The Rotary Institute Amsterdam 2020 Rotary without Borders was originally scheduled as a two and a half day, in-person, meeting for rotarians, rotaractors and friends of Rotary from 90 European districts covering the UK and Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Malta, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Luxemburg and the Netherlands.
It should be an active, festive and inviting event to experience Rotary’s strength and vitality in all its international aspects, also for interested outsiders.
We planned to show exemplary good projects from all these countries in short attractive presentations. In breakout sessions these projects should give the opportunity to discuss items on membership and partners in service, public image and awareness, impact and sustainability of projects, Rotary Foundation matters, etcetera. The strategic priorities of diversity in membership and club types, reaching out, enhancing impact and being flexible and adaptive would be emphasized.
The aim of this Institute: making Rotary better in opening up opportunities for people and the environment.
The Covid-19 pandemic forced us in April 2020 to start something new by changing the Institute from an in-person into an online event. With the concept of presenting 30 beautiful projects we found an alternative way to inform and engage rotarians and rotaractors.
On October 10, 2020, we broadcasted the 3.5 hour Institute for more than 1400 participants, almost 600 of them attending one of the eight breakout sessions. In the following two months these breakouts on YouTube attracted another 400 views. After the formal Institute, president Holger Knaack discussed an hour with Dutch rotaractors (college tour). The major donor event of the Rotary Foundation (for invitees) was broadcasted in the evening.
This website covers the Rotary Institute Amsterdam 2020 Rotary without Borders from the introductory newsreel till the college tour and with all breakout sessions. You will find more than twelve hours of recorded speeches, videos, interviews, presentations, visuals and discussions.
The page Breakouts gives way, on different levels (follow ‘Preview’), to information about the presented projects, their individual short videos, and the seven areas of focus of the Rotary Foundation. The nice and interesting YouTube films of the recorded sessions can be subtitled according to your preference.
Enjoy and get inspired.
Welcome letter from our President
