Over the past year, the RCI Chapter Development Committee has produced a series of articles taking an in-depth look at the revised Outstanding RCI Affiliated Chapter Awards Program application. The year 2016 witnessed a revitalization of the Chapter Awards Program and a marketing campaign to help educate RCI members at the chapter level on its benefits and uses. Each of these articles addressed a separate section of the application, providing useful information and tips to not only help complete the application, but develop your chapter more completely.
Our goal through the series of articles was to guide you through the revisions of the application and educate you on the purpose of the award itself. Some believe the Chapter Awards Program pits chapter against chapter to see who has the better website or who actually completes their chapter calendar a full year in advance, but the opposite is actually true. It is not a competition. Each chapter is scored independently with no consideration given to how one chapter stacks up to its neighbors.
At its core, the Chapter Awards Program is a guide book for a successful chapter. As RCI and local chapter members, we move into leadership roles when we join the chapter’s board or various committees. Many of us have had little to no previous experience operating in an environment such as this. The Chapter Awards Program was created as a tool to aid chapter leaders by assisting in the most difficult yearly tasks. Activities from transitions in leadership to accurate archival records are streamlined when the model set forth in the program is followed.
The Chapter Development Committee hopes that you found this series of articles informative and that they aided in your transition to the new application format. I invite you to revisit the article series now that you have been through the process. I also encourage chapters to begin using the application for 2017 today. Our hope is that the application is not seen as a chore at the end of the year, but truly a tool to be wielded throughout the year to help guide and grow your chapter.
As a committee, we are extremely proud of our organization and the efforts it expends to help encourage and educate leadership at all levels. The continued success of RCI and the professionalism of our industry rely heavily on the development and growth of chapters. If you are currently involved at the chapter level, we thank you for your service. If you are considering getting involved, we hope you take that next step. Your time and effort is what will ensure the future success of RCI.
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