North Harlingen Rotary Information Handout
What is Rotary?
1. 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.
2. The main objective of Rotary is service. The men and women of Rotary are business and professional leaders who volunteer their time and resources to help others in their communities and throughout the world.
3. Rotary clubs carry out a variety of service projects that address critical issues including poverty, hunger, illiteracy, substance abuse, and pollution. They also support programs for youth, educational opportunities and international exchanges for students, teachers, and other professionals, and vocational and career development.
4. Rotary promotes cultural understanding throughout the world. Rotary’s exchange programs foster the free flow of ideas and opportunities across national borders.
5. Some 7,000 secondary-school students participate annually in short- or long-term Rotary Youth Exchanges.
6. The Rotary Foundation’s Ambassadorial Scholarships program is the world’s largest privately funded international scholarships program. More than 30,000 students from 100 countries have studied abroad as Rotary scholars.
7. The Group Study Exchange program pairs Rotary districts in different countries to send and receive non-Rotary study groups comprised of young professionals.
8. Rotary membership is service-driven. Belonging to a Rotary club gives men and women an organized outlet for contributing to their community. The avenues of Rotary service include community and international volunteerism through club activity and the promotion of ethics in all vocations.
9. Founded in 1905, Rotary is the world’s first service organization.
10. The Rotary motto is “Service Above Self”.
11. Rotary embraces a code of ethics called the 4-Way Test.
12. Rotary concerns itself with truth, fairness, improved relations between people and world peace.
13. Rotary has a global network of 1.3 million members in more than 30,000 clubs in 160 countries.
14. Rotary clubs are autonomous and determine their own service projects based on local needs and the interests and abilities of members.
15. Rotary club membership represents a cross-section of the community's business and professional men and women. They meet weekly and are nonpolitical, nonreligious, and open to all cultures, races, and creeds.
Rotary History
The first service club, the Rotary Club of Chicago, Illinois, was formed on February 23, 1905 by Paul P. Harris.
On the evening of 23 February 1905, Harris invited three business associates to a meeting. They discussed Harris' idea that business leaders should meet periodically to enjoy camaraderie and to enlarge their circle of business and professional acquaintances. The club met weekly; membership was limited to one representative from each business and profession. Though the men didn't use the term Rotary that night, that gathering is commonly regarded as the first Rotary club meeting.
As they continued to convene, members began rotating their meetings among their places of business, hence the name Rotary. By the end of 1905, the club's roster showed a membership of 30.
These early "Rotarians" realized that fellowship and mutual self-interest were not enough to keep a club of busy professionals meeting each week. The Rotary commitment to service began in 1907 when the Rotary Club of Chicago constructed that city's first public lavatory. With this inaugural project, Rotary became the world's first service-club organization.
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.
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. It is supported solely by voluntary contributions from Rotarians and others who share its vision of a better world. Since 1947, the Foundation has awarded more than $1.1 billion in humanitarian and educational grants to bring hope and promote international understanding throughout the world.
As it approached the 21st century, Rotary expanded its service effort to address such pressing issues as environmental degradation, illiteracy, world hunger, and children at risk. The organization admitted women for the first time (worldwide) in 1989 and claims more than 90,000 women in its ranks today. Today, 1.2 million Rotarians belong to some 30,000 Rotary clubs in more than 160 countries.
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 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.
The 4-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 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 4-Way Test has been translated into more than a hundred languages. 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?"
Declaration of Rotarians in Businesses and Professions
The Declaration of Rotarians in Businesses and Professions was adopted by the Rotary International Council on Legislation in 1989 to provide more specific guidelines for the high ethical standards called for in the Object of Rotary:
As a Rotarian engaged in a business or profession, I am expected to:
? Consider my vocation to be another opportunity to serve;
? Be faithful to the letter and to the spirit of the ethical codes of my vocation, to the laws of my country, and to the moral standards of my community;
? Do all in my power to dignify my vocation and to promote the highest ethical standards in my chosen vocation;
? Be fair to my employer, employees, associates, competitors, customers, the public, and all those with whom I have a business or professional relationship;
? Recognize the honor and respect due to all occupations which are useful to society;
? Offer my vocational talents: to provide opportunities for young people, to work for the relief of the special needs of others, and to improve the quality of life in my community;
? Adhere to honesty in my advertising and in all representations to the public concerning my business or profession;
? Neither seek from nor grant to a fellow Rotarian a privilege or advantage not normally accorded others in a business or professional relationship.
