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Club Service Vocational Service Community Service
International Service
Foundation
CLUB SERVICE
SERVICE by members to the workings of their Rotary Club - that service that makes the Rotary wheel turn, providing the basic needs for good operation of a Rotary Club. The Standard Club By-Laws require that each club have the following Club Service Committees:
ATTENDANCE: To encourage regular attendance, make-ups for missed meetings, promote incentives, find remedies for poor attendance, recommend dismissals for failure to meet requirements.
FELLOWSHIP: To promote acquaintance and fellowship, create an atmosphere of cordiality and hospitality to members, guests and any visiting Rotarians. To keep membership advised of birthdays, anniversaries, special honors to members and those ill or disabled.
PROGRAM: The heart of every good club. To prepare and arrange the programs for each meeting - balanced in subject matter and covering one of the Four Avenues of Service.
MEMBERSHIP DEVELOPMENT: To review continuously the club roster of filled and unfilled classifications and to present to the Board of Directors the names of suitable persons for membership.
CLASSIFICATION: Concerns itself with eligibility for membership from the standpoint of the classification principle, remembering that classifications are determined by service to society rather than by position.
MEMBERSHIP: Evaluate prospective members' character and reputation (both personal and company). Is the proposed member "service minded", can attendance at weekly meetings and financial obligations of membership be met?
ROTARY INFORMATION: Inform members new and old of the privileges and obligations of Rotary. This is a continuous program on the workings of their club, their district, and Rotary International. A District library of videos and slides is maintained to provide Rotary information.
These are the basic, required Club Service Committees mandated by the Standard Club By-Laws but there are many other committees used effectively by local clubs to fit their particular situation. Recommended and most helpful are the committees for: The Weekly Bulletin, House Committee, The Rotary Foundation, Youth Exchange, The Rotary Endowment Program, and many others.
It should also be noted that Club Service is perhaps the first and best indoctrination for all new members when accepted into membership.
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VOCATIONAL SERVICE
Vocational Service is an obligation that derives from having a classification in Rotary. This Third Avenue of Service was actually one of the founding principles of Paul Harris in 1905 when he met with his fellow business and professional friends and yet, it is the area in which much work is needed. Clubs and members tend to stress and excel in the Club, Community and International Avenues rather than the one that is indigenous to Rotary membership.
The opportunity for the development of Vocational Service has no limits. Perhaps the most widely used approach is having each club member give a 5 minute talk on his/her profession or business about a month after induction. Employer-Employee day is held annually by many clubs - a great way to share Rotary and also foster a potential Additional Active member into the club.
Many clubs are now holding counseling days at the local high school, allowing soon-to-be-graduates to listen and confer with business and professional leaders in the fields they may be interested in. Many clubs are now sponsoring PRIVATE ENTERPRISE seminars for teachers and/or students - a subject so badly needed and so little understood.
A recommended area for Vocational Service is a tour by members of a Rotary Club (as part of or in lieu of their regular meeting) of local industries, hospitals, schools, military installations, etc. This can usually done by moving the weekly meeting to the location to be visited and having a box lunch or by eating in the facility cafeteria.
These are only a few of the more prevalent ways to implement Vocational Service - with a little thought and imagination, this can be a very delightful image builder for every club.
Basic to Vocational Service is "The Four Way Test" as originated by RI President Herbert J. Taylor. This 24 word test of the things we think, say and do is a convenient and effective instrument of Vocational Service and is more fully described on a later page. Our district sponsors an essay contest in the schools each year on "The Four Way Test".
Members are expected to adhere to the "Declaration of Rotarians in Business and Professions" which Rotary has officially adopted to foster high business standards and ethical practices.
We practice Vocational Service in our daily working schedule, but are we not selfish if we don't try to share the Rotary philosophy of fairness and truth with our friends and particularly with the youth of our community?
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COMMUNITY SERVICE
If Rotary was a watch - COMMUNITY SERVICE would be the mainspring. Every Rotary Club, large or small, in every country is engaged in a community project of some nature. This Avenue of Service is where clubs and members exercise their community leadership. They see a need - they act - in working with and sponsoring youth centers, Boy and Girl Scout Troops, Boy's and Girl's State, traffic safety, cultural development, community beautification, fire prevention, home safety, assistance to the aged, etc. The list is endless - only limited by the imagination and desire to serve by the members in a Rotary Club.
