2. Planning your year

Citation goals

Your club can earn a Rotary Citation for achieving goals that strengthen Rotary and your club. Goals include increasing club membership, developing sustainable service projects, giving to The Rotary Foundation, and building awareness of Rotary in your community.

The Rotary Citation does vary a little from year to year depending on the priorities of the Rotary International President. This year your club must achieve at least 13 out of the 25 Citation Goals. This flexibility allows clubs to choose the goals that are most relevant and achievable.

Citation goals can be found in Rotary Club Central.

The Citation Goals can be used by clubs as the basis for setting goals and are an excellent tool to assist in preparing plans and goals for the upcoming year.

Strategic planning   

  • Start early (now).
  • Develop/evaluate your club’s strategic plan to ensure that it is current & relevant.
  • Review your club’s strengths & weaknesses and identify opportunities and challenges in your community (Rotary Club Health Check).
  • Develop a vision – what do you want your club to look like?
  • Develop annual goals to support the long-term goals in your strategic plan (Rotary Club Central).
  • Goals need to be SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, time-specific).
  • Create an action plan for each goal.
  • Develop your goals together with your leadership team.
  • Have separate goals for each Board portfolio.
  • Share goals with club members and motivate them to achieve your goals.
  • Monitor your progress and adjust goals if necessary.
  • Celebrate achievements.

Most importantly, be ready to get started on 1st July.

Excellent resources for strategic planning include Rotary Club Health Check, the Rotary ‘’Strategic Planning Guide’’ and ‘’Lead Your Club – President 2019-2022’’.

Short & long term goals

  • When you have set your strategic priorities (long-term goals) you can then develop yearly (short-term) goals that support them.
  • Write down your strategic priorities then list your annual goals along with the actions you will take, the resources you will need and who will lead the effort to meet each goal.
  • Set a timeline for each goal.
  • Short-term (annual goals) should be completed with the Rotary year.
  • Long-term goals are the pillars of your strategic plan and consist of many smaller short-term goals.

Strategic planning