Recruiting and Selecting Participants

Each Rotary club is expected to sponsor at least two participants for the RYLA Conference (although any number of participants will be accepted). Any young man or woman, regardless of race, creed or color, who is a high school sophomore or junior is eligible to participate in the conference.

Each club may determine its own participant selection process. However, the District 6220 RYLA Committee recommends that each club first commission a participant selection committee and that the committee consider the following guidelines:

1. Establish a selection process timetable based on the due dates and responsibilities listed above.
2. Establish your own criteria for selecting students. Consider using the sample participant selection criteria.
3. Collaborate with local schools. Throughout the District, clubs have repeatedly worked successfully with principals, guidance counselors, and teachers at high schools to promote the conference and identify and recruit participant candidates. Consider using the sample letter to local school officials to solicit assistance and the sample fact sheet to inform educators and their students about the conference.
4. Engage former RYLA Conference participants in recruiting (and even selecting) participants. Former participants are the best spokespeople about the conference because they have experienced it and can directly communicate their experiences with their peers.
5. Identify and recruit a pool of candidates from which conference participants can be selected. Cultivating a pool of candidates along with using applications and conducting interviews will help students perceive more value in their opportunity to participate in the conference. In addition, it will provide a larger number of qualified candidates.
6. Ask candidates to complete an application. An application will help candidates initially put more thought into why they want to participate in the conference. An application can then be used by the committee as an initial tool for screening candidates. Consider using the sample participant application.
7. Conduct candidate interviews. Whether or not your committee uses an application, conducting interviews is the best (and most important) way to get to know the candidates. Consider using the sample candidate interview questions.
8. Select alternate candidates who will be prepared to attend the conference in the event that any of your primary candidates can not attend.

Next Step – After Selecting Participants