The Rotarian Magazine each month describes and pictures COMMUNITY SERVICE world-wide - U.S. Clubs promoting free enterprise through essay contests and seminars for students and teachers - Clubs in Mexico raising funds for construction of a home for mentally retarded children - camps operated in England for handicapped children with special therapy equipment and trained staff. The list goes on and on.
A community survey by a committee from the local Rotary Club will result in a list of many areas where help can be used - where people (the young, the handicapped, the aged) will be so receptive to a service that persons like Rotarians can furnish. Some projects may require money and a matching drive to obtain funds must be devised - other projects require only time or thought and the desire to serve others. Do not think that everyone is taken care of now by Government agencies - the person-to-person concern that can be shown by individuals and Clubs of Rotarians will never be equalled by a bureaucracy.
Playgrounds furnished - parks built - bicycle safety classes - driver training - drug abuse information - the list grows: vision and learning testing in the schools - athletic programs - citizenship and patriotism essay contests - weekly flowers to a retirement home - legal and medical advice clinics - take an old-timer to a ball game - or take that same old-timer to get his hair cut or his wife to the beauty salon.
There is no Rotary Club anywhere that does not have a talent-laden membership who can easily fill a community need!! The list is endless.
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INTERNATIONAL SERVICE
The Fourth Avenue of Service is perhaps the area in which Rotary is most outstanding. With clubs in 154 countries, Rotary has a unique opportunity to further understanding and world peace through the programs of International Service that include Special International Meetings, International Educational and Cultural Activities, World Community Service and the programs of The Rotary Foundation. All club members should be encouraged to become personally involved in International Service.
INTERNATIONAL MEETINGS of Rotary present opportunities for fellowship and communication links that can last for years. These meetings include the annual Rotary International Convention and the Rotary Peace Forum.
EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL EXCHANGE activities include Rotary's Youth Exchange Program, Rotary Foundation Scholarships, Group Study Exchanges, Rotary Volunteers, and Grants for University Teachers to serve in developing countries. Some of these programs and the Rotary Foundation are described in further detail elsewhere in this publication.
FRIENDSHIP EXCHANGES arranged through district or club officers offer an opportunity to visit in Rotarians' homes and experience hospitality in another land.
WORLD FELLOWSHIP ACTIVITIES is a program in which international friendships are fostered through hobbies and common interests ranging from "ham" radio to chess by mail, golf, travel and yachting. A wonderful way to broaden and enhance a hobby and make friends around the world.
WORLD COMMUNITY SERVICE offers a range of activities through which Rotarians conduct projects to improve lives and meet human needs and thus promote international understanding and good-will by means of material, technical and professional assistance. Your club can join in cooperative efforts with a Rotary Club or needy institution in another country. Humanitarian assistance and development projects aimed at improving the quality of life and providing self-help in developing countries are targets for World Community Service. A listing of world-wide projects needing help in fields of health, community assistance and food is available from R.I.
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THE ROTARY FOUNDATION
The mission of The Rotary Foundation is to enable Rotarians to
advance world understanding, goodwill and peace through the improvement of
health, the support of education and the alleviation of poverty. The Rotary
Foundation is a not-for-profit corporation that is supported solely by
voluntary
contributions from Rotarians and friends of the Foundation who share its
vision of a better world.The Foundation was created in 1917 by Rotary
International's sixth president, Arch C. Klumph, as an endowment fund for
Rotary "to do good in the world." It has grown from an initial contribution
of US$26.50 to more than US$117.9 million
contributed in 2004-05. Its event-filled
history is a story of Rotarians learning the value of service to
humanity.
The Foundation's
Humanitarian Programs fund international Rotary club and district
projects to improve the quality of life, providing health care, clean water,
food, education, and other essential needs primarily in the developing
world. One of the major Humanitarian Programs is
PolioPlus, which seeks to eradicate the poliovirus worldwide. Through
its
Educational Programs, the Foundation provides funding for some 1,200
students to study abroad each year. Grants are also awarded to university
teachers to teach in developing countries and for exchanges of business and
