Rotary Club Responsibilities and Expectations:

The Rotary Vocational Fund of Arizona accepts applications only through sponsoring Rotary Clubs located in Districts 5490, 5500, 5510 or Needles, California. TRVFA considers the sponsoring club to be a partner in assisting a grantee to achieve his or her goals. To that end, there are several areas of responsibility that we expect the club to assume.

The Rotary Club acts as the first evaluator of an applicant's eligiblilty. We want the club to help assess whether the prospective recipient of a grant meets the financial and vocational criteria set out on these web pages. If the club feels that the candidate will pass muster, it should assist the person with the application process, including the completion of the various forms and letters that need to be submitted. The club should choose three of its members to interview the candidate. The application package has some suggestions for questions to pose to the candidate. The interview process helps determine whether the applicant appears to have appropriate motivation for succeeding at the stated goal. Face-to-face human contact is a better determinant of these characteristics than paper forms.

If the club feels that the applicant is likely to be successful, it will review the application package for completeness, and submit it to TRVFA for approval. If the candidate is awarded a grant, the club should maintain periodic contact with the applicant to ensure there is a positive commitment to the successful completion of the course of study. This may involve some mentoring and/or additional financial assistance at the club level.

We also suggest that the candidate be invited to your Rotary Club to meet the members and give an informal report on his or her progress. This maintains a level of communication and involvement of both the club and the grantee. This might be intimidating for some people, so the club should use its discretion in extending such invitations.

Seeing a challenged candidate strive and succeed is very rewarding to all the involved parties. We encourage you to close the loop and share the success of the grantee with your club members. That is the spirit of Rotary.