Rotary.org is frustrating this year. More than one of you have mentioned this to both Governor Court and me. We feel your pain. There were a couple of factors that led to this frustration: First, they updated the system. Honestly, the improvements are great, but the bugs made it difficult for a couple of weeks. They had no more than worked the bugs out, than the second issue kicked in…the servers were flooded (yes, water). They were knocked offline of course and Rotary had to rebuild the information from their backups. They are in the final stages now of getting all the information loaded. Our district Foundation team is working with them to ensure our grant information is all correct and current.

In the meantime, some of you received auto-emails from Rotary stating that you had not submitted grant reports or paperwork. If you are one of these clubs, be sure to stay in touch with Anne Glenn, our District Global Grant chair. She has most of your information uploaded and corrected but may need copies from you to complete the files.

In addition, if you have tried to update Rotary Club Central with your goals, you may have experienced some problems. The most common problem is a loss of data – you entered your goals, but they are gone now. This problem has been fixed. Please enter your goals again and be sure to click SAVE. Remember, you will not be eligible for the Rotary Citation (or the Governor’s Citation) if you don’t have your goals in the system. If you have problems, please contact me – I am always glad to help and will walk you through the system (be sure you have a log in password for rotary.org. That is step one!)

On the subject of Foundation goals, remember, there are no Rotary police! Use goal setting as a tool for your club. Put in the number that works for you. Right now we have Annual Fund goals in the system for everything from $15 to $15,000. Rotary Club Central is primarily a tool for your club. By tracking your goals and actual performance, you can see where you are exceling and where you need some improvement. Rotary Club Central keeps improving, so take the time to check it out (and enter your goals please!)

One final topic this month: There has been some confusion on how to achieve the 100% Paul Harris Fellow club for the Winner’s Circle Challenge. Most clubs have already achieved this designation, and you can only receive a banner for it once from the Rotary Foundation. The challenge for the Winner’s Circle is for your club to achieve this again! It only means that every person in your club becomes a Paul Harris Fellow. If you are already a Paul Harris Fellow, you don’t have to do it again, but most clubs have added new members since they became a 100% club. Those new members are the ones you should encourage and support to become Paul Harris Fellows. When all of your current members are Paul Harris Fellows, send me an email and let me know! And you will have achieved the first lap of the Winner’s Circle Challenge!