About RI

Rotary International (RI) is the association of Rotary Clubs throughout the world. Rotary is an organisation 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. The membership of Rotary International consists of member Rotary Clubs which continue to perform the obligations imposed by the constitutional document.

Rotarians are members of their respective clubs. The Rotary Clubs are members of Rotary International. The purposes of Rotary International are:

1. To encourage, promote, extend, and supervise Rotary throughout the world;
2. To coordinate and generally direct the activities of Rotary International

Fundamentally, Rotary undertakes to reconsile the ever-present conflict between the desire to profit for oneself and the duty and consequent impulse to serve others. This philosophy of service – “Service Above Self” – is based on the practical ethical principle that “He Profits Most Serves Best”. Service and fellowship are the hallmark of Rotary and Rotarians worldwide. Only when service and fellowship are both present can we make our giving meaningful and relevant, not just for the community at large, but significantly for our own personal and spiritual development.

Rotary is The Rotary Foundation, which each year provides some US$90 million for international scholarships, cultural exchanges and humanitarian projects large and small that improve the quality of life for millions of people. Rotary is widely regarded as the world’s largest provider of international educational scholarships.

About The Founder 

Paul P. Harris (1868-1947) a lawyer, was the founder of Rotary, the world’s first and foremost international service club. Rotary is an organization of business and professional leaders, united worldwide, who provide humanitarian service, promote high ethical standards in all vocations and help build goodwill and peace in the world.

Paul received the bachelor of physical culture and LL.D degrees from the University of Vermont and the LL.B degree from the University of Iowa. He received an honorary Ph.D in 1933 from the University of Vermont. Paul went to Chicago in 1896 to practice law. He met a lawyer in a residential section of Chicago, and was very impressed by the fact that his friend stopped at several stores and shops in the neighbourhood and introduced him to proprietors, who were his friends. This experience caused Paul to wonder why he could not make social friends out of at least some of his law clients. He resolved to organise a club which would band together a group of representative business and professional men in friendship and fellowship.

On February 23 1905, Paul Harris formed the first Rotary Club with three of his law clients each fo whom represented a different vocation. The first three members of this soon to be world fraternity organisation were, Silvester Schiele, a coal merchant, Gustavus Loehr, a mining engineer, and Hiram Shorey, a merchant tailor. Paul named the club Rotary because members met in rotation in their various places of business.

By August 1910, when there were 16 clubs in America, the National Association of Rotary Club was organised. When clubs were formed in Canada and Great Britain, the name changed, in 1912, to the International Association of Rotary Clubs. In 1922, the name was shortened to Rotary International.

Today, there are close to 1.2 million Rotarians worldwide in over 31,314 Clubs spanning 530 districts in 165 countries.

Avenues of Service in Rotary

CLUB SERVICE is the cornerstone of Rotary Service, since the other three avenues can function effectively only in a smoothly run club. It is the service that makes the Rotary wheel turn, assuring that all club members work well together. It seeks to promote the spirit of fellowship in which every service should be rendered inside as well as outside the club. New members are made aware, through Club Service, of what Rotary is all about – the objectives, scopte, administration, achievements – and in a well-run club, they quickly come to appreciate the benefits and privileges of membership. Through Club Service, members are trained to serve their clubs efficiently and thus to be better fitted for wider service.

VOCATIONAL SERVICE is an obligation that derives from holding a classification in a Rotary club. Its purpose is to stimulate every Rotarian to exemplify and share the Ideal of Service within his business or profession. Rotarians are encouraged to put into practice in their business and professional lives the high ideals of Rotary. This involves matter such as fostering good employer-employee relations and career guidance for young people, and historically it has involved Rotarians in promoting high standards of conduct by professional and trade associations.

COMMUNITY SERVICE is the mainspring and a principal reason for Rotary’s existence. Every Rotary club large or small, in every country is engaged in community service projects. Club members see a need in their community and they act, often in cooperation with local agencies. Club sponsor such activities as traffic safety; cultural development; community beautification; fire prevention; home safety; relief aid; and assistance to the sick, the handicapped and the aged. The number of projects is limited only by the imagination and desire of club members to serve their communities. In each case, the projects are tailored to meet local needs and conditions, wherever they may be.

INTERNATIONAL SERVICE is an area in which Rotary has truly excelled and is a positive and continuing force for world understanding and peace. The internationality of Rotary is most visible when Rotarians worldwide gather at its annual international conventions. Turbaned Asian mingle with kilt-wearing Scots and Americans in casual suits brush shoulders with men in colourful African robes. It is no better demonstrated than by the murmur of simultaneous translation of different languages at the plenary sessions of the annual international assembly where incoming district governors are trained. Clubs and Districts contribute to International Service by sending young people across international boundaries or, in turn, by welcoming them into their home communities. They do this in a variety of ways: by sponsoring young men and women for Rotary Foundation Scholarships; by supporting the Health, Hunger and Humanity (3-H) Programme; or by taking part in World Community Service, in which a club or district provides assistance to a service project of a club or district in another country. Yet another way is to become involved in international Youth Exchange.

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 professions, the recognition of the worthiness of all useful occupations; and the dignifying of each Rotarian of his 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.

… and the 4-Way Test

The 4-Way Test is a simple but profound statement:

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?