Why Join Your Local Rotary Club?
1. Professional Networking: A founding principle of Rotary was to provide a forum for professional and business leaders.
2. The Opportunity to Serve: Rotarians provide service at both the community and international levels and in doing so, experience the fulfillment that comes from giving back to the community.
3. Personal Growth and Development: Membership in Rotary ensures continuing personal and professional development.
4. Friendship: Rotary helps to build community as well as enduring friendships.
5. Cultural Diversity: Clubs are open to members of every ethnic group, political persuasion, language, and religious belief. Rotary clubs contain a cross-section of the world's leaders. They practice and promote tolerance.
6. Good Citizenship: Weekly Rotary club programs keep members informed about what is taking place in the community, nation, and world. Rotary's expansive network of clubs and programs provides extensive opportunities for service and interchange.
7. World Understanding: Rotary members gain an understanding of humanitarian issues and have a significant impact on them through international service projects and exchange programs.
8. Entertainment: Every Rotary club and district hosts parties and activities that offer diversion from one’s personal and business life.
9. Family Foundations: Rotary sponsors some of the world’s largest youth exchange and educational exchange and scholarship programs.
10. Ethical Environment: Rotarians practice a 4-Way Test that measures words and actions by their truthfulness, fairness, goodwill, and benefit to all. Encouraging high ethical standards in one's profession and respect for all worthy vocations has been a hallmark of Rotary from its earliest days.
Rotary Club Membership
An important distinction between Rotary and other organizations is that membership in Rotary is by invitation. Rotary clubs invite individuals to join and become members.
Prospective members must:
? Be an adult person of good character and good business and professional reputation, engaged as a proprietor, partner, corporate officer, or manager of any worthy and recognized business or profession.
? 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.
Classifications: Professional Representation
Rotary uses a classification system to establish and maintain a cross-section of the community's business, vocational, and professional interests among members and to develop a pool of resources and expertise to successfully implement service projects.
A classification describes either the principal business or professional service of the organization that the Rotarian works for or the Rotarian's own activity within the organization. Some examples of classifications include: high schools, universities, eye surgery, banking, pharmaceutical-retailing, petroleum-distribution, and insurance agency.
Responsibilities of Membership
? Members are expected to attend weekly programs of the club. Opportunities to make up attendance include attending the regular meeting of another Rotary club or attending a club service project. North Harlingen Rotary meets every Tuesday from noon till 1 p.m. at the Harlingen Country Club. Rotarians have two weeks before and after a missed meeting to make-up.
? Members are required to pay annual dues to their clubs, their districts, and to Rotary International.
? Members are expected to participate in local or international activities or projects of their Rotary club.
? To promote Rotary’s ideals of developing acquaintances and promoting fellowship among its members, Rotarians are encouraged to not get into the habit of eating at the same table at weekly meeting.
? Members are encourages Clubs encourage members to aspire to leadership or committee roles within their clubs.
PolioPlus
In 1985, Rotary launched the PolioPlus program to protect children worldwide from 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, the organization's centennial year.
Paul Harris Fellow
Anyone who contributes - or in whose name is contributed a gift of $1,000 or more to the Annual Programs Fund may become a Paul Harris Fellow. Each new Paul Harris Fellow receives a commemorative certificate, a Paul Harris Fellow pin, and a medallion. Donors are eligible for Paul Harris Fellow recognition when their cumulative giving reaches $1,000.
· Initiation fee: $50
· Rotary International, District and Club dues: $250, per annum, payable semiannually on the first day of July and January with the understanding that six dollars of each semiannual payment shall be applied to each member’s subscription to THE ROTARIAN magazine.
· Weekly meeting meals of $11 for full buffet at the Courtyard by Marriott, 1725 W. Filmore.
Rotary International 2010-2011 Theme: BUILDING COMMUNITIES BRIDGING CONTINENTS
Rotary International 2009-2010 Theme: THE FUTURE OF ROTARY IS YOUR HANDS
Rotary International 2008-2009 Theme: MAKE DREAMS REAL
Rotary International 2007-2008 Theme: ROTARY SHARES
Rotary International 2006-2007 Theme: LEAD THE WAY
Rotary International 2005-2006 Theme: SERVICE ABOVE SELF
Rotary International 2004-2005 Theme: CELEBRATE ROTARY