L-140 · A 90-day try-out

A club plan for Member Innovation Challenge

Use this as a starting point. Cross out what does not fit, add what is missing and make it your club's own.

Where this idea came from

Playbook entry: L-140 · Member Innovation Challenge
Theme: Theme 4: Leadership, Culture & Club Experience · Subtheme 9: Innovation & Experimentation
Source material: Current playbook index title and category plus an internally authored detailed-guide draft

Initiative-specific development wave

How this draft was developed

These sources support general principles for leadership, culture and club experience, accessibility, privacy, safety, systems or responsible governance; they are not an endorsement of Member Innovation Challenge, a finding that it suits any club or approval of its local design.

Primary references consulted

Rotary guidance for enhancing project impact (Rotary International - My Rotary)
Used for: Rotary provides project-planning resources to help clubs design and manage effective projects, find partners, share practice and improve impact.
Engage emerging leaders (Rotary International)
Used for: Rotary encourages clubs to assess club health, ask members what they want, take suggestions seriously, support leadership and provide relevant service and learning experiences.
Governance for good: A guide for Responsible People (Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission)
Used for: Good governance requires understood roles, authorised decision processes, checks and balances, appropriate delegations, written decisions and oversight of finances and operations.
Volunteers - WHS duties (Safe Work Australia)
Used for: Volunteer activities can create work-health-and-safety duties depending on the organisation and work, so local responsibilities and risks must be checked rather than assumed.

Candidate District material

No candidate local guide was used for this version. The current initiative identity and the attributed primary references remain separate.

Theme 4 source-assurance wave

What has been checked

4 current primary pages used by this guide were reopened on 9 August 2026.
4 attributed source claim(s) were mapped to their bounded use in this initiative.
Candidate District material remains separate and does not establish this result.

See each source's scope and limit

Rotary service-project impact resources
Supports: The availability of Rotary project-planning, collaboration and impact-support resources.
Does not establish: That a project is feasible, authorised, funded, locally suitable, sustainable or demonstrably effective.
Engage Emerging Leaders
Supports: Member-centred discovery, mentoring, feedback, emerging-leader support and club-health review principles.
Does not establish: That a person is ready for office, should be selected, has consented to a role or can exercise authority outside the club's rules.
Governance for good: A guide for Responsible People
Supports: Good-governance principles for roles, delegation, decision processes, records, accountability, financial oversight and organisational purpose.
Does not establish: That a Rotary club is an ACNC-registered charity, that ACNC duties apply or that a proposed delegation or decision complies with the club's governing documents.
Volunteers - WHS duties
Supports: The need to identify the organisation's actual WHS position and manage volunteer physical and psychological safety proportionately.
Does not establish: Whether WHS law applies to a particular club, who holds a duty, which jurisdictional rule applies or whether a proposed control is sufficient.

What still needs a person to confirm

Confirm the club's governing documents, election or appointment method, role authority, delegation, budget and reserved decisions before assigning leadership responsibility.
Confirm which incorporated-association, charity, work health and safety, privacy, safeguarding and other duties apply to the club and this local design.
Test accessibility, workload, belonging and alternative participation routes with affected members rather than inferring suitability from the guide.
Confirm every local fact, starting point, measure, cost, owner, capability claim and learning need before the club decides to proceed.
Resolve any candidate District-source provenance and approval decision without treating the candidate as controlled authority.

The source-verification release gate remains closed.

Checks still on hold

The current Theme 4 index establishes the code and title. No authoritative detailed Leadership source has been located, so this is explicitly an internally authored, source-referenced draft.
The connected Drive refresh returned an internal error on 9 August 2026. No unseen file was inferred or promoted; the 7 August intake, duplicate decisions, quarantines, rights boundaries and public-write permission hold remain in force and no sharing was changed.
Before local delivery, the club must approve the decision, participant choices, access arrangements, privacy and records plan, role boundaries, referral or escalation routes, resource limit and the specific control for this boundary: an experiment cannot suspend governance, safety, privacy, accessibility, financial or partner responsibilities.
Formal human review has not started. Member Innovation Challenge remains an internal initiative-specific draft until all 1,000 initiatives reach the Full-Corpus Review Build and every source, editorial, local-suitability, accessibility and governance gate is resolved.

