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Chapter 1:
Conception
  On
January 28, 2009, Rotarians Don Higgins, Philip Merritt, and
Simone Carot Collins initiated discussions about forming a new
Rotary Fellowship named Rotarians On Social Networks Fellowship
(ROSNF) which would be actively supporting the
use of social networks to promote fellowship and service.
At the time Don, Philip, and Simone were all active
members of the Rotarians on The Internet fellowship (ROTI), and
they initially approached the ROTI board regarding embracing
social networking as an additional tool for ROTI members.
The ROTI board chose not to accept the proposal, and
passed a motion limiting ROTI presence on social networks to
groups referred to as "ROTI Associates" with an explicit
prescribed description directing visitors to go to the ROTI
website and the existing ROTI email groups.
 From
the beginning, the ROSNF Board of Directors pledged to work in
harmony with ROTI and other related fellowships including the
International Computer Users Fellowship of Rotarians (ICUFR).
 Several
names were considered before finally agreeing on ROSNF.
Then a ROSNF Facebook page was created by Simone where
anyone on Facebook interested in ROSNF could become a fan.
A ROSNF Facebook group was also created.
Don Higgins volunteered to setup a ROSNF website with an
online form where Rotarians and Rotaractors could request to
become charter members of the new proposed ROSNF fellowship.
The website also has links to pages with the ROSNF
by-laws, officers, members, links to social network pages and
groups, and other related information.
Simone agreed to be the Charter Chair,
Philip agreed to be Vice-Chair, and Don agreed to be
Chair-Elect.
Additional members interested in helping
were invited to join the new proposed ROSNF board including:
4.
Eugene Beil, PDG – April 9, 2009
5.
Mary Kathryn DeLodder – April 11, 2009
6.
Guz Goh, PDG – May 6, 2009
7.
Genevieve Flight – May 29, 2009
8.
Mel Powell - November 23, 2009
9. Karin
Janzon – November 24, 2009
Mary Kathryn DeLodder recruited charter
ROSNF member Mitchum Owen to design the ROSNF logo which was
first placed on the ROSNF website on May 20, 2009.
ROSNF board member Genevieve Flight
organized the first unofficial meeting of ROSNF members at the
2009 RI Convention in Birmingham, England where she had the
opportunity to meet a number of ROSNF members face to face.
Chapter 2:
First application to RI
On July 27, 2009, the first ROSNF
application was sent to the Rotary International (RI) staff with
232 charter members.
The RI staff had set a July 31, 2009 deadline in order
for the application to be decided at the November 2009 RI Board
of Directors meeting.
On November 10, 2009, notification from the
RI staff was received saying that the RI Board of Directors had
denied the ROSNF application on the basis of it being too
similar to the existing ROTI and ICUFR fellowships.
Following receipt of the notice from the RI
staff, the ROSNF board decided to remain as a provisional group
of Rotarians and Rotaractors working toward becoming a
recognized RI fellowship. The
group would reapply to RI in 2 years or consider merging with an
existing related RI fellowship if the group was interested in
actively supporting the rapidly growing number of Rotarians
using Social Networks to promote Rotary fellowship and service.
Both the ROTI and the ICUFR fellowships
were made aware of the rejection of the first ROSNF application
and the ROSNF board's plans to reapply.
Don Higgins, who is still a member of both ICUFR and
ROTI, raised the option of a merger with either group.
The ROTI board rejected the idea completely.
The ICUFR board was open to have ROSNF members join the
ICUFR and use the ICUFR Facebook group they created, but the
ICUFR board did not offer to change their mission to include
active support of social networks.
While waiting for an opportunity to reapply
to RI for official recognition, ROSNF membership continued to
grow and several ROSNF programs and applications were started.
The ROSNF Facebook page fans increased to over 2,000.
A ROSNF Ombudsman program for zones, districts, and clubs
to identify ROSNF members willing to help create social network
presence for zones, districts, and clubs was started.
Also a ROSNF Volunteer Help list was started identifying
members and which social networks they could help members with
such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, SharePoint, Plaxo,
Flickr, etc.
Chapter 3:
Second application to RI
On May 17, 2010, ROSNF Board member Guz Goh
announced that he had the opportunity to discuss the proposed
ROSNF fellowship with RI Director, John Lawrence, while
attending the district 3400 conference.
John was aware of ROSNF and requested current information
from ROSNF in order to put it on the agenda for the next RI
Board of Directors meeting in June 2010.
On May 22, 2010, Simone sent RI Director
John Lawrence our re-application with expanded explanation of
the differences between ROSNF and the existing ICUFR and ROTI
fellowships. The
reapplication included 488 ROSNF charter members from 62
countries.
On May 28, 2010, ROSNF received notice that
their re-application for approval as a Rotary International
Fellowship has been put on the agenda for the June 2010 RI Board
of Directors meeting.
Several ROSNF members including Mary
Kathryn DeLodder and Genevieve Flight held second informal
meeting in the House of Friendship at the 2010 RI Convention in
Montreal to meet face to face with ROSNF members.
Also cards with ROSNF membership information were handed
out to those interested.
On July 9, 2010, ROSNF received official
notice that the ROSNF Fellowship has been approved by the RI
Board of Directors.
Chapter 4: First year as official
fellowship
On July 1, 2010, Simone Carot Collins
became charter chair of ROSNF.
(To be continued with plans for first
official meeting at the RI Convention in New Orleans in 2011.)
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