The Leadership Academy has been a District 5220 since 2003, and now it is available online. This program was started in Rotary District 5030 and has been modified to fit the needs of this District, with permission.

The Leadership Academy is a ten-lesson home study course that helps you learn about Rotary history and procedures. It is NOT a prerequisite to holding any office in your Club or in your District. There are no meetings or speakers; this modification was made to keep the cost down.

  Course Descriptions & Application

Concerned about the amount of time your participation will take? The introduction to the course materials has this to say: The course is designed so that you can progress at your own pace. Exam questions are straightforward and not meant to be confusing or tricky. . . . You should be able to find the correct answer in the lesson reading assignment. . . . That same introduction recommends that the student set aside 10-15 minutes at the same time each day. . . EVERY DAY. . . . By doing a little bit EVERY DAY (seven days a week), the course does not become onerous.

Here are some hints for studying online:

• This course and this website are optimized for Internet Explorer Versions 6.0 and 7.0. Other web browsers may not properly display all site contents. IE 7 is available for free from www.microsoft.com. 

• If you want to print out any of the web pages in this section (or anywhere else in this website), in Internet Explorer select, File, Page Setup. Change both the left and right margins to .25. This should allow your printer to display the entire width of the web site information without cutting off the right side of the page.

• All of the materials for this course are online. You will need both a web browser and the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the materials.

• The quizzes are taken online through your web browser and transmitted instantly on submission to your coordinator for grading. Quizzes are "open book".

• To view both the quiz and the other web page reading material at the same time, in Internet Explorer V7 you can open multiple websites at separate tabs and switch back an forth in between them. With earlier versions or other browsers you may be able to open the browser and then open a second browser at the same time. You can switch between the two by selecting the open program tab at the bottom of the windows screen.

• Both your browser and Acrobat Reader will have FIND or SEARCH functions available to let you quickly locate specific materials that you are seeking. The program's Help option on the menu should be able to give you in the use of that feature.

• If you have difficulty reading the text, both Acrobat Reader and Internet Explorer offer ZOOM functions that will let you increase the size of the viewed materials. See the program's HELP function for guidance.

• For your convenience in quickly returning to the same place in Internet Explorer, Version 7 allows you to set multiple home pages that all open when you start the program. You probably already have a home page for msn.com, yahoo.com or some similar service. You can add more home pages, for the District 5220 home page, The Leadership Academy home page, or even the specific lesson you currently need. It might be a good idea to have a home page for RI and/or your club.