Train the Trainer
A s you plan a training meeting, carefully consider how many trainers you'll need and what skills they should have. Conduct Train the Trainer sessions well in advance so that trainers can modify the materials and practice the skills they learned.
Use the Train the Trainer Session Guide and slides to help you prepare.
Assessing candidates' qualifications
Rotarians with leadership experience often make good trainers. Consider recruiting:
- Past district trainers or district training committee members
- Immediate past club and district officers
- Current district committee chairs
- Current and past RI training leaders
- Current and past regional coordinators
Look for the following qualifications and skills:
- Training expertise. Sessions that feature extensive discussion and group activities benefit most from leaders with training expertise. Consult past training evaluations to determine leaders' effectiveness.
- Rotary knowledge. You may prefer to use Rotarians with extensive knowledge about a specific topic for information-heavy training sessions. For example, a Group Study Exchange team leader might present a session on organizing and carrying out a Group Study Exchange.
- Professional expertise. Relevant experience may be an important consideration for some topics. For example, a Rotarian who works in public relations might be a good training leader for a session about PR.
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Identifying needs for district training events
To determine how many trainers you'll need, consider how you'll assign them throughout the year.
- Same group for all meetings. Using the same trainers at each meeting reduces the number of Train the Trainer sessions and allows trainers to gain experience and expertise.
- Core group for most meetings with additional trainers for specific sessions. This option allows you to use experts on specific topics while retaining a core group of experienced trainers.
- Different groups for each meeting. This allows for highly customized training; however, finding and training a sufficient number of trainers may be difficult.
Logistics also determine the number of trainers you'll need. Consider the following:
- Number of participants. You may need to divide participants into groups based on club size, location, or experience. For example, a group of 75 presidents-elect might be divided into three groups of 25.
- Number of sessions. Concurrent sessions require different training leaders.
- Number of topics and activities in each session. You may need more than one training leader per session if you plan to cover many topics and activities. More trainers mean more support for participants and a wider variety of viewpoints.
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Preparing training leaders
Once you've identified your trainers, contact them about their availability and discuss the assignment. Clearly communicate responsibilities, meeting logistics and topics, expectations, and goals.
To ensure training leaders are prepared for their assignment:
- Explain the training's purpose and review the main topics and learning objectives.
- Review the meeting agenda and logistical considerations.
- Define the policy for mandatory and optional material. Review any materials developed by the trainers to ensure they support the meeting and session objectives.
- Discuss the training techniques and methods trainers will use. Allow each trainer to practice facilitating as the others act as participants.
- Identify reference and background materials that can help trainers prepare.
For help, use the training leader preparation worksheet.
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