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HOW MIGHT WE RUN OUR PARTICULAR RITUALS?

Award Ceremony

Honouring our fellow Rotarians is just as important this year, as any other. And the process can be very much the
same, with the Club President announcing the recipients of the awards.
Not all awards are a surprise. Your Paul Harris Society members likely know they’re due to receive the upgrade for
their PHF. Mail them early, and have members show off their new award as they’re announced.
Surprise awards are still similar; just mail the award on the day of the Changeover. They’ll find out before it arrives,
and receive it soon after
Investitures
Due to the limitations of the physical universe, your Club’s Presidential Collar (or other regalia, like a gavel) can
only be in one place at any given time. How might we handle this difficult challenge?
How should you do this? Consider the significance of the physical transfer, and how it works with your club, given
your own culture and traditions. Is it a symbol of the end of a year, or the start of a new year? Does the special
significance attach to the Collar, or the President? Does the Collar hold any special significance for your club at all?
You might consider whether to physically hand over the collar between Presidents before, or after the event. You
might have each President take a photo or video with the Collar as part of the presentation. You might simplify the
process by not using the Collar in this year’s formal ceremony at all.
Badges for Officers are much simpler and can be mailed ahead of time, similarly to awards. As the incoming
President calls their names, they can display the badge of their position to the audience.
National Anthem
Ever heard two people trying to talk at once on a video call? Multiply that by several dozen, and you have an attempt
to sing the National Anthem together at your changeover. Even with disciplined timing, the nature of the technology
is that it just doesn’t work.

Another option might be for a recording of the National Anthem to be played, and having your members sing-along
on mute. Or if that might feel a little silly, even having everyone listen silently on mute is an option.
Other Things

Your club may have other ceremonies, rituals, or habits that you like to undertake at a Changeover event. So, how
might you handle it?
Experiment. Practice.

Get your Changeover Committee together, and try things on a smaller scale in a meeting. There is no substitute for
experimentation, and practice will reveal what can work. Other rituals may need to be adapted, modified, or in some
case, sidelined for the year.
What if we have a large number of attendees?
Anyone who has been in a large Zoom call knows that it’s hard to spot who is talking, or where a particular person
is, even if they’re the only ones unmuted.

Another option is to use the Spotlight Video feature of Zoom. Similar to Speaker view, it allows the Host to display
to everyone, a single person of the Host’s choice on the screen. During Awards or other processes, this could help
share the focus of the audience. Other videoconferencing platforms have similar features.
Even larger events with hundreds of participants or complex practices may find that they require additional tools
to broadcast their Changeover effectively. In this, the advice is simple and no different to any major event: Start
planning now.
Could we put it on hold until after the pandemic?

Of course. Your Club’s Changeover belongs to your Club, and the event is run for the benefit of the Rotarians of your
Club.
Before deciding on that, there are two things to be considered:
Changeovers are moments in time, and we hold them as close as possible to the turn of the Rotary year as a
point of significance in transition. The further away from July 1 the event is, the less meaning it may hold. So, we
might ask ourselves; Would a physical Changeover in November be more meaningful than a virtual one in June?
COVID-19 is challenging member engagement, and even with all of our efforts, it can be harder to feel as
attached to Rotary at the moment as we might otherwise be. Changeovers are a beautiful occasion for us all to
celebrate what we do, and the value of being a part of our Club’s. If we just ignore such a pivotal event, would it be
harder for the individual Rotarian to justify paying those annual dues come July?

Rotary on the Move June 2020 Page 4