Club Roles

CLUB ROLES

• Rotary Club – Rotary International is organized into local clubs and districts.  These clubs are often made up of members who represent local businesses, professions, and governments.  A club may hold its weekly meetings for breakfast, lunch or dinner.  Clubs range in size from 15 to 400 active members and are governed by a President and Board of Directors.
• Sponsor Club – This is the Rotary Club that selected an outbound student for sponsorship in the program.  A club that chooses to sponsor a student is actually providing a one year scholarship for study abroad. In our District, the Sponsoring Club is required to Host an Inbound Student.
• Host Club – This is the Rotary Club that is providing host families and a monthly allowance to the Inbound Student. They will also appoint a Club Counselor to assist inbound exchange students with day-to-day matters and invite inbound exchange students to participate in Rotary Club meetings and activities. 
• Club President – The Rotarian elected to preside over the weekly meetings of the local Rotary Club.  The Club President serves for one year.  
• Host Club Counselors – Each Hosting Rotary club is responsible to provide a Rotarian counselor to help support the IB student while on exchange.  
  • Should meet with the student regularly.  
  • Will help the student and/or the students host family with school registration.  
  • Should be advised if you have problems with school, family, finances or other matters.  
  • Should have received the students emergency fund ($500 USD or whatever is required by the students’ host country). The balance of the student emergency fund will be returned to the student at the conclusion of the student’s exchange year.  
  • May provide a safe place to keep the student passport and return airline paper or e-ticket information.  
  • Should be considered the student’s Advocate — someone the student can look to for support and friendship, as well as for help solving problems.  
  • Is the Rotarian who must know where the students are when traveling. 
  • Many Sponsoring Rotary clubs also provide counselors to assist with the OBC student and family progress prior to the exchange. 
• Host Family – These are families who provide room, board and nurturing to Inbound Exchange students hosted by their local Rotary Club.  In some districts, host families are those whose sons/daughters are also participants in the RI Youth Exchange program.  RI recommends that all students have up to three host families to give them a better overview of the culture and language of their exchange country. 
• Club Youth Exchange Officer (YEO) – The chairperson of the Club Youth Exchange Committee and the main contact for youth exchange.
• Club Youth Exchange Committee (YEC) – On the club level, this committee nominates students for participation in the program and sponsorship by their club.  The local club YEC also provides host families and club counselors for students.