Draft 0.1, 29 September 2026. Visible to administrators only, for review before publication.

Module 3: The club and the district in preparedness

Reading: about 25 minutes. Workshop: 60 minutes. For club presidents, club disaster coordinators, district officers, and the RAGCED members who support them.

What you will be able to do

• Describe what each Rotary layer, from the club to Rotary International, brings before a disaster.
• List what a prepared district has in place: people, a written plan, activation levels, a relief fund and grant qualification.
• Build a working relationship between your club and your district officers before any crisis.
• Know when and how to call on Rotary Action Groups, including DNA-RAG and RAGCED.
• Identify the funding routes for preparedness work and the conditions to check before relying on them.

Why it matters

RAGCED's mandate is to train communities before disasters and to help relaunch local economies after them. A club cannot do this alone. Its budget is limited, it cannot apply for Rotary Foundation grants by itself, and it cannot coordinate dozens of neighboring clubs. The district, the zone, the action groups and the Foundation each add something the club lacks. These links only work in a crisis if they were built in calm times. This module shows who does what before a disaster and how a club draws on the network. Emergency response is outside RAGCED's scope; for the first hours and weeks, see the Disaster Field Guide (https://disasterfieldguide.org/).

Community Preparedness working group at a regional inter-agency meeting (Denver, Colorado, USA, 20 November 2008). Photo: FEMA / Michael Rieger, public domain

Training session for Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) leaders (Emmitsburg, Maryland, USA, 10 March 2003). Photo: FEMA / Jocelyn Augustino, public domain

1. Six layers, one network

The Disaster Field Guide reads the Rotary structure from the field upward, in six layers:

• Club: first contact with the community, local knowledge.
• District: grant applications to the Foundation, coordination of clubs, the disaster relief officer.
• Zone: coordination between districts, zone funds where they exist.
• Rotary Action Groups: expertise that cuts across the hierarchy.
• The Rotary Foundation: the financial arm.
• Rotary International: global policy and institutional coordination.

Information moves up, resources move down. The club supplies needs assessments and local data; the layers above supply money, material and wider coordination. None of them replaces the club on the ground.

2. The club: first contact and local knowledge

Module 2 described what a club helps its community prepare. For the district, the club is the eyes and hands on the ground. What the district expects in return is simple:

• a named club disaster coordinator, stable over several years;
• an up-to-date inventory of members' skills and resources;
• reports and documents sent on time;
• a club that shares its experience with other clubs.

The relationship runs both ways: a club that takes without contributing and reports late exhausts district goodwill; a reliable club becomes the partner the district turns to first.

3. What a prepared district has in place

People. Four roles matter before a disaster.

Role	Before a disaster
District governor	Sets priorities, decides activation level, links to zone
Foundation committee chair	Keeps grant qualification, co-signs applications
Disaster relief officer	Keeps the plan, trains club coordinators, links with action groups
Disaster committee	Updates the plan, coordinates clubs, meets quarterly

A written district response plan, updated every year and shared with club presidents, club coordinators, neighboring districts and the zone. It covers the team, the activation procedure, a risk map, the consolidated inventory of club resources, communication, grant procedures, access to the relief fund and partner contacts.

Activation levels. The guide uses a three-level district scale, DCA-3, DCA-2 and DCA-1, where the lower number means stronger mobilization:

• DCA-3, normal activity: monitoring, training, drills, plan updates, building the fund. This is where preparedness happens.
• DCA-2, partial activation: a local disaster or an identified threat; the district committee meets and clubs are on alert.
• DCA-1, large-scale operation: all resources mobilized.

The decision rule is short: when in doubt, step up one level and step back down later.

A district disaster relief fund. A dedicated account, separate from general district finances, funded by annual club contributions and by fundraising, with two signatures for any withdrawal and an annual report to contributing clubs. Its value is speed: it can act in the first hours without waiting for outside approval. The guide also lists pre-disaster training among its authorized uses.

Grant qualification. Without district qualification, no Rotary Foundation grant is possible, neither for emergencies nor for long-term projects. Qualification depends on trained officers (the online Grant Management Seminar), reporting obligations met on earlier grants, and a bank account able to receive Foundation funds. It must be maintained outside any disaster; an unqualified district is blocked even in an emergency. Check the exact criteria in the current Terms and Conditions with your Foundation committee chair.

Relationships and training. A prepared district stays in touch with DNA-RAG, ShelterBox and civil protection, trains club coordinators yearly, and agrees with neighboring districts on who helps whom.

