What is Rotary?
Rotary is a service association of business and professional leaders united worldwide who conduct humanitarian projects, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations and work toward world understanding and peace
What is a Rotary Club?
The original Rotary Club was organized in Chicago by Paul P. Harris, a lawyer. Rotary is the oldest service club and the first meeting was held on February 23, 1905.
The name "Rotary" was chosen because the club then met in rotation at each member's place of business.
From the beginning, the Rotary idea of friendship, fellowship, and service to others has spread to 160 countries all in six continents with more than 29,000 clubs and over 1.2 million members. Still, only one person in every five thousand is a member of a Rotary Club.
THE FOUR-WAY TEST(of the things we think, say or do)
1. Is it the TRUTH?
2. Is it FAIR?
3. Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
4. Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
A brief history
Rotary's first day and the years that followed...February 23, 1905. The airplane had yet to stay aloft more than a few minutes. The first motion picture theater had not yet opened. Norway and Sweden were peacefully terminating their union. On this particular day, a Chicago lawyer, Paul P. Harris, called three friends to a meeting. What he had in mind was a club that would kindle fellowship among members of the business community. It was an idea that grew from his desire to find within the large city the kind of friendly spirit that he knew in the villages where he had grown up.
The four businessmen didn't decide then and there to call themselves a Rotary club, but their get-together was, in fact, the first meeting of the world's first Rotary club. As they continued to meet, adding others to the group, they rotated their meetings among the members' places of business, hence the name. Soon after the club name was agreed upon, one of the new members suggested a wagon wheel design as the club emblem. It was the precursor of the familiar cogwheel emblem now worn by Rotarians around the world. By the end of 1905, the club had 30 members.
The second Rotary club was formed in 1908 half a continent away from Chicago in San Francisco, California. It was a much shorter leap across San Francisco Bay to Oakland, California, where the third club was formed. Others followed in Seattle, Washington, Los Angeles, California, and New York City, New York. Rotary became international in 1910 when a club was formed in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. By 1921 the organization was represented on every continent, and the name Rotary International was adopted in 1922.
The Rotary Foundation
The Rotary Foundation is a not-for-profit corporation that supports the efforts of Rotary International to achieve world understanding and peace through international humanitarian, educational, and cultural exchange programs.
The Foundation's Humanitarian Programs fund international Rotary club and district projects to improve the quality of life, providing health care, clean water, food, education, and other essential needs primarily in the developing world. One of the major humanitarian programs is PolioPlus, which seeks to eradicate the polio virus worldwide by the year 2000. Through its Educational Programs the Foundation provides funding for some 1200 students to study abroad each year. Grants are also awarded to university teachers to teach in developing countries and for exchanges of business and professional people. Former participants in the Foundation's programs have the opportunity to continue their affiliation with Rotary as Foundation Alumni.
The Rotary Foundation is supported solely by voluntary contributions from Rotarians and friends of the Foundation who share its vision of a better world. Included in this section is information pertaining to the history of The Rotary Foundation, its financial support, its Alumni programs, training and resources, and the SHARE system.
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