Still an internal draft: source interpretation, local suitability, accessibility, governance and editorial approval remain open checks.

1. Is this worth trying here?

What we hope will change: Use Member Innovation Challenge to make small, low-risk trials a normal way to improve the club.

What is happening in our club or community now?What is the smallest useful version we could try? What will we leave out?

Board contactPerson leading the workPerson checking what happened

2. Our 90-day try-out

What our club will do for Member Innovation Challenge
Step	What we will do	Who could lead it	Our date	How we will know it is done
1	Write the decision brief for Member Innovation Challenge: define which problem, hypothesis and low-risk prototype the club is willing to test, the starting evidence, people affected, local authority, resource limit, success signals and stop conditions.	Board sponsor and leadership-development lead	Week one	An approved decision and boundary brief
2	Publish the capability and decision need, invite interest fairly, ask about access and workload, declare conflicts and separate development from any formal appointment. Apply this specifically to Member Innovation Challenge and record which relevant experiences or users are still missing.	Board sponsor and leadership-development lead with the access and privacy contacts	Weeks one and two	A participant, access and information-handling plan
3	Build and test a low-risk prototype with a stated problem, hypothesis, resource limit and stop rule for Member Innovation Challenge; complete the Member Innovation Challenge Pilot Hypothesis and Test Card, rehearse the boundary wording and confirm who may decide, refer, pause, recover or close the work.	Facilitator, mentor or role supervisor	Before the trial	A tested pilot hypothesis and test card and delivery pack
4	Use real but bounded practice, observation, reflection and specific feedback; protect confidential information and keep every reserved decision with the authorised office-holder. Capture only the evidence needed to judge whether Member Innovation Challenge advances safe club experimentation.	Facilitator, mentor or role supervisor	Weeks three to eight	A controlled activity and evidence record
5	Compare the evidence with the starting point, validate meaning with affected participants or users, record gaps and unintended effects and prepare a prototype evidence card and an authorised adopt, adapt, retest or stop decision without overstating what the trial proves.	Facilitator, mentor or role supervisor with an independent reviewer	Within seven days of the trial	A prototype evidence card and an authorised adopt, adapt, retest or stop decision
6	Make and record the authorised continue, adapt, refer, scale or stop decision for Member Innovation Challenge; explain the reason, complete every action, close unnecessary records and schedule the 90-day follow-up.	Authorised office-holder and handover recipient	By day 90	A published participant response, closed action register and next-step decision

3. Checks before we start

Things our club needs to check
Question	What it means for us	Who will check	Done?
Check the idea with the people affected and confirm its purpose, owner and practical limits before putting it into use.
Confirm who may decide, how conflicts and decisions will be recorded, and what support a new leader can call on.
The club proceeds with Member Innovation Challenge without respecting this boundary: an experiment cannot suspend governance, safety, privacy, accessibility, financial or partner responsibilities. — Put the boundary in the brief and participant information, give the delivery lead stop authority and move any excluded matter to its responsible process.
Selection reproduces an inner circle or creates an implied appointment. — Publish the pathway and criteria, invite broadly, declare conflicts and state that formal appointments remain separate.
A learner, mentor or committee exercises authority it does not hold. — Use a written role and delegation, decision checkpoints and an accountable office-holder.
Development creates hidden workload or unnecessary access to confidential information. — Set workload and access limits, provide supervision and use a safe exit and handover.
The current Theme 4 index establishes the code and title. No authoritative detailed Leadership source has been located, so this is explicitly an internally authored, source-referenced draft.
The connected Drive refresh returned an internal error on 9 August 2026. No unseen file was inferred or promoted; the 7 August intake, duplicate decisions, quarantines, rights boundaries and public-write permission hold remain in force and no sharing was changed.
Before local delivery, the club must approve the decision, participant choices, access arrangements, privacy and records plan, role boundaries, referral or escalation routes, resource limit and the specific control for this boundary: an experiment cannot suspend governance, safety, privacy, accessibility, financial or partner responsibilities.
Formal human review has not started. Member Innovation Challenge remains an internal initiative-specific draft until all 1,000 initiatives reach the Full-Corpus Review Build and every source, editorial, local-suitability, accessibility and governance gate is resolved.

