This page gives a very brief description of Rotary and Rotary International, its history and purpose. The contents of this and related pages have been adapted from the Rotary International website and other sources involved in Rotary. Click on the topic of interest below to go directly to the relevant section and return to the top of the page at any time by clicking on return to ' top' at the end of each section.

What is Rotary.

Rotary is short for Rotary International and is a service organisation of business and professional leaders unified worldwide to provide humanitarian assistance to the community at local, national and international levels. Rotary provides help to those in need, encouraging high ethical standards in all vocations and works toward world understanding and peace.

In nearly 100 years, Rotary has grown from a small club of four members to a worldwide network of men and women who share a common vision for a better world. Rotary has a long history of helping those in need and uniting people of different cultures and backgrounds.

Through the work of individual Rotary Clubs and through the programs of Rotary International and The Rotary Foundation, Rotary is making the world a better place.

Brief History.

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.

As Rotary grew, its mission expanded beyond serving the professional and social interests of club members. Rotarians began pooling their resources and contributing their talents to help serve communities in need. The organization's dedication to this ideal is best expressed in its principal motto: Service Above Self. Rotary also later embraced a code of ethics, called the Four-Way Test, that has been translated into hundreds of languages.

During and after WWII, Rotarians became increasingly involved in promoting international understanding. In 1945, 49 Rotary members served in 29 delegations to the United Nations Charter Conference. Rotary still actively participates in UN conferences by sending observers to major meetings and promoting the United Nations in Rotary publications. Rotary International's relationship with the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) dates back to a 1943 London Rotary conference that promoted international cultural and educational exchanges. Attended by ministers of education and observers from around the world, and chaired by a past Rotary International president, the conference was an impetus to the establishment of UNESCO in 1946.

An endowment fund, set up by Rotarians in 1917 "for doing good in the world," became a not-for-profit corporation known as the Rotary Foundation in 1928. Upon the death of Paul Harris in 1947, an outpouring of Rotarian donations made in his honour, totalling US$2 million, launched the Foundation's first program — graduate fellowships, now called Ambassadorial Scholarships. Today, contributions to The Rotary Foundation total more than US$80 million annually and support a wide range of humanitarian grants and educational programs that enable Rotarians to bring hope and promote international understanding throughout the world.

Since the 1920s, Rotary International has developed a number of programs designed to extend the reach of Rotary service and offer young people an opportunity to serve and promote international goodwill. Rotary youth exchanges began taking place informally in 1929 and became an official RI program in 1974. Since then, 7,000 high school students from around the world have travelled abroad each year under the auspices of the Youth Exchange program, staying with Rotarian volunteer host families. Exchanges can occur between any two countries in which Rotary clubs are active.

In the 1960s, Rotary launched two programs designed to help young people become more service-oriented. Interact began in 1962 as an international organization of service and social clubs for high school students that promotes international understanding and peace. Founded in 1968, Rotaract is a Rotary-club-sponsored service and leadership organization for men and women ages 18 to 30 that emphasizes the importance of individual responsibility as the basis for personal success and community involvement. In 1971, Rotary International established the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards program, which sponsors camps and seminars to help promising young leaders between the ages of 18 and 30 further develop their leadership skills.

In 1985, Rotary made a historic commitment to immunize all of the world's children against polio. Working in partnership with nongovernmental organizations and national governments thorough its PolioPlus program, Rotary is the largest private-sector contributor to the global polio eradication campaign. Rotarians have mobilized hundreds of thousands of PolioPlus volunteers and have immunized more than one billion children worldwide. By the 2005 target date for certification of a polio-free world, Rotary will have contributed half a billion dollars to the cause.

As the 21st century approached, Rotary worked to meet the changing needs of society, expanding its service effort to address such pressing issues as environmental degradation, illiteracy, world hunger, and children at risk.

Rotary admitted women for the first time (worldwide) in 1989 and claims some 90,000 women in its ranks today. Following the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Rotary clubs were formed or re-established throughout Central and Eastern Europe. Today, 1.2 million Rotarians belong to some 31,000 Rotary clubs in 166 countries (@Mar 2004).

Rotary Milestones.

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 the following:

• FIRST: The development of acquaintances 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 by each Rotarian of their occupation as an opportunity to serve society.

• THIRD: The application of the ideal of service by every Rotarian to their personal, business and community life.

• FOURTH: The advancement of International understanding, goodwill and peace though a world fellowship of business and professional people united in the ideal of service.

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 4-Way Test, which was created in 1932 by Rotarian Herbert J. Taylor (who later served as Rotary International's 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 4-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:

1. Is it the TRUTH ?

2. Is it FAIR to all concerned ?

3. Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS ?

4. Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned ?

2004-05 RI Calendar.

Below is this years Rotary International Calendar which indicates the monthly themes along with relevant supporting events.