RI's new OneRotary database integration

November 1, 2010, Oakville, Ontario, CANADA – ClubRunner, the leading provider of Rotary club administration and communications software, is pleased to announce today the integration of its databases with Rotary International – one of the largest humanitarian service organizations in the world with 33,000 clubs in more than 200 countries and geographical areas.

In a joint effort to unify and streamline member records,  ClubRunner and Rotary International, the Evanston, IL based administrative entity that supports Rotary clubs and districts, have been working closely for the past year to establish a secure connection to completely automate member updates while maintaining full control and privacy to Rotary clubs and districts.

Until now, all software vendors have been issuing email notifications to Rotary International’s Data Services division, resulting in countless hours of manual data entry.  ClubRunner and Rotary International had a common goal to increase overall effectiveness of each club by taking away administration overhead. Each club with ClubRunner today now can worry less about data integrity between multiple databases.   When a club database is updated with, for example, a member’s new contact information, that change would automatically be incorporated into Rotary International’s database, eliminating the need for clubs to formally notify Rotary International or make the change manually through Member Access.

Both ClubRunner and Rotary International have agreed that this long awaited feature will drastically improve productivity and costs for Rotary clubs and districts, everywhere.  In addition to improving the quality of the information Rotary International uses to provide support to clubs and districts, it would also eliminate duplicate data entry efforts and give Rotary clubs more accurate semi-annual reports, saving clubs both time and resources.

“There’s a lot of opportunity for potential growth in reducing the administrative overhead of being in Rotary,” says Peter Markos, Chief Information Officer and General Manager of Information Services for Rotary International. “Rotary clubs are largely autonomous and we want them to be flexible, dynamic and manage their affairs in the way that they need, while seamlessly providing us with all the information we need to be able to support them.”

As discussed in an interview with ClubRunner during the Montreal convention in June, Peter Markos also acknowledges that this milestone represents an integral move as he believes “any investments that ClubRunner and Rotary International make to minimize club administrative overhead will benefit the club, Rotary International, and all parties. It really holds together a key theme which is that even though the clubs are autonomous, the reality is they all want to be able to connect, communicate and collaborate. “

As the Past President of the Rotary Club of Mississauga-City Centre and founder of ClubRunner, Adel Asterbadi recognizes that “since accuracy of data is an important factor in effective communications, this project will empower both Rotary clubs and Rotary International to make better use of existing resources and technology to further promote Rotary and its mandates.”

The integration feature is now available for all ClubRunner customers.  For any questions, please visit ClubRunner’s Subscriber Community site to access information on how to get started.

About ClubRunner

ClubRunner, founded in 2003, is the award-winning membership management and communication platform for Rotary clubs and districts enabling members to connect communicate and collaborate. ClubRunner is proud to empower its customers with powerful tools that drastically reduce time on administration and effectively improve communication. ClubRunner is comprised of a complete suite of online modules designed to maintain membership databases, facilitate interactive communication, organize events and volunteers, and increase the public relations reach of service clubs. With thousands of Rotary clubs on 6 continents worldwide, ClubRunner is available in any language and is currently operating in 5 languages today.

About Rotary International

Rotary is a worldwide organization of business and professional leaders who provide humanitarian service and help to build goodwill and peace in the world. Rotary’s global membership is approximately 1.2 million men and women who belong to more than 33,000 Rotary clubs in more than 200 countries and geographical areas.   As volunteers, Rotary members have been serving the needs of communities worldwide since 1905.  Rotary clubs initiate projects that address many of today’s most critical issues such as hunger, poverty, disease and illiteracy. Rotary works in collaboration with the World Health Organization, UNICEF and national governments toward its top goal of eradicating polio worldwide, and with leading universities and academics to help build peace and international understanding.   For more information visit www.rotary.org.

To view Rotary International's official press release, click here.

ClubRunner Subscribers: For help guides and webinars, visit the Integration Help Center.

To begin synchronizing member data, you need to complete two steps: Opt in on your ClubRunner site and Authorize at the Rotary International Site. Here are the steps required to opt in at Rotary International's Member Access Portal.

1. Click on the following link:

 http://www.rotary.org/en/secureselfservice/Pages/AddVendorOrganization.aspx

This will bring you to the Rotary International Member Access Portal login screen. Enter in your Rotary login and password. Note that you will have to be a Club President, Club Secretary, or Club Executive Secretary/Director to be able to authorize data integration.

2. Select ClubRunner from the drop down list of Partners.

3. Read the terms and conditions on the screen, and if you agree, click the button "I Agree".

If the above link does not work, you can also access the Authorization screen by logging into Member Access as usual, then navigate on the left to "Update Club Data". Scroll down to the bottom of the screen and look for the Partner Organization section. Click on Add Partner Organization, and you will then be able to complete steps 2 and 3 above.

If you have any questions or require support using the Rotary International website, please contact RI at contact.center@rotary.org or call  866-976-8279.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This integration initiative is part of an ongoing project which will continually be enhanced with further options. At this time, the API Integration supports changes made to existing members, with the following fields available to be opted in:

• Name (mandatory - cannot opt out)
• Address (either work or home must be mandatory)
• Home phone (optional)
• Work phone (optional)
• Cell phone (optional)
• Home Fax (optional)
• Work Fax (optional)
• Email (optional)

Data updates are transmitted to the RI databases in real-time within two hours of the change being made within the member profile. It is important to understand that there are strict business logic rules that take effect when an update is attempted to be made to the RI database. If for any reason an update fails this business logic phase, an automatic email will be generated and sent to Rotary's data services division to be manually updated. These email updates will require longer to be processed, and you should not expect the changes to take effect on RI until at least one week later.