4. What changed?

What we will keep an eye on
What matters	Where we are now	What we hope to see	How we will check	Who
After 90 days, review Member Innovation Challenge. Look for a small trial, simple notes, an honest review and a clear decision to continue, change or stop.
Member Innovation Challenge produces a prototype evidence card and an authorised adopt, adapt, retest or stop decision by the promised decision date, with evidence limitations, participation gaps and unintended effects stated.
People affected can explain the purpose, their choices, the boundary and how to raise an access, privacy, safety or governance concern.
The trial shows whether safe club experimentation improved from the recorded starting point without shifting hidden workload, risk or exclusion elsewhere.
Every accepted action has an owner, due date and completion evidence, and the club records a reasoned continue, adapt, refer, scale or stop decision.

After 30 days

Is it reaching the right people? Is anything unsafe, unfair or harder than expected?

After 60 days

Make one useful change based on what people have told you.

After 90 days

Compare with where you started. Decide whether to change it, continue it or stop.

Made for this initiative

Tailored supporting documents

These working documents use the decisions, safeguards and evidence needs of this initiative. Complete them with the people affected and keep the agreed version with the club's project record.

Member Innovation Challenge Capability and Outcome Brief

Define the capability, real work, authority and evidence required.

Open supporting document

Member Innovation Challenge Expression of Interest and Conflict Form

Support fair participation and transparent conflict management.

Open supporting document

Member Innovation Challenge Role, Authority and Confidentiality Agreement

Keep learning work within approved boundaries.

Open supporting document

Member Innovation Challenge Learning and Practice Plan

Turn the capability goal into deliberate work and feedback.

Open supporting document

Member Innovation Challenge Observation and Feedback Record

Capture behaviour and impact without personality judgement.

Open supporting document

Member Innovation Challenge Decision and Governance Check

Protect formal authority, conflicts and required approvals.

Open supporting document

Member Innovation Challenge Handover and Continuity Pack

Transfer work, learning, access and open decisions.

Open supporting document

Member Innovation Challenge Innovation & Experimentation Delivery Check

Test whether Member Innovation Challenge genuinely advances safe club experimentation within the subtheme boundary.

Open supporting document

Member Innovation Challenge Pilot Hypothesis and Test Card

Keep the problem, prototype, safeguards and decision evidence together.

Open supporting document

Member Innovation Challenge Evidence, Decision and Close-Out Record

Bring the evidence, limitations, participant response and final decision for Member Innovation Challenge into one accountable record.

Open supporting document

Before your club says yes

Does the idea fit?

Talk with the people it is meant to serve and check that the need is real.

We have checked this

Who can say yes?

Name the person or group that can approve the work, spending and any safety arrangements.

We have checked this

Are people protected?

Check privacy, consent and safety. Collect only the information you genuinely need.

We have checked this

Can everyone take part?

Check the language, format, place, technology and cost for barriers.

We have checked this

Are the facts and permissions right?

Check names, claims, images, quotations, partner references and Rotary branding.

We have checked this

How will we learn?

Note where things stand now, check in at 30, 60 and 90 days, and decide what to do next.

We have checked this

Worksheets for your club

Open them online, print them or change them to suit the way your club works.

Leadership brief

Use this worksheet to decide who will do each job, who can step in and what needs to be handed over.

Open worksheet

Action plan

Use this worksheet to turn the idea into a short list of actions, dates, costs and responsibilities.

Open worksheet