Rotary is a worldwide organization of business and professional leaders
that provides humanitarian service, encourages high ethical standards
in all vocations, and helps build goodwill and peace in the world.
Approximately 1.2 million Rotarians belong to more than 32,000 clubs in
more than 200 countries and geographical areas.
The
world's first service club, the Rotary Club of Chicago, Illinois, USA,
was formed on 23 February 1905 by Paul P. Harris, an attorney who
wished to recapture in a professional club the same friendly spirit he
had felt in the small towns of his youth. The name "Rotary" derived
from the early practice of rotating meetings among members' offices.
Rotary's
popularity spread throughout the United States in the decade that
followed; clubs were chartered from San Francisco to New York. By 1921,
Rotary clubs had been formed on six continents, and the organization
adopted the name Rotary International a year later.
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.
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:
An association of nearly 32,000 autonomous clubs in 166 countries, Rotary
International is one of the world's largest service organizations. The goal for
a club's membership is an up-to-date and progressive representation of the community's
business, vocational, and professional interests.
Membership is vital to a Rotary club's operations and community service activities.
A primary goal of the club is to continually expand the club with committed members
who have the interest and ability to get involved in service and humanitarian
projects. Prospective members often:
hold - or be retired from - a professional, proprietary, executive,
or managerial position;
have the capacity to meet the club's weekly attendance or community project
participation requirements;
live or work within the locality of the club or the surrounding area.
But most importantly, all members must:
Be passionate about active participation in the world around, so as to better the lives of all around
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