This is Rotary!

Rotary International is the association of Rotary clubs throughout the world. 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.
The membership of RI consists of member Roatry clubs which continue to perform the obligations imposed by the constitutional documents. Rotarians are members of their respective clubs. The Rotary clubs are members of Rotary International.
The purposes of RI are:

1. to encourage, promote, extend and supervise Rotary throughout the world;
   
2. to coordinate and generally direct the activities of RI.
   
   

Service Above Self


Classifications


Declaration of Rotarians in Businesses and Professions


Friendship/Inclusiveness


Avenues of Service


Object of Rotary


4-Way Test


Rotary Months/Anniversaries

Service Above Self

Early in its history, the members of the first Rotary club realized that fellowship and mutual self-interest were not enough to keep a group of busy professionals meeting each week. Undertaking efforts to improve the lives of others proved an even more powerful motivation. In 1907 the club adopted a practical community service project -- the installation of a public comfort station near the city hall in downtown Chicago. Three years after the organization of the Chicago club, a second club was formed in San Francisco, California, and three more clubs were founded the following year. By 1910, there were 16 clubs in the United States, and the first convention was held in Chicago where the clubs organized themselves to form the National Association of Rotary Clubs. At the convention, a member of the Chicago club proposed a motto for the new organization, recognized its commitment to the idea of service: "He profits Most Who Serves His Fellows Best." The following year, another early leader spoke of the importance of serving others and promoted the idea that a club should be organized on the principle of "Service, Not Self." The two sayings, modified to "He Profits Most Who Serves Best" and "Service Above Self," were quickly embraced by all Rotarians and were officially designated as Rotary mottoes at the 1950 convention in Detroit, Michigan. In 1989, the Rotary International Council on Legislation established "Service Above Self" as the organization's principal motto.

Classifications

Membership in a Rotary club is by invitation and was based on the founders' paradigm of choosing one representative of each business, profession and institution in the community. What is called the "classification principle" is used to ensure that the members of a club comprise a cross section of their community's business and professional life. A Rotarian's classification describes either the principal business or professional service of the organization that he or she works for or the individual Rotarian's own activity within the organization. The classification is determined by activities or services to society rather than by the position held by the particular individual. In other words, if a person is president of a bank, he or she is not classified as "bank president" but under the classification "banking.".. The classification principle fosters a fellowship for service based on diversity of interest, and seeks to prevent the predominance in the club of any one group. When a person becomes an active member of a Rotary clubs, it is said that a the member has been "loaned" a classification. He or she may propose one additional active member in that classification. On completing five, ten of fifteen years of service, depending on the individual's age, he or she becomes a "senior active" member and their classification is released to enable another person to join the club.

Declaration of Rotarians in Businesses and Professions

The 1989 Council on Legislation adopted the following declaration for Rotarians in businesses and professions: As a Rotarian engaged in a business or profession, I am expected to:

1. Consider my vocation to be another opportunity to serve;
2. Be faithful to the letter and to the spirit of the ethical codes of my vocation, to the laws of my country, and to the moral standards of my community;
3. Do all in my power to dignify my vocation and to promote the highest ethical standards in my chosen vocation;
4. Be fair to my employer, employees, associates, competitors, customers, the public and all those with whom I have a business or professional relationship;
5. Recognize the honor and respect due to all occupations which are useful to society;
6. Offer my vocational talents: to provide opportunities for young people, to work for the relief of the special needs of others, and to improve the quality of life in my community;
7. Adhere to honesty in my advertising and in all representations to the public concerning my business or profession;
8. Neither seek from nor grant to a fellow Rotarian a privilege or advantage not normally accorded others in a business or professional relationship.

Friendship/Inclusiveness

Rotary began with Founder Paul Harris's desire to find in a large city of Chicago the kind of friendly spirit and helpfulness that had known in the small towns where he had spent his early years. The formation of the first Rotary club satisfied that need and it was perpetuated as the Rotary movement spread from Chicago to other cities and then became a principle of the association that linked the early clubs together. The spirit of friendship and service evolved into a focus on helping to build goodwill and peace in the world. In a later year, Paul Harris said: "Rotarians respect each other's opinions and are tolerant and friendly at all times. Catholics, Protestants, Moslems, Jews, and Buddhists break bread together in Rotary." A statement adopted by Rotary International in 1933 recognized that activities and customs that are legal and accepted in some countries may seem strange and contrary to the accepted standards in other countries. It urged tolerance of such differences in these words: "Rotarians in all countries should recognize these facts(differences), and there should be a thoughtful avoidance of criticism of the laws and customs of one country by the Rotarians of another country." The policy also cautioned against "any effort on the part of Rotarians of one country to interfere with the laws or customs of another country." The statement is still considered good guidance for Rotarians as they strive to strengthen the bonds of understanding, goodwill and friendship around the world.

Avenues of Service

The term "Four Avenues of Service" is frequently used in Rotary literature and information. The "Avenues" refer 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, the concept has been accepted as a means to describe the primary areas of Rotary activity.

• "Club Service" involves all of the activities necessary for Rotarians to perform to make their club function successfully.
• "Vocational Service" is a description of the opportunity each Rotarian has to represent the dignity and utility of one's vocation to the other members of the club.
• "Community Service" pertains to those activities which Rotarians undertake to improve the quality of life in their community. It frequently involves assiatance to youth, the aged, handicapped and others who look to Rotary as a source of hope for a better life.
• The Fourth Avenue, "International Service," describes the many programs and activities which 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.

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.

4-Way Test