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Rotary International

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Rotary International is an organization whose members comprise Rotary Clubs (service clubs) located all over the world (about 30 000 clubs in more than 160 countries). The members of Rotary Clubs are known as Rotarians and are business and professional leaders who provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help build goodwill and peace in the world.

Their most known motto is "Service above Self."
The other motto is "They profit most who serve best".


The world's first service club, the first Rotary Club was founded in 1905 in Chicago by attorney Paul P. Harris and three other businessmen. The National Association of Rotary Clubs was formed in 1910. The name was changed to Rotary International in 1922 because branches had been formed in many other countries. It has by now spread to 167 countries and now has more than 1.2 million members in over 32,000 clubs. The name Rotary was chosen since meetings were originally rotated to different locales of members of the organization. Members of a specific club meet weekly for breakfast, lunch or dinner, which is a social event as well as a time to organize work on their service goals.

Membership

According to its constitutions ("Charters"), Rotary defines itself as a non-partisan, non-sectarian organization. Its membership tends towards the middle-aged and wealthy, although it is open to business and professional leaders of all ages and wealth is not a membership criterion.

Innerwheel
Innerwheel
Rotaract
Rotaract
Interact
Interact

After years of debate, women were admitted in 1989, and now make up a little under 12% of the membership. Previously, women were able to join a linked organization for the wives and daughters of Rotarians, the Inner Wheel. Many Inner Wheel groups still exist.

Other Rotary sponsored organizations include: Rotaract - a service club for young men and women ages 18 to 30 with around 185,000 members in 8,000 clubs in 155 countries; Interact - a service club consisting of more than 239,000 young people ages 14-18 with over 10,400 clubs in 108 countries; and Rotary Community Corps (RCC) - a volunteer organization with an estimated 103,000 non-Rotarian men and women in over 4,400 communities in 68 countries.

Active Membership is by invitation from a current Rotarian, to professionals working in diverse areas of endeavour. Each club can have up to ten per cent of its membership representing each business or profession in the area it serves. The goal of the clubs is to promote service to the community they work in, as well as to the wider world. Many projects are organized for the local community by a single club, but some are organized globally.

Honorary membership is given by election of a Rotary Club to people who have distinguished themselves by meritorious service in the furtherance of Rotary ideals. Honorary membership is conferred only in exceptional cases. Honorary members are exempt from the payment of admission fees and dues. They have no voting privileges and are not eligible to hold any office in their club. Honorary membership is time limited and terminates automatically at the end of the term, usually one year. It may be extended for an additional period or may also be revoked at any time.

Rotary programs

Polio-Plus

Polio-Plus
Polio-Plus

The most notable current global project, Polio-Plus, is contributing to the global eradication of polio. Since beginning the project in 1985 Rotarians have contributed over US$500 million and tens of thousands of volunteer man-hours, leading to the inoculation of more than one billion of the world's children. Inspired by Rotary's commitment, the World Health Organization (WHO) passed a resolution in 1988 to eradicate polio by 2000. Now in partnership with WHO, UNICEF and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Rotary is recognized by the United Nations as the key private partner in the eradication effort.

Exchanges and Scholarships

File:RotaryYouthExchangeLogo.jpg

Other of Rotary's most visible programs include Rotary Youth Exchange, a student exchange program for students in secondary education, and Rotary's oldest program, Ambassadorial Scholarships. Today, there are six different types of Rotary Scholarships. More than 30,000 men and women from 100 nations have studied abroad under the auspices of Ambassadorial Scholarship, and today it is the world's largest privately funded international scholarships program. In 2002-2003 grants totaling approximately US$26 million were used to award some 1,200 scholarships to recipients from 69 countries who studied in 64 nations.

Rotary Centers for International Studies

Starting in 2002, The Rotary Foundation partnered with eight universities around the world to create the Rotary Centers for International Studies in peace and conflict resolution. The universities include International Christian University (Japan), University of Queensland (Australia), Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po) (France), University of Bradford (United Kingdom), University del Salvador (Argentina), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (USA), Duke University (USA), and University of California, Berkeley (USA). Rotary World Peace Fellows complete two year masters level programs in conflict resolution, peace studies, and international relations. The first class graduated in 2004 . In 2004, Fellows established the Rotary World Peace Fellows Association to promote interaction among Fellows, Rotarians, and the public on issues related to peace studies.

Critics and Trivia

Rotary celebrated its centennial anniversary on February 23, 2005.

Criticisms against social and political characteristics

The role of Rotarians in the power structure of the United States has been noted (C. Wright Mills, The Power Elite , p. 37, p. 440). In the Third-World (Africa, Asia, and Latin America). Some opponents criticize Rotary for only supporting conservative politicians, including conservative members of the Democratic Party (Dianne Feinstein), politicians linked to the weapons lobby (Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, Augusto Pinochet), or linked to the ideas of tax suppression (US Senator John Ensign). These criticisms are based on the support given to General Pinochet, Tom DeLay, Dianne Feinstein and to George W. Bush via their program of "honorary membership".

Criticisms against Polio-Plus

There has been some limited criticism concerning the Rotary International program for polio eradication, which is supported with the World Health Organization. Medical research, has some reservations regarding the adaptation capabilities of the virus and reservations about some of the oral vaccines, which seem to be causing infection resurgences. As stated by Vaccine Alliance, however, in spite of the limited risk of polio vaccination, it will not be either prudent or practicable to cease the vaccination program until there is strong evidence the "All wild poliovirus transmission stopped"

sources:

Famous Rotarians

Rotary Club banners.

Honorary members

Active members

See Rotary history for more. For an extensive list of famous Rotary Club members, see Category:Rotary Club members

Notes

  1. Modified by the 2004 "RI Council on Legislation", from the original "He profits most who serves the best" - see Rotary International manual, Part 5 (Rotary Marks), online at accessed 2 June 2006

External links

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