What is Rotary?
Welcome to the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley! Rotary is an international organization of over 1.2 million people seeking to make life better in their communities and around the world. Rotary members, also known as Rotarians, are people of action.You can learn much more about the work and supported causes of Rotary starting with an overview at this page.
What to Know
While online Rotary clubs, also known as Rotary eClubs, constitute a small portion of Rotary’s 34,000+ clubs, the members of the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley believe that our flexibility with our meetings, our ability to focus and connect both locally and globally, and our willingness to explore the possibilities of new technologies, allow us to contribute to Rotary’s efforts in powerful ways.
Being in an eClub is not for everyone. It takes an extra level of self-discipline to make time each week to attend meetings when a set time and place is not calling from one’s calendar. Additionally, at traditional brick-and-mortar Rotary meetings, others approach you in person to engage you in conversations and invite you to take part. While members of our club are connected by email and phone, enjoying what it means to be part of our club requires you to actively share your ideas and step forward to make new opportunities happen. In short, you are expected to be one who does, and not one who waits for others to do.
If you align with the above, however, you will find that being able to attend a meeting any time between Monday morning and Sunday evening is wonderfully useful for those with exceptionally busy schedules. There is also no weekly cost for meals, allowing our members to channel funds to other projects, such as Rotary’s efforts to promote peace, fight disease, provide clean water, protect mothers and children, support education, and grow local economies. Learn more about Rotary’s areas of focus at this page.
Benefits of Membership
Although Rotary represents a global movement of leaders working to improve their communities, we value our members and want them to thrive. Rotary provides unique benefits to members globally, but every Rotary Club also has their own unique set of benefits to provide their members.
We pride ourselves in being a flexible club of self-starters. If the traditional weekly in-person Rotary club meetings don’t work for you, then we might be the right fit for you.
The following are benefits of membership to our club:
Leadership Development Grants for Members (up to USD$150 per year is reimbursed back for registration fees to Rotary conferences and conventions)
Service Mini Grants for Members (start your own local service project and apply to receive up to USD$250 as a matching grant)
Access to Local Events in the Silicon Valley
Meet Business Professionals in the Silicon Valley
Global Rewards Program (discounts to Disneyland, Avis, Hertz, Intercontinental Hotels, and hundreds of more merchants)
Exclusive Member-to-Member Networking
International Network of 1.2 million members in over 160 countries
Access to Mentorship Sessions
Access to Rotary Global Grants (apply for grants of $30,000+ for international service projects)
Rotary Lapel Pin
Access to Club Exchange Banners
Access to Rotary Conferences & Conventions
International Service Opportunities
Interested? You can start now by reading our weekly meeting.
Just click the “Attend Meeting” button in the navigation.
Applying to Join
Application Requirements:
Properly attend meetings for AT LEAST 4 weeks within a 2 month period – we highly recommend those 4 weeks be consecutive – by doing the following:
Read and watch content on the current week’s meeting page
Fill out the “I Attended!” survey at the end of the program
Leave a comment using Disqus at the bottom
Optional: make a donation to our efforts
After 2 meetings, email our membership chair (membership@siliconvalleyrotary.com) to inform us of your interest in joining.
After 4 meetings, fill out the application below.
After submitting your application, the club leadership will send you a confirmation email. In it, we will ask you to please submit your availability so that we can schedule a Meet and Greet with you. This can be either one-on-one or with a small group of current eClub members. In addition, we will invite you to join a program recording as well as an online social.
After we have determined that you have met our application requirements, the application will be sent to the board for a vote, and then to all of the eClub members for their approval. If there are no objections, you will become a member of the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley! At this time, you will be paired up with a mentor who will help welcome you into the club.
Please note that once you have met the membership requirements, the approval process generally takes about 2-3 weeks.
Please carefully consider these requirements and expectations before submitting your application.
Members are expected to attend weekly in order to stay informed on what is happening with our club. One is required to attend at least half the time, but given the flexibility of our eclub system, we believe that your goal should be to attend every week, and make up any missed meetings appropriately.
Members pay USD$150 for dues every six months. Timely payment of dues is expected for everyone. We also offer the option to pay monthly at USD$28/month.
Members are expected to engage in club activities whenever possible. Those living in or near Silicon Valley will have multiple opportunities to join in social and service events. All members can join in the recordings of programs as participants to converse with and ask questions of our speakers.
Members are expected to join at least one club committee.
Members are expected to be comfortable with internet and collaborative tools. We use Zoom Video Conference and Google Drive extensively, so it is necessary to have a Google account in order to take part in video conferences and share documents and other files. We also use a private members-only Facebook Group and Slack for internal networking and group discussions.
Members are expected to be patient with online communication. When content in a meeting or email seems strange or offensive, members are expected to ask clarifying questions rather than responding directly to something that the person posting the given content might not have meant. In short, it is better to ask than to react.
Members are expected to understand and seek to live by the Rotary Four-Way Test, which you can find at Rotary’s page on Guiding Principles.
You must complete at least four meetings within a two month period. It’s best if those are in four consecutive weeks, to make sure you are comfortable with making it a habit to attend the online meeting every week.
If nothing above has made you reconsider joining the club, then after finishing four weeks of proper attendance (which includes completing the attendance survey and leaving comments in the Disqus system), you are welcome to complete the application linked below.