4. How a club leans on its district

Use this list as your club's standing agenda with the district:

• Know your officers personally. Store the mobile numbers of the relief officer, the Foundation committee chair and the governor in your own phone, not only in the directory. Update them on 1 July, when officers change.
• Attend district training on preparedness at least once a year.
• Send your inventory of skills and resources to the relief officer every year, so the district can consolidate it.
• Contribute to the district relief fund every year, even modestly. As the guide puts it, you contribute in normal times and draw on it in times of crisis.
• Know your neighboring clubs: who could help you, and who might need you. Ask the district to organize twinning between clubs and pooled stocks of equipment.
• Run a pre-season check with the Foundation committee chair before your risk season: qualification current, no overdue reports, bank account operational, a grant file pre-filled with the district's permanent information.
• Encourage annual giving to the Foundation. The District Designated Funds a district can use today come from contributions made in earlier years.
• Use the district Resource Network. A 2026 Rotary International flier on action groups invites districts to bring local members of action groups into their Resource Network. That is where a RAGCED member can support your community preparedness work.

5. Zone, action groups and the Foundation

The zone groups several districts and steps in when a disaster hits more than one. In calm times it prepares a zonal planning guide, a zone fund where one exists, reciprocity agreements between districts, communication exercises and training for new relief officers. Grant applications stay at district level.

Rotary Action Groups are independent organizations recognized by the Rotary International Board. They have no authority over clubs or districts; they work through expertise. According to the Rotary International flier, Rotarians, Rotaractors and Peace Fellows can serve in their leadership roles.

• DNA-RAG is the general coordinator for disasters. The first of its functions, as described in the guide, is to prepare: preparedness plans, training and drills available before the disaster. It holds regular online meetings open to Rotarians.
• RAGCED brings community economic development expertise: preparedness that protects livelihoods before a disaster, and after it, microfinance, vocational training and the revival of local markets. RAGCED also presents itself as a complement to the Foundation for projects that do not fit the district grant and global grant models.
• WASH-RAG (water, sanitation and hygiene) and ESRAG (environment and climate resilience) add technical expertise.

A RAG amplifies and connects. It never replaces the club on the ground.

The Rotary Foundation is legally distinct from Rotary International. Its principles are transparency, stewardship, community involvement and accountability. Before a disaster, its rules matter more than its money: qualification, the Grant Management Seminar and stewardship reports. A late report blocks new applications for the whole district.

6. Funding preparedness

This module gives no amounts. Ceilings and rates change; always check the current Terms and Conditions on My Rotary with your Foundation committee chair.

Source	Use before a disaster	Check first
Club emergency fund	Kits, training, drills	Bylaws, two signatories
District relief fund	Pre-disaster training	District policy
District grant	Small, short-term local projects	District priorities
Global grant	Large, lasting projects	Partner, needs assessment
RAGCED	Expertise, projects outside grants	Contact RAGCED
Local partners	In kind, venues, cash	Written agreement

Two definitions from a 2016 Rotary brochure on community economic development help: district grants "fund small-scale, short-term activities", while global grants "support large international activities within Rotary's areas of focus with sustainable, measurable outcomes". A global grant needs an international partner and a community needs assessment. Whether a given preparedness project fits an area of focus must be checked with the district before any work on the file.

Local money also counts. A Foundation officer in charge of economic development told Rotarians that the more funding is raised locally, the better, because local contributors follow the project closely.

The emergency mechanisms (disaster response grants, zone funds, the Foundation's central disaster fund) are used after the event. Preparing for them means keeping the district qualified, keeping reports up to date and having a pre-filled file ready. How they work is covered in the Disaster Field Guide.

Go further

From the Disaster Field Guide by Guillaume Bourgogne (companion site: https://disasterfieldguide.org/):

• Chapter 2, The Rotary ecosystem for disaster response
• Chapter 18, The District: your first ally
• Chapter 19, The Rotary Foundation: 7 funding mechanisms
• Chapter 20, The RAGs: global expertise at your fingertips
• Chapter 21, Partners outside Rotary
• The companion guides by Rotary layer: district, zone, action groups, Foundation

From the Rotary club guide to community economic development by the same author (in preparation): The district as first ally.

Public resources:

• My Rotary (my.rotary.org): grant Terms and Conditions, Grant Management Seminar, Grant Tracker.
• DNA-RAG (dna-rag.com), including the Zones 30/31 disaster planning and response guide.
• RAGCED website: missions and contacts.
• Rotary Action Groups flier, Rotary International, 2026.

After running this module in your club, please send your feedback (a pre-filled email), or fill in the feedback sheet in the workshop sheets and send a photo of it. It helps RAGCED improve the programme.

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