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WHAT IS ROTARY? Rotary is short for Rotary International - worldwide association of local clubs for men and women in business or the professions who
Service above Self is Rotary's motto. Rotary was founded in 1905 and now has over a million members in more than 25,000 clubs in 172 countries and geographical regions. There are 1,800 clubs in Great Britain and Ireland with over 64,000 members. THE ROTARY CLUB AND MEMBERSHIP Each club operates independently. Membership is drawn from the business and professional community and is by invitation. To ensure the club is representative of the community, there can only be one active member from each profession or type of business. Meetings Meetings are held weekly and Rotarians have to attend at least 60% to remain in membership. Most clubs meet for lunch or dinner and some newly formed clubs meet at breakfast time. Business at meetings often includes a talk on a subject of general interest by an outside speaker. Every Rotarian has the right to attend the meeting of any other club and Rotarians invite non Rotarian guests to their own club meetings. Weekly meetings promote acquaintance and fellowship. Through this fellowship Rotarians find the inspiration to serve the community. Service to the community requires Rotarians to devote their time, energy and professional skills to particular projects. This often involves fundraising to provide charities with financial support but this is not a Rotary club's first aim. The emphasis is on personal service. Service Community Service is the traditional and well-known face of Rotary and covers help and advice to the aged, the handicapped, the infirm, young people and all those in need, either directly or through local charitable organisations. Increasingly this also includes the initiation and support of projects, which protect the environment. As jobs are key elements in determining Rotary membership, Vocational Service draws on the ethical standards, experience and expertise involved in Rotarians' jobs, and focuses them on the wider aspects of the world of work. Vocational projects support training and job development, provide mock interviews, encourage the development of skills in employment and foster the highest standards in business and the professions. Service to the community worldwide - International Service - is a programme designed to promote international goodwill. It includes the provision of emergency boxes, eye camps, vocational training schools, text books, tools, water filtration units and many other items in areas of need. It also involves Rotarians of different race, creed and custom who when brought together in fellowship can play an important part in breaking down national prejudices and developing true international understanding. THE ROTARY FOUNDATION The Rotary Foundation, Rotary's corporate charity is dedicated to the furtherance of international understanding, goodwill and peace. The fund provides grants and educational scholarships for young people for all parts of the world, but not Rotarians or their close relatives, to visit and study in other countries. The Foundation also administers the 3-H fund which seeks to alleviate the problems of the disadvantaged throughout the world under the headings of Health, Hunger and Humanity. The projects supported under this programme are usually beyond the capability of a single club or group of clubs to support. The Foundation's most ambitious project so far has been Polio Plus, a campaign to help the World Health Organisation and UNICEF immunise the world's children against polio, measles, diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus and tuberculosis. Polio Plus raised $240 million of which Rotarians in Great Britain and Ireland contributed £8 million. ROTARACT AND INTERACT Rotary International has created for young people two organisations dedicated to service and international understanding. Though closely associated with Rotary, their clubs are independent and self-governing. Interact, a combination of the words international and action, is for young people between 14 and 18. Rotaract, a contraction of Rotary in Action is for men and women between 18 and 29. These clubs serve the community as do their sponsoring Rotary clubs. Their service through fellowship covers a range of local, national and international service projects carried out with the energy and enthusiasm of youth. ROTARY INTERNATIONAL AND RIBI Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland (RIBI), with its own governing body and constitution, is a territorial unit of Rotary International, the association of Rotary clubs worldwide. It administers 32 Rotary districts in England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The Rotary ideal of fellowship and international understanding is exemplified by the fact that a single Rotary district covers the whole of Ireland. This district, with its single organisation is a working model of the Rotary spirit in action. OBJECT 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:
High ethical standards in business and professions; the recognition of the worthiness of all useful occupations; and the dignifying by each Rotarian of his occupation as a opportunity to serve society. The application of the ideal of service by every Rotarian to his personal, business and community life. 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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