Material For Vocational Service Committee

As a club committee chair you help make your club a successful, thriving, and fun place. Whether you have been appointed as a committee chair or serve as a committee member, you can help your club improve your communities and develop leaders.
 
SOME OF WHAT YOU DO
  • Oversees committee functions
  • Convenes regular committee meetings and activities
  • Supervises and coordinates the committee’s work
  • Reports activities to club board
Vocational Service is another Avenue of Service which calls on every Rotarian to work with integrity and contribute their expertise to the problems and needs of society. No aspect of Rotary is more closely related to each member than a personal responsibility to our vocation and to our commitment to high ethical standards in our businesses and professions. It is clear that our communities need Rotary to demonstrate commitment to the 4-Way Test. Vocational Service is the banner by which Rotarians recognize the worthiness of all useful occupations and demonstrate a commitment to high ethical standards in all businesses and professions.
 
The Object of Rotary is a philosophical statement of Rotary’s purpose and the responsibilities of Rotarians. The concept of vocational service is rooted in the Second Object, which calls on Rotarians to “encourage and foster”:
  • High ethical standards in business and professions
  • The recognition of the worthiness of all useful occupations
  • The dignifying of each Rotarian’s occupation as an opportunity to serve society
Vocational Service is therefore the way Rotary fosters and supports the application of the Ideal of Service in the pursuit of all vocations. Vocational Service is both the responsibility of a Club and of its members. The Club is to implement and encourage the objective by frequent demonstration, by application of its own actions, by example and by development of projects that help members contribute their vocational talents. The role of the members is to conduct themselves, their business and their professions in accordance with Rotary principles and to respond to projects which the Club has developed.
 
Some of the responsibilities of the Club Vocational Service Committee include:
  • Talk about our vocation in our club, and take time to learn about fellow members’ vocations. 
  • Use our professional skills to serve our club and community.  
  • We practice our profession with integrity, and inspire others to behave ethically through our own words and actions. 
  • Help young people achieve his or her career aspirations.  
  • Guide and encourage others in their professional development.
  • Network with associates to help serve others.
  • Strengthen the emphasis on vocation and classification in new member recruitment and induction.
  • Identify means of emphasizing vocation in club activities.
  • Create a stronger emphasis on business networking with integrity in Rotary at the club and district level.
  • Focus more attention on business networking with integrity as a means of attracting and mentoring the new generation.
  • Emphasize the connection between the Four Way Test and the Rotary Code of Conduct (formerly called: Declaration of Rotarians in Business and Professions) and their importance to the values of Rotary.
  • Devote the first meeting in October to examining the second Avenue of Service, including The FourWay Test and The Declaration of Rotarians in Business and Professions. After expanding members’ awareness, solicit their input in planning projects for the remainder of the year.
  • Introduce a “mini-classifications talk” series in which each member gives a five-minute talk on his or her vocation. Schedule one speaker for the beginning of each meeting until everyone has made a presentation. The purpose of these talks is to promote vocational awareness among Rotarians and help them recognize the worthiness of all useful occupations.
  • Present a vocational award to someone in the community who has exemplified outstanding professional achievement while maintaining very high ethical standards. Promote the presentation within the community, and consider making it an annual October event.
  • Invite experts to give a presentation on the vocational needs of the community and develop a project in response to those needs. Possible projects could focus on developing character, providing career information to youth, mentoring small businesses, or organizing workshops that provide employees with new skills.
  • Encourage club members to put their vocational skills to work as a Rotary Volunteer. Volunteer opportunities are available on ProjectLINK, a valuable resource that lists many vocational projects that clubs and districts can also choose to support financially or with donated goods.
  • Conduct any other activities associated with the effective operation of the club.
The following list contains information relevant to Vocational Service Committees & Chairs:
 
 
FILE
YEAR
DOWNLOAD
Overview      
 - An Introduction To Vocational Service
2013
 
 - Facts About Vocational Training Teams
2015
 
 - Vocation Service Presentation
2014
 
 - Vocational Service Directors Guide
2008
 
 
 
Please contact the District PR Team if you have any questions related to the information presented herein and/or would like to suggest or offer any additional material.