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Page Contents
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Click on Button
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 What is
Rotary?
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The Object
of Rotary
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Avenues
of Service
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The 4-Way
Test
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Rotary
Foundation
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What is Rotary?
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. In more than 160 countries worldwide, approximately 1.2 million Rotarians
belong to more than 30,000 Rotary clubs.
 Rotary club membership
represents a cross-section of the community's business and professional men and women. The world's Rotary clubs
meet weekly and are nonpolitical, nonreligious, and open to all cultures, races, and creeds. The main objective
of Rotary is service — in the community, in the workplace, and throughout the world. Rotarians develop community
service projects that address many of today's most critical issues, such as children at risk, poverty and hunger,
the environment, illiteracy, and violence. They also support programs for youth, educational opportunities and
international exchanges for students, teachers, and other professionals, and vocational and career development.
The Rotary motto is Service Above Self.
A Brief History
Rotary's first day and the years that followed...
February 23, 1905. The first airplanes had yet to stay aloft more than a few
minutes. The first motion picture theater had not yet opened. Norway and Sweden were peacefully terminating their
union. On this particular day, a Chicago lawyer, Paul P. Harris, called three friends to a meeting. What he had
in mind was a club that would kindle fellowship among members of the business community. It was an idea that grew
from his desire to find within the large city the kind of friendly spirit that he knew in the villages where he
had grown up.
 The four businessmen didn't decide then and there to call
themselves a Rotary club, but their get-together was, in fact, the first meeting of the world's first Rotary club.
As they continued to meet, adding others to the group, they rotated their meetings among the members' places of
business, hence the name.
Pictured, left to right, are Rotary founders Silvester Schiele, Paul P. Harris,
Hiram E. Shorey and Gustavus H. Loehr.
Soon after the club name was agreed upon, one of the new members suggested a
wagon wheel design as the club emblem. It was the precursor of the familiar cogwheel emblem now worn by Rotarians
around the world.
By the end of 1905, the club had 30 members. The second Rotary club was formed
in 1908 half a continent away in San Francisco. It was a short leap across San Francisco Bay to Oakland, where
the third club was formed.
Other clubs followed in Seattle, Los Angeles, and New York City. Rotary became
international in 1910 when a Canadian club was formed in Winnipeg, Manitoba. By 1921 the organization was represented
on every continent, and the name Rotary International was adopted in 1922.
Programs
Under the
auspices of Rotary International and The Rotary Foundation, Rotarians around the world participate in and administer
a broad range of humanitarian and educational programs and activities designed to improve the human condition and
advance the organization's ultimate goal of world understanding and peace.
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.
Second: High ethical standards in
business and profession; the recognition of the worthiness of all useful occupations; and the dignifying by each
Rotarian of his occupation as an opportunity to serve society.
Third: The application of the ideal
of service by every Rotarian to his 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.
Avenues of Service
Since 1927, the program of Rotary has been carried out on four Avenues of Service
(originally called channels). These avenues - club service, vocational
service, community service and international
service - closely mirror the four parts of the Object of Rotary:
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 Club Service includes the scope of activities
that Rotarians undertake in support of their club, such as serving on committees, proposing individuals for membership,
and meeting attendance requirements.
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 Vocational Service
focuses on the opportunity that Rotarians have to represent the their professions as well as their efforts to promote
vocational awareness and high ethical standards in business. For decades, Rotarians having been applying the "4-Way
Test" to their business and personal relationships and in recent years, a "Declaration of Rotarians in
Businesses and Professions" has given expression to their concerm for ethical standards in the workplace.
From offering career guidance in high schools, to seeking ways to improve conditions in the workplace, Rotarians
and their clubs engage in many different kinds of vocational service.
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 Community Service includes the scope of
activities which Rotarians undertake to improve the quality of life in their community. Many official Rotary programs
are intended to meet community needs, whether it be to promote literacy, help the elderly or disabled, combat urban
violence or provide opportunities for local youth.
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 International Service
describes the activities which Rotarians undertake to advance international understanding, goodwill and peace.
The spread of Rotary clubs across the globe allows for the concerted Rotary support of humanitarian efforts worldwide.
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The 4-Way Test
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One of the most widely printed and quoted statements of business ethics in the
world is the Rotary 4-Way Test. It was created by Rotarian Herbert J. Taylor in 1932 when he was asked to take
charge of a company that was facing bankruptcy. Taylor looked for a way to save the struggling company mired in
depression-caused financial difficulties. He drew up a 24-word code of ethics for all employees to follow in their
business and professional lives. The 4-Way Test 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.
Herb Taylor became president of Rotary International in 1954-55. The 4-Way Test
was adopted by Rotary in 1943 and has been translated into more than a hundred languages.
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The Rotary Foundation
 The Rotary Foundation is a not-for-profit corporation that
supports the efforts of Rotary International to achieve world understanding and peace through international humanitarian,
educational, and cultural exchange programs. The Foundation's Humanitarian Programs fund international Rotary club
and district projects to improve the quality of life, providing health care, clean water, food, education, and
other essential needs primarily in the developing world. The Rotary Foundation is supported solely by voluntary
contributions from Rotarians and friends of the Foundation who share its vision of a better world.
In 1985, Rotary launched the PolioPlus program to protect children worldwide
from the cruel and fatal consequences of polio. In 1988, the World Health Assembly challenged the world to eradicate
polio. Since that time, Rotary's efforts and those of partner agencies, including the World Health Organization,
the United Nations Children's Fund, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and governments
around the world, have achieved a 99 percent reduction in the number of polio cases worldwide. Rotarians stand
at the brink of a great victory and look forward to celebrating the global eradication of polio in 2005, Rotary's
centennial year.
Through its Educational Programs the Foundation provides funding for some 1200 students to study abroad each year.
Grants are also awarded to university teachers to teach in developing countries and for exchanges of business and
professional people. Former participants in the Foundation's programs have the opportunity to continue their affiliation
with Rotary as Foundation Alumni.
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