YOUR CLUB PHOTOS ON FLICKR

Within hours of his club's annual fundraiser in support of youth charities, Jeff Rogerson, of the Rotary Club of North Bay, Ontario, Canada, had uploaded photos of the event to Flickr.

The North Bay club teamed up the last weekend of March with two local disc jockeys to host a 53-hour radio marathon in a community shopping center, raising more than US$80,000 for the Nipissing Association for Disabled Youth and other charities that help physically challenged children in the area.

Rogerson also shared several of the photos on Rotary International's Family of Rotary Flickr group , earning a spot in the April issue of Interactive as the featured image of the month.

Since August, more than 300 photos have been posted to the group. Rotarians around the world have uploaded images of their club events, special occasions, and service projects, and club members are encouraged to visit regularly to see what their colleagues are up to. One photo each month is highlighted in Interactive.

Share your photo on RI's Flickr group today.

By using Flickr, Rogerson was able to publicize his club's event to a larger audience. The site "has allowed everyday Rotarians such as myself to post Rotary activity for the benefit of all to see," he notes. "All of our members take great pride in this event and roll up their sleeves and get involved."

He also sent e-mails thanking all the volunteers and pointed them to a slideshow of the fundraiser.

"I received a large number of e-mails from Rotarians who had helped out and some who were away but still were able to share in the event through viewing the Flickr feeds," he says. "In a practical sense, the editor of our newsletter is able to go in and grab whatever photos members have posted, with their permission, for easy use in the newsletter."

Janey Ball, of the Rotary Club of Newlands, South Africa, has used RI's Flickr group to share photos as public relations chair for District 9350 (Angola; Namibia; South Africa). They’ve included images from the lighting of the Cape Town waterfront with the End Polio Now message during Rotary's anniversary celebration, 23 February. See more photos of illuminated landmarks.

"The ease of fast, one-site-fits-all distribution has great advantages," Ball says. "I'm such an advocate."