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What is a
Rotary club?
“Rotary is an organization of business and professional persons united worldwide who provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help build goodwill and peace in the world”.
What is Rotary?
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ROTARY IS
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ROTARY is an organization of business and professional leaders united worldwide, who provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help build goodwill and peace in the world.
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ROTARY is the world’s first service club. The first Rotary club was founded in Chicago, Illinois, USA on 23 February 1905.
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ROTARY is some 1.2 million service-minded men and women belonging to more than 28,000 Rotary clubs in virtually every nation in the world.
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ROTARIANS meet weekly for fellowship and interesting and informative programs dealing with topics of local and global importance.
Membership reflects a wide cross-section of community
representation.
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ROTARIANS plan and carry out a remarkable variety of humanitarian, educational, and cultural exchange programs that touch people’s lives in their local communities and our world community.
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ROTARY is The Rotary Foundation, which each year provides some US$90 million for international scholarships, cultural exchanges, and humanitarian projects large and small that improve the quality of life for millions of people. Rotary is widely regarded as the world’s largest private provider of international educational scholarships.
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Rotary Firsts:
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The first Rotary club meeting was in Chicago, Illinois, on 23 February 1905.
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The first regular luncheon meetings were in Oakland, California, chartered in 1909.
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The first Rotary Convention was in Chicago in 1910.
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The first Rotary club outside of the United States was chartered in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada in 1910.
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The first Rotary club outside of North America was chartered in Dublin, Ireland, in 1911.
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The first Rotary club in a non-English-speaking country was in Havana, Cuba in 1916.
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The first Rotary club in South America was chartered in Montevideo, Uruguay in 1918.
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The first Rotary club in Asia was chartered in Manila, Philippines in 1919.
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The first Rotary club in Africa was chartered in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1921.
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The first Rotary club in Australia was chartered in Melbourne in 1921.
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Object of Rotary:
The object of Rotary is to encourage and foster the ideal of service as a basis of worthy enterprise and in particular to encourage and foster:
First: The development of acquaintance as an opportunity for service.
Second: High ethical standards in business and professions, the recognition of the worthiness of all useful occupations and the dignifying of each Rotarian’s occupation as an opportunity to serve society.
Third: The application of the ideal of service in each Rotarian’s personal, business and community life.
Fourth: The advancement of international understanding , goodwill and peace through a world fellowship of business and professional persons united in the ideal of service.
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Rotary Mottoes:
The first motto of Rotary International, He Profits Most Who Serves Best, was approved at the second Rotary Convention, held in Portland, Oregon, USA in August 1911. The phrase was first stated by a Chicago Rotarian, Art Sheldon, who made a speech in 1910 that included the remark, “He profits most who serves his fellows best”. At about the same time, Ben Collins, president of the Rotary Club of Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, commented that the proper way to organize a Rotary club was through the principle his club had adopted – Service, Not Self. These two slogans, slightly modified, were formally approved to be the official mottoes of Rotary at the 1950 convention in Detroit – He Profits Most Who Serves Best and Service Above Self. The 1989 Council on Legislation established Service Above Self as the principle motto of Rotary, since it best explains the philosophy of unselfish volunteer service.
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Four
Avenues of Service:
The term “Four Avenues of Service” refers to the four elements of the Object of Rotary: Club Service, Vocational Service, Community Service, and International Service.
Although the Avenues of Service are not found in any formal part of the constitutional documents of Rotary, many Rotarians use this concept to describe the primary areas of Rotary activity.
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Club Service involves all of the necessary activities Rotarians perform to make their club function successfully.
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Vocational Service describes the opportunity each Rotarian has to represent the dignity and utility of one’s vocation to the other members of the club, as well as the responsibility of the club to undertake projects related to such areas as career planning, vocational training, and the promotion of high ethical standards in the workplace.
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Community Service pertains to those activities that Rotarians undertake to improve the quality of life in their community. It frequently involves assistance to youth, the aged, the disabled, and others who look to Rotary as a source of hope for a better life.
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The Fourth Avenue of Service, International Service, describes the many programs and activities that Rotarians undertake to advance international understanding, goodwill, and peace. International service projects are designed to meet humanitarian needs of people in many lands. When a Rotarian understands and travels down the four Avenues of Service, the Object of Rotary takes on even greater meaning.
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This is Rotary:
Rotary is An organization of 1.2 million business and professional leaders. More than 165 countries. Providing humanitarian service. Building goodwill and peace in the world.
Rotary is a global network of community volunteers. Rotary members are business and professional leaders who provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards, and help build goodwill and peace in the world. Some 31,000 Rotary clubs in more than 165 countries carry out service projects in their local communities and abroad to address such critical issues as poverty, health, hunger, illiteracy and the environment.
Projects:
Rotary clubs participate in a broad range of humanitarian, intercultural, and educational activities designed to improve the human condition. Rotary’s humanitarian grants support club projects that provide health care and medical supplies, clean water, food, job training, youth development, and education to millions of people in need — particularly in the developing world. In addition, Rotary provides more than 200 grants each year to fund the work of Rotary volunteers, who travel to parts of the world where their technical expertise and knowledge are most needed to alleviate hardship and solve problems.
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Peace:
Rotary builds understanding through international scholarships, exchange programs, and humanitarian grants. In 2002, Rotary launched the Rotary Centers for International Studies in peace and conflict resolution, an innovative program designed to educate tomorrow’s peacemakers.
Hosted at seven leading universities around the globe, the program funds 70 World Peace Scholars each year for graduate studies in international relations, conflict studies, and negotiation — providing promising leaders the tools to further the cause of peace.
Some 35,000 students from 110 countries have also studied abroad since 1947 as Rotary Ambassadorial Scholars. Rotary’s Group Study Exchange has helped more than 45,000 young professionals explore their career fields in other countries. And, each year some 8,000 secondary- school students experience life in another country through Rotary’s Youth Exchange program.
Rotary is An organization of 1.2 million business and professional leaders. More than 165 countries. Providing humanitarian service. Building goodwill and peace in the world.
Rotary is a global network of community volunteers. Rotary members are business and professional leaders who provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards, and help build goodwill and peace in the world. Some 31,000 Rotary clubs in more than 165 countries carry out service projects in their local communities and abroad to address such critical issues as poverty, health, hunger, illiteracy and the environment. Top
Polio Eradication:
In 1985, Rotary launched Polio Plus, an ambitious program to immunize the world’s children against polio. Rotary’s grassroots leadership, volunteer support, and initial funding for vaccine provided the catalyst for the World Health Assembly’s resolution in 1988 to eradicate polio worldwide. Spearheading partners of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative are the World Health Organization, Rotary International, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and UNICEF.
As a result of this partnership’s efforts, polio cases have dropped by 99 percent since 1988, and the world stands on the threshold of eradicating the disease. Rotary members have given more than half-a-billion U.S. dollars and countless hands-on volunteer hours to this critical effort.
The savings to be realized from polio eradication are potentially as high as US$1.5 billion per year — funds that could be used to address other public health priorities. The savings in human suffering will be immeasurable.
Progress:
Paul P. Harris formed the world’s first service club, the Rotary Club of Chicago, on 23 February 1905. The Rotary motto is Service Above Self and, as it celebrates its centennial, Rotary continues to concern itself with truth, fairness, improved relations between peoples, and world peace.
During World War II, Rotary members increasingly became involved in promoting international understanding. A Rotary conference held in London in 1942 planted the seeds for the development of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and some 50 Rotary members served as delegates and consultants at the founding of the United Nations.
Today, Rotary holds the highest consultative status with the United Nations that a nongovernmental organization can obtain. In this capacity, Rotary has a voice within the UN system allowing access to its people and resources worldwide.
People:
Belonging to a Rotary club gives men and women an enjoyable and organized way to make a contribution to their community. Rotary members meet weekly to plan club, community, and international service activities. By using their skills and expertise globally, members also enhance their professional network, career development, and cross-cultural understanding.
Rotary clubs are nonreligious, nongovernmental, and open to every race, culture, and creed. Members represent a cross section of local business and professional leaders. To learn more about a Rotary club in your community, please visit the information for prospective members section of the Rotary International Web site at www.rotary.org or contact your local club.
In 1985, Rotary launched Polio Plus, an ambitious program to immunize the world’s children against polio. Rotary’s grassroots leadership, volunteer support, and initial funding for vaccine provided the catalyst for the World Health Assembly’s resolution in 1988 to eradicate polio worldwide. Spearheading partners of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative are the World Health Organization, Rotary International, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and UNICEF.
As a result of this partnership’s efforts, polio cases have dropped by 99 percent since 1988, and the world stands on the threshold of eradicating the disease. Rotary members have given more than half-a-billion U.S. dollars and countless hands-on volunteer hours to this critical effort.
The savings to be realized from polio eradication are potentially as high as US$1.5 billion per year — funds that could be used to address other public health priorities. The savings in human suffering will be immeasurable.
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Contact:
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Rotary International World Headquarters
One Rotary Center
1560 Sherman Avenue
Evanston, IL 60201-3698 USA
Telephone: (847) 866-3000
Fax: (847) 328-8554
or (847) 328-8281
www.rotary.org
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Rotary International Offices
Buenos Aires, Argentina
New Delhi, India
Parramatta, NSW, Australia
Sao Paulo, Brazil
Seoul, Korea
Tokyo, Japan
Zurich, Switzerland
Rotary International in Great Britain
and Ireland (RIBI)
Alcester, Warwickshire, England
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