The Rotary Movement
Rotary is a worldwide organization, over 100 years old, of business and professional leaders who provide
- humanitarian service,
- encourage high ethical standards in all vocations,
- and help build goodwill and peace in the world.
Approximately 1.2 million Rotarians belong to more than 33,000 Rotary clubs located in 200 countries.
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 feeling the loneliness of the big city wished to recapture somehow the same friendly spirit he had felt in the small towns of his youth. So, Paul invited three others to join him for social interaction:
Gustave E. Loehr, a mines engineer
Silvester Schiele, a coal merchant, and
Hiram E. Shorey, a tailor
Courtesy of Rotary Images
As they rotated from one office to another for their get togethers, they called their group, Rotary, and themselves, Rotarians.
By the end of 1905, the Club had 30 members. The second Club was formed in 1908 in San Francisco followed by the third in Oakland. Rotary came to Canada in 1910 when the first Canadian Rotary Club was established in Winnipeg. By 1921, Rotary Clubs were found on every continent, and in 1922, the Rotary movement became known as Rotary International. By 1925, ten years after its birth, Rotary had grown to 200 clubs with more than 20,000 members.
As Rotary grew, its members felt they wanted to do more than just meet for social reasons and, thus, the Rotary 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:
A secondary motto says that "They profit most who serve best" although, initially, it had read "He profits most who serves best". The change from "he" to "they" took place in 2004, 99 years after Rotary's beginning. This illustrated the move to general acceptance of women members in Rotary which actually occurred in 1987 when the Supreme Court of the United States brought down its landmark decision to confirm that of the California courts – that women must be admitted as members to Rotary.
Rotary also embraced a code of ethics, called The 4-Way Test, that has been translated into hundreds of languages. Rotarians are encouraged to adopt this Test in their everyday life at home, at work, and at play.
Rotary Clubs are nonpolitical, nonreligious, and open to all cultures, races, and creeds. As signified by the motto Service Above Self, Rotary's main objective is service – in the community, in the workplace, and throughout the world.