Rotary is short for Rotary International a world-wide association of local clubs for men and woman in business or in professions who:

  • Provide humanitarian service to the community
  • Encourage high ethical standards in all vocations
  • Work for goodwill and peace in the world

Rotary was founded in 1905 and now has approximately 1.26 million members in more than 29000 clubs in 162 countries

.Motto    -   Service above Self

Membership   There are 1800 clubs in Great Britain and Ireland with over 61000 members.
Each club operates independently from each other within a common constitution. Membership, drawn from the business and professional community, is by invitation. To ensure the clubs represent the community there are limitations on membership from each type of business or profession.

Meetings   are held weekly and Rotarians must attend at least 60% to remain as members. Clubs meet either for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Business often includes  talks by a guest speakers on a variety of topics.
Each Rotarian has the right to attend the meeting of any other club and Rotarians may invite non-Rotarian guests to their own club meetings.
Service to the community requires Rotarians to devote time, energy and their professional skills to particular projects. Although funds are often raised for charity this is not Rotary's first aim. The emphasis is on personal service.

Rotary   is built on four cornerstones - Club Service, Community Service, Vocational and International.

Club Service   carries out the first Object of Rotary - "the development of acquaintance as an opportunity for service". As a service committee it organises and controls the smooth functioning of the Club's affairs and administration. It also carries the responsibility to ensure a full and participative house and social programme.

Community Service  is often the most active avenues of service and the traditional  and well worn face of Rotary. It covers help and advice to the aged, the handicapped, the infirm, young people and all those in need, either directly or through local charitable organisations. Environmental projects are also part of community service.


Vocational   Projects support training and job development, providing mock interviews, encouraging the development of skills in employment and fostering high standards in business and the professions.

International    is the fourth cornerstone of the Object of Rotary and promotes the advancement of International understanding, goodwill and peace through a world fellowship of business and professional people united in the ideal of service.


The Object of Rotary is to encourage the ideal of service as a basis of worthy enterprise, and in particular, to encourage and foster

  • The development of acquaintance as an opportunity for service.
  • 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.
  • The application of the ideal of service in each Rotarian's personal, business and community life.
  • The advancement of international understanding, goodwill and professional persons united in the ideal of service.

Rotary Foundation    Rotary's corporate charity, is dedicated to furthering international understanding, goodwill and peace. The Foundation administers many programmes to aid the needy and the deserving. One of these projects is the 3-H fund which tries to alleviate problems throughout the world under the headings Health, Hunger and Humanity.
The Foundations most ambitious project, so far, has been PolioPlus a campaign to help the WHO and UNICEF immunise the world's children against polio, measles, diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus and tuberculosis.
The fund also provides grants, educational scholarships and opportunities for young people to visit and study other countries.

Probus
(for more information turn to the Probus Club page)

The purpose of the Probus Club is to provide a regular meeting point for retired professional and business men who appreciate, and value in their retirement, increased social contacts and opportunities to meet others in similiar circumstances.

Rotaract

 

is a club for men & women aged 18 - 30 who participate in a programme of social, charitable and fund raising events.

  • International with more than 6000 clubs in 116 countries
  • Over 500 clubs in Great Britain & Ireland
  • Self development and making new friends
  • Helping others in the community

 

Interact

  • is an organisation of young people from  the age of 14 to 18 who work together to do good deeds locally & internationally
  • is sponsored by a Rotary Club which offers help & guidance
  • meets every 2 weeks to have fun and to think of ways of helping others
  • elects their own office bearers and chairpersons for community projects.
  • learn to work together to develop individual skills of leadership and co-operation
  • members become aware of the needs of less fortunate people and develop into caring members of society

 

Rotary Facts                  

  • As at the 30th June 2002.
  • There were over 30,000 Rotary Clubs in 162 Countries round the world with a membership of 1,243,431 members.
  • Rotaract boasts 6,684 clubs with an estimated 155,000 members.
  • Interact 6,827 clubs with an estimated 160,000 members

 

 

The Future

Paul Harris wrote, "the story of Rotary will have to be written again and again", and as we embark on the 21st century civilisation is facing some of the gravest problems of all time.

Mankind has plundered the finite resources of the planet and polluted the atmosphere, rivers and oceans of the world. In spite of all the well founded warnings no-one is taking positive and effective counter measures. Politics, economics, trade and perhaps even greed seem to be preventing world-wide action.

Another alarming factor is the population explosion, Experts are predicting that the world population will double in the next 20 years and that third world countries will increase above the average, thus creating an overwhelming rise in disease, hunger and pollution.

The only possible conclusion for Rotary is that more Rotarians will be needed to help alleviate suffering on a large scale. Service organisations and world agencies who ignore the need to grow will run the risk of seeing their contributions fade into insignificance.

Fortunately, Rotary has grown from a fundamental desire to care for those in need, to create fellowship, world understanding and peace.

The future looks daunting, but it is always exciting, and it will continue to hold the imagination as the story of Rotary is written over and over and over again.