Professional Expertise

Posted by Bob Ruehl on Jan 14, 2022
Use your professional expertise for service.
January is Vocational Service Month. This is an opportunity to think about how your club and district engages fellow Rotary and Rotaract members through their professional skills or vocations, and how they bring Rotary’s ideals into their workplace. In bringing together people from diverse professions and backgrounds, Rotary recognizes the importance of all skills and occupations. In Rotary, your professional life and vocational service can work together. Members have a responsibility to represent their occupations within their club and to exemplify the ideals of Rotary in their workplace. 
  • Rotary members in Switzerland founded Rotarians for the Professional Integration of Youth Refugees (ROBIJ), an apprenticeship program pairing young people who arrived as refugees with local trade businesses looking for skilled workers.
  • Career mentors connected with professional women from the Chicagoland area to discuss using leadership skills to resolve issues in the workplace and the community during a Rotary-sponsored speed mentoring event in Chicago, Illinois, United States.
  • Rotarian and Youth Exchange alumnus Binish Desai is an innovator and social entrepreneur who creates products from industrial and domestic waste. With the help of his club, the Rotary Club of Vibrant Valsad in Gujarat, India, he formed Women Empowerment Centre, where women learn how to use recyclable waste to make and sell lamps, clocks, and smartphone covers.
This month, consider how you can bring the idea of vocational service to life. 
  1. Use your skills to serve a community. Start a project that leverages your area of expertise or support one that’s already being planned. To find inspiration for projects, search Rotary Showcase to see what clubs are doing globally. To find a project to support, attend a Rotary Project Fair to learn about projects looking for international partners and support. 
  1. Share your expertise. Join a Rotary group related to your profession to share your knowledge. Your unique skills and professional experience can help increase the impact of projects around the world. 
    • If you have technical expertise in one of Rotary’s six areas of focus or in project planning and implementation, let your district international service chair know. They’ll connect you with local clubs through the District Resource Network so that you can help them develop more effective projects. 
    • If your expertise fits one of the 27 Rotary Action Groups, contact the group’s leaders to get involved. These international teams of Rotary members and friends lend their skills and experiences to help clubs design more sustainable and impactful service projects. 
    • If you have professional skills in Rotary’s areas of focus or financial auditing, apply online to be considered for TRF’s Cadre of Technical Advisors. Use your expertise to advise Rotary members who are planning and working on Rotary Foundation grant projects. 
  1. Connect with others. Explore your profession with others by joining one of Rotary’s Fellowships. Find friends outside of your club to expand your international network, engage in common interests, and develop a more global perspective. There are many vocation-related fellowships such as the ones for Editors and Publishers, Educators, Executive Managers, Graphic Designers, Healthcare Professionals, Lawyers, Photographers, Police and Law Enforcement, Quilters and Fiber Artists, and more.  
  1. Help young professionals achieve their career goals. Mentor younger members of the Rotary family such as Rotaractors, Interactors, and Rotary Community Corps members and create opportunities for them to develop their professional and leadership skills. 
Download the Vocational Service in Action handbook to learn more and to discover ways to share your knowledge through Rotary, advance ethical standards in your workplace, and help others develop professionally.