A brief history of the development of Rotary eClub One of District 5450

By Rotarian John Minter, PHF, Governor’s Special Representative, Charter President, member Rotary Club of Boulder (Sponsor)

2001

[March 2001] How it started

The incoming District Membership Chair asked the District Internet Communications Officer if we could create a Rotary Club on the Internet. "Sure" he replied. Here we are. The idea of a cyberclub is not new. There are many non Rotary examples. But it is not a trivial task to sort through a set of 100 year-old customs and procedures to capture the essence of the world’s most successful service club.

[APRIL, MAY] Initial design

The District organized a Design Team made up of Rotarians with significant club experience; skillful in using the Internet; representing the types of members the club hopes to attract.

District goals

The purpose of Rotary eClub One of District 5450 is to extend Rotary to business, professional and community leaders in District 5450 who are unable to meet traditional attendance requirements because extensive travel, or conflicting occupational demands, or physical immobility, or residence beyond reasonable distance from an existing 5450 Rotary club.

Community building on the web

The major challenge to designing and building a cyberclub is not technical, but sociological. Several recent publications helped us think through the critical issues.

Three books stand out: Design for Community: The art of connecting real people in virtual places , Derek Powazek, a writer and experienced web community builder. Tells it like it is in a style that puts you "there". You'll learn what works and what doesn't when building and running virtual communities on the Web. http://www.designforcommunity.com/

If you still want to build a Rotary cyberclub after reading this book you will likely be successful. Community Building on the Web, Amy Jo Kim ( Peachpit Press, 2000) Highlights from the book may be found at http://www.naima.com/community/

Online Communities: Designing Usability, Supporting Sociability, Jenny Preece (John Wiley and Sons, Ltd, 2000). http://www.ifsm.umbc.edu/onlinecommunities/

On this web site you will find examples of interesting communities, tools for building community and research articles.

[May] Proposal

Proposal reviewed and approved by a select panel of District 5450 Governors, past, present and future. Proposal signed by DG Alan Loeb, DGE William Leeper and DGN Michael Hayes. For us, involving district leadership in the details of the proposal were crucial to its success.

The proposal submitted to RI through our Zone Director, Lynn Hammond.

[June] Project approval by the RI Board and assignment to RI New Models program

[July - August] Refining design: Constitution, Bylaws, Procedures (provisional status)

[September - October] Internet platform selection

[November, December] Testing platforms; Organization

2002

[January] Charter and Initial operations

[January 4, 2002]

Chartered

Presented by Bhichai Rattakul RIPE Kenneth.C.Townsend@Rbcdain.comat the Quad-District Foundation Dinner, January 18, Denver, Colorado

Benchmarks

[February 2002] Creating the Meeting Program which has become a popular makeup with traveling Rotarians.

[September 2002] Accepted first international member; Helena Hesselmark, Sweden

[December 2002] Adding Credit Card transactions for dues, fees, and donations

2003

[April 2003] First Community Service Project - Honoring Foster Parents

[June, 2003] Featured in The Rotarian magazine. Increased average number of makeups daily from 50 to 120.

Introducing eClub One Design Team

eClub One Design Team meeting.

Frazier Meadows Manor, Boulder, CO

May, 2000.

These are the District 5450 Rotarians whose discussions and planning resulted in the documents and events creating eClub One of District 5450.

The Rotary banner in the picture actually flew outside the Rotary Club One meeting place in Chicago, in the year 1920.

Clockwise, beginning on the right: Richard Wolniewicz, Gary Fletcher, John Minter, Tyler Kaus, Ted Manning, Jim Hanifin, Pat Madison. Jane Ryland and Bernie Zurbriggen were not present for this meeting.

DESIGN TEAM BIOS

A District-wide club extension team representative if significant Rotary and Internet experience was assembled to prepare the initial design for eClub and serve as an advisory group to assist the members of the new club to fashion a viable and successful internet community.

John Minter

Governor’s Special Representative leading the eClub Design Team for the district.

Joined Boulder Rotary in 1977.Current Classification, Senior Active. Served on numerous committees and taskforces. Initiated the District Web site in 1995 and has served as chair or co chair of the District Internet Committee since that time. District Internet Communications Officer, 2000-2001. District Rotarian of the Year, 2000 for leading district internet development. Initiated the Rocky Mountain Rotary Technology Awareness Conference held October, 2000 which was recognized by the RI Task Force on Technology as the Best Event, internationally in 2000-2001. Internet trainer at Rocky Mountain PETS and D5450 Assembly. Recognized by RI as Best DICO in Zone 25, 2000-2001.

President and CEO of John Minter Associates, Inc. preparing electronic databases for college and university planning and budgeting. Conducts the business entirely on the internet with team members located in Wilmington, NC; Seattle, WA; Portland, OR; Estes Park and Boulder, CO.

Gary Fletcher
Charter member and former president Smoky Hill Rotary, Aurora, CO.

Webmaster, D5450, Co-Chair District 5450 Internet Committee
Webmaster for Smoky Hill Rotary Club for more than four years and winner of the 1999 non-commercial Website of the Year. Is the designer and webmaster for many other websites, both non-profit and commercial, including the website for District 5450, Zia Girl Scout Council and the website for Claudine Fletcher, a frequent motivational speaker at numerous Rotary events each year. Has presented many training sessions throughout District 5450, including sessions at PETS the District Assembly, for the past four years. Currently co-chair for the District 5450 Internet Committee; He has been honored twice as his club's Rotarian of the Year and 1999-2000 Rotarian of the Year award for District 5450 work on the internet. Recognized by RI as the Best Club Webmaster, Zone 25, 2000-2001.

President, Solution Services Inc.

Jim Hanifin

Member, Boulder Rotary and currently Membership Chair, District 5450, Jim first joined Rotary in 1983. Over the years he has served Rotary Clubs in many capacities. Jim serves on several business and non-profit organizations. It was Jim’s call to John, March 2001 (as Membership Chair Designate of District 5450) that precipitated the chain of events resulting in eClub One. He asked a simple question, “Can we create a Rotary Club on the Internet?” To which John responded “Sure, why not!”.

His business career has included Labor Relations and Human Resources for Disney Corporation, Voit, and Head Ski, presently principal owner and President of Yellow Cab of America. His Boulder RC bio lists him as “Truck Driver”.

Tyler Kaus

Member Boulder Rotary, a Rotary Red Badge Member at the time of this photo. Rotary Classification: Past Service-Business Services—Advertising. Contracted polio at age 5. Completely paralyzed from the waist down. Professional career includes: Vice President/Creative Director of NYC advertising agencies; magazine Editor and Publisher; Research, Promotion and Merchandising Director. Winner of many National awards for advertising creativity.

Tournament bridge Life Master. Winner of more than 300 trophies and medals in wheelchair sports (swimming, table tennis, discus, shotput, javelin, bowling, racing, shooting, and tennis). Member of U.S. Wheelchair Olympic and Pan American sports teams for 24 years. National Table Tennis Champion 13 consecutive years (member of World Championship Team); national and world records in swimming. Elected to National Wheelchair Athletic Association Hall of Fame in 1988.

Member and Chair of numerous volunteer committees at Frasier Meadows Manor independent-living retirement community in Boulder. Active member for 8 years of Boulder's Disability Task Force, which is dedicated to making Boulder ever more accessible to the handicapped.

Pat Madison

Member of the Golden Rotary Club for more than ten years. Pat has served as President, Treasurer, Editerian, Internet Communications Officer, and Club Web page master. He has

served on the District Internet and Extension Committees. Pat is Chair the District Extension Committee this year. He received the "Four Avenues of Service| Citation for Individual Rotarians" from RotaryInternational at last year's District Convention for his involvement in starting the

Peak-to-Peak Rotary Club.

President and owner of Golden Software, Inc. providing scientific graphics for desk top computers. Golden Software products are licensed in 147 countries and in all seven continents.

Ted Manning

Thurston E. (Ted) Manning joined the Rotary Club of Boulder (CO) in 1965. Subsequently he was a member of the Bridgeport (CT), Chicago (Club One), Chicago-New Chicago and Washington DC clubs (and an officer of the last two) before returning to the Boulder club in 1992. He is a Past President of the Boulder club, and is currently an Assistant Governor in District 5450 who zone includes eClub One.

A retired physicist and university administrator, he has worked with the applications of computers to scientific, business and educational activities since 1955. He currently serves on the boards of for-profit and not-for-profit corporations, and is active in accrediting and evaluation organizations in higher education.

Jane Ryland

Jane N. Ryland is a former member of the Boulder Rotary Club who reluctantly decided to resign because of the difficulty of juggling the need to attend weekly Rotary meetings with heavy business travel requirements. As such, she has considerable interest in harnessing the power of the Internet to make the Rotary experience available to a broader audience, and correspondingly, bring to Rotary a richer array of participants who can further Rotary's objectives despite their inability to physically participate in regular Rotary meetings.

Ryland's career has focused directly on the use of information technologies and specifically network technologies, giving her a broad perspective on how these can be applied to an eRotary club. She served for twelve years as president of CAUSE, the association for managing and using information resources in higher education, and has held positions in both higher education and private industry, including IBM, Virginia Tech, the Virginia Community College System, the State Higher Education Executive Officers association (SHEEO), Storage Technology Corporation, and Reference Technology.

Jane currently works with Internet2 (a not-for-profit organization that operates a private, high-speed Internet for university researchers), and serves on a number of corporate boards.

Richard Wolniewicz

Richard Wolniewicz is a charter member of the Rotary Club of Boulder Flatirons, which began service in 1998. He has served on the Internet and Newsletter Committee since the club's organization, and is the webmaster for the club's public website. Richard is also a member of the District 5450Internet Committee.

Richard received his Ph.D. in Computer Science in 1994 from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and has worked in a number of Boulder-area technology companies including XVT Software and HeurisTec Corp. Currently Richard is Vice President, Engineering at Athene Software which specializes in internet customer service applications.

Bernie Zurbriggen

Bernie Zurbriggen has been a Rotarian and member of the Summit County Rotary Club since early 1993. He served as the Club's Youth Exchange Committee Chairman from 1994 through 1997, International Services Chairman, during the 95/96 Rotary Year, Internet Communications officer and Club Web master since 1996, and Club President during the 1999-2000year. In addition, Zurbriggen participated as a member of the club extension steering committee which resulted in the Rotary Club of Clear Creek County 2000.

Zurbriggen's background spans nearly 4 decades in the Telecommunications Industry. He has held senior management positions with Northern Telecom(Nortel) and Contel Executone. His company U.S. Trans Comm, Inc, currently provides Management and Strategic Marketing Consulting Services in the Telecommunications Industry."