As part of our ongoing RCAA strategic plan, we continue to identify opportunities and the need to strengthen our infrastructure and the Club’s guiding documents. This is one of the plan’s focus areas – Increase Our Ability to Adapt by streamlining governance, structure & process.

A subset of the RCAA Board and Rotaract leadership (Rotaract Committee Chair and Rotaract student leadership) in collaboration with Rotary International developed Guidelines & Expectations for the Rotaract Mentor/Mentee Program. These guidelines and expectations provide a framework to ensure a reciprocally successful mentor/mentee partnership that supports the goals of the program. The policy has been added to the Club Policy document on the website under the Who We Are tab/Bylaws & Policies.

While the RCAA had an existing policy in place for Working with Youth, this was a program area that was in need of more formal procedures. The new guidelines will be shared more broadly with the Rotaract Committee and students in the upcoming months with an implementation plan for next semester. Many thanks to everyone who committed time and effort to this important initiative.

October Strategic Planning Session

On October 13, a group of Rotarians met to workshop some of our existing goals and initiatives relating to the Club’s survey results and Presidential goals for FY27. The areas of focus included:

Club and Corporate Membership
Recruitment & Retention
(Increase Our Impact)

Committee Audit Process
Charge/Responsibilities/Succession Plan/Procedures
(Increase Our Ability to Adapt)

Membership Engagement
(Enhance Participant Engagement)

The goals developed within these three working groups will be updated in our core document but will also be added to the Snapshot document on the website in the upcoming weeks.

We will also be setting up Strategic Planning sessions in January 2027 to evaluate our progress and continue to assess the survey results and identify how we can address priorities communicated by the Club. There will be both day and evening sessions on different days and I am hoping that many of you will be able to attend. As always, your thoughts and ideas are important!

Please contact Dawn Johnson (dawnlynn@umich.edu) if you have any questions about the new Rotaract policy or the RCAA Strategic Plan. Thank you.