointly organize activities;
4. Be their role model to inspire them, but also learn from Rotaractors;
5. Respect their thinking and ideas; be a friend, not as a parent, avoid the generation gap;
6. Be a good listener and supporter;
7. Club President should stay humble around club members and the youth; avoid the patronizing attitude, be a servant leader;
8. Let them know more about Rotary, club’s culture,  fellowship programs and service projects;
9. Financially support Rotaract’s meaningful projects & events;
10. Provide a fellowship platform for Old Boys and 2^nd Generation of Rotarians; and invite them to participate in both Rotary & Rotaract activities and be the guest speakers;
11. Provide a platform for a job searching opportunity; Rotarians can open opportunities for new generation;
12. Building up an advisory team to support the Rotaract; in the case of establish new Rotary Club, support them with a team to make real.
13.  Support their career prospects such as Career Planning, Industry Talk, Inspirational Speaker, Recruitment (Part time, Full time, & Internship).

If anyone is interested to discuss this topic or like a sharing at your Club’s regular meeting, please do not hesitate to contact me and our committee members; PP Andy Li 90428659 / andy@powerful.hk

Yours in Rotary,

PP Andy Li (Rotary of Kwai Chung)

Rotary and Rotaract Collaboration Committee Chair

District Youth Service Committee

Vice Chair : DRC Anita Chan (Rotary Club of Victoria)

Vice Chair : DRR Alan Yip