by Josep Maria Reichardt 
What is a Rotary e-Club or a telematic Rotary Club? Rotary Clubs are local service organizations whose goal is to improve the social, cultural, and economic environment. The 40.000 Rotary Clubs in more than 200 countries around the world are made up of more than 1 million members who call themselves Rotarians. The Rotary Club They belong to the worldwide organization Rotary International. Rotary International has a Foundation that is known by its acronym in English TRF (The Rotary Foundation) that has objectives that affect all humanity and among them the eradication of poliomyelitis in the world.
Usually the Rotary Club They are local: businesspeople and professionals from a city (or a neighborhood) meet in person who work to serve their community, while a telematic Rotary Club holds its meetings online.
However, the Board of Directors of Rotary International created a pilot project (that is, on a trial basis) during the years 2005 to 2010, in order to test new ideas, methods or organizational frameworks for the Rotary Clubs of the future. This project was the creation of the Rotary e-Clubs, also called then Electronic Rotary Club or virtual Rotary Club or cyber club. The history of the Rotary eClub of Latin America began on July 1, 2004 and came to fruition in 2010, when the Rotary International Legislative Council decided to incorporate this type of virtual clubs as full-fledged Rotary Clubs and definitively approved within the legislation. of Rotary International.
The Board of Directors of Rotary International considered this alternative to face-to-face (or land) Rotary Clubs to accommodate members who cannot attend face-to-face meetings due to travel difficulties that occur in their territory, or due to that their physical abilities prevent it, an opportunity to be part of a Rotary eClub is also open to people who due to economic difficulties cannot be members of a Rotary Club in person because the membership fees of Rotary eClubs are more cheaper than those of the Rotary Club face-to-face.
The Rotary E-Club of Latin America received its charter on January 25, 2005, as part of this pilot project, with its administrative headquarters in the city of Cancun (Quintana Roo - Mexico). Normally the other Rotary eClubs overlap the geographical scope of a Rotary International District, that is, those who want to be members of a Rotary Club but cannot attend a Rotary Club in person can become members of a Rotary eClub of the same geographic scope. What is a Rotary e-Club, unlike other Rotary Clubs, the link that unites the members of the Rotary eClub of Latin America is the Spanish or Castilian language, which is the one used in meetings. This allows members from more than 14 countries on 4 continents to be part of the Rotary eClub of Latin America.
At the beginning, electronic communications were a real challenge, but they have evolved and today the meetings are as effective as if they were face-to-face meetings, the only difference is that the partners greet each other with a good morning, good afternoon, good night, depending on the situation. where in the world are they located? The Rotary eClub telecommunications experience was a great success for Rotary International, which used it so that all Rotary Clubs around the world could continue to meet online during the COVID-19 pandemic.
CHARACTERISTICS OF ROTARY eCLUB PROJECTS
Rotary Clubs are made up of people who come together to improve their community.
Normally, Rotary Clubs are made up of a group of people from the same town, city or neighborhood, and when they act to improve their environment, the community perceives that it is Rotary that has benefited them.
Since 2006 there have also been telematic Rotary Clubs or Rotary eClubs that, instead of meeting in a physical place, meet online.
Rotary eClubs allow people who cannot participate in the meetings of a traditional (or “Earth”) Rotary Club to also collaborate to improve their community.
The Rotary eClub of Latin America brings together people committed to improving their community, with the only requirement that the meetings take place online and in Spanish or Castilian language. At the moment there are members of the Rotary eClub of Latin America in 17 different countries four continents.
Unlike the Rotary Clubs on Earth, the projects that an eClub must develop have to have the same characteristics as the eClub itself, that is:
1. Projects must allow the participation of all eClub members.
2. The beneficiaries of the projects must belong to the community of the same scope as the members of the eClub, and perceive that the eClub helps them to improve their community.
If a Rotary eClub undertakes projects as if it were a "land" Rotary Club, there will be two circumstances that do not matter:
1. The beneficiaries will be from one of the places where the members of the eClub are scattered, to the detriment and exclusion of the possible beneficiaries from the environment where the other members are, and
2. The members of the place where the project is developed will bear most of the tasks of implementing the project and the members of the eClub from other countries will be mere spectators or simple "funding partners" of the project.
Both circumstances (1. and 2.) are not desirable in a Rotary Club.
I believe that we should strive so that the projects of the Rotary eClub of Latin America are beneficial for all the communities where our members are located: Mexico, Italy, Spain, UK, Argentina, Brazil, etc. and that all the members of the Rotary eClub of Latin America could actively participate in the development of the project.
For this reason, the projects of the Rotary eClub of Latin America must have the same characteristics of virtuality and telematic implementation as the operation of the eClub itself.
