Steps To Create A School Interact Club

Once the Rotary club board approves the sponsorship of an Interact club, choice a club member who is interested and enthusiastic about starting an Interact Club. Form a committee with that member as chair.

• Meet with school officials to explain the program and its advantages. Rotarians and school officials should continue to work together to determine membership requirements, the time and location of the Interact club’s meetings, and other policies

• Identify a teacher, counsellor, or Principal who will champion the idea of Interact at the school. Hopefully they will also either agree to be the School Interact Advisor, or recommend a suitable candidate. Rotarians or young people attending the school who want to start an Interact Club will often help to identify the right champion.

• Advertise an Interact interest meeting in the school. Ask school leadership to attend and to talk about it to their networks. Use Facebook as a means to get the message out. (Or ask the students to do that)!

• At the interest meeting discuss Interact, Rotaract and the Rotary family. Describe what Interact is and what can be accomplished by the students working together. Talk about potential projects the Interactors could support. At the end of the meeting, have interested people write their names on a signup sheet.

• Invite those on the sign up sheet to bring a friend to a second meeting about 1 week later. Rotarian mentors can help set the stage at this meeting. It’s important to remember that young people need to be interested and motivated to attend the meeting. They may be driven by their peer group, by food, by the excitement of working on a specific project. Whatever can be done to generate enthusiasm will help move things forward. Usually the students will be able to identify the best way(s) of motivating their peers.

•  Once a group of prospective Interactors has been assembled, you can begin to hold organizational meetings to plan the club’s activities. Keep the enthusiasm level high by holding the meetings no more than two weeks apart, and be sure to keep a record of the names and phone numbers or e-mail addresses of those who attend so you can invite them to future meetings. Encourage them to invite friends.

• When you have achieved a strong base of members, 15 plus, you will be ready to proceed with applying for official RI certification. The procedure for this is in the Interact Handbook with all required forms.