Invocation
We the Rotarians are dedicated to the idea of service to maintain a high ethical standard in our business and profession and to dignity our vocation by enhancing international understanding goodwill and peace through people united in the ideal of service.
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 place in the world.
- ROTARY is the world’s first service club. The first Rotary club was founded in Chicago, Illinois, USA on 23 February 1905. The members chose the name Rotary because they rotated club meetings to each member’s office each week.
- The Rotary motto is “Service Above Self” – Rotary concerns itself with truth, fairness, improved relations between people and world peace. The avenues of Rotary service include community and international volunteerism through club activity and the promotion of ethics in all vocations.
- Rotary has a global network of 1.2 million members in more than 29,000 clubs in 160 countries.
- Rotary members meet weekly to plan service activities. Rotary clubs are autonomous and determine their own service projects based on local needs and the interests and abilities of members.
- Rotary clubs are nonreligious, nongovernmental and open to every race, culture and creed. Club membership represents a cross-section of local business and professional leaders.
- In 1985, Rotary launched its Polio Plus program to immunize all of the world’s children against polio.
The Four – 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 Four-Way Test, which was created in 1932 by Rotarian Herbert J. Taylor(who later served as RI president) when he was asked to take charge of a company that was facing bankruptcy.
This 24-word test for employees to follow in their business and professional lives became the guide for sales, production, advertising, and all relations with dealers and customers, and the survival of the company is credited to this simple philosophy. Adopted by Rotary in 1943, The Four-Way Test 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 ?”
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:
- FIRST: The development of acquaintance as an opportunity for service; …..Club 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; ….Community Service
- THIRD: The application of the ideal of service in each Rotarian’s personal, business, and community life; ….Vocational Service
- FOURTH: The advancement of international understanding, goodwill, and peace through a world fellowship of business and professional persons united in the ideal of service; ….International Service
RI Mission Statement
The mission of Rotary International is to support its member clubs in fulfilling the Object of Rotary by:
- Fostering unity among member clubs;
- Strengthening and expanding Rotary around the world;
- Communicating worldwide the work of Rotary; and
- Providing a system of international administration.
Membership
Rotary club members are part of a diverse group of professional leaders working to address various community and international service needs. Through community service and other means, Rotary club members help promote peace and understanding throughout the world. Our members are our most important asset. They are the force that allows Rotary to carry out its many humanitarian efforts and achieve its mission.
Why Join Rotary?
Each Rotary club strives for a membership that is an up-to-date and progressive representation of its community’s business, vocational, and professional interests. Membership in Rotary offers a number of benefits, including:
- Effecting change within the community.
- Developing leadership skills.
- Gaining an understanding of – and having an impact on – international humanitarian issues.
- Developing relationships with community and business leaders.