What is Rotary?
Rotary is an opportunity to build lifelong Friendships and experience the personal fulfillment of providing volunteer service to others. Rotarians leave the world a better place than how they found it.
An organization of business and professional leaders. Rotary provides humanitarian service, encourages high ethical standards in all vocations, and helps build goodwill and peace throughout the world.
The world's first service club, Rotary began with the formation of the Rotary Club of Chicago, Illinois, USA, on 23 February 1905. The club was started by a young lawyer, Paul P. Harris, and three of his friends. He wished to recapture the friendly spirit he had felt among business people in the small town where he had grown up. Their weekly meetings "rotated" among their offices, providing the new service club with its name.
The 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:
- The development of acquaintance as an opportunity for service within our club and our communities; (Club Service)
- Promotion of high ethical standards in business and professions; the recognition of the worthiness of all useful occupations; the dignifying of each Rotarian's occupation as an opportunity to serve society; and the exposure of Youth to community programs and support; (Youth & Vocational Service)
- The application of the ideal of Service in each Rotarian's personal, business and community life; (Community Service)
- The advancement of international understanding, goodwill and peace through a world fellowship of business and professional people united in the ideal of Service. (World Community Service) RI Mission Statement
The mission of Rotary International is to support its member clubs in fulfilling the Objective of Rotary by:
- Fostering unity among member clubs
- Strengthening and expanding Rotary Clubs through out the world
- Communicating the work of Rotary worldwide
- Providing a system of international administration.
- 4-Way Test
From the earliest days of the organization, Rotarians were concerned with promoting high ethical standards in their professional lives. One of the world's most widely printed and quoted statements of business ethics is the 4-Way Test, which was created in 1932 by Rotarian Herbert J. Taylor (who later served as RI president). This 24-word code of ethics was adopted by Rotary in 1943 and has been translated into more than a hundred languages and published in thousands of ways. It asks the following four questions:
Of the things we think, say or do:
- Is it the TRUTH?
- Is it FAIR to all concerned?
- Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
- Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
Avenues of Service
Your involvement on committees, or Avenues of Service will always be appreciated, and is, in fact, mandatory. We have four large and committed committees:
Club Service
Attends to the day to day administrations of the well being of our members and club.
Community Service
Plans and implements projects that affect our local community, as selected by either the club or the committee.
World Community Service
Plans and implements projects that affect our international community, as selected by either the club or the committee.
Youth and Vocational
A committee dedicated to promoting vocational service within our club and projects involving our Youth.
Each chair has an elected sub-chair, who moves to Chair position the following year. Each chair is responsible for setting all activities for their committee as early as possible in the year and for submitting a budget to the Executive before July 1.
We have several sub-committees with which you may become acquainted when you become a member. And once again, if you're not getting anything out of it, are you putting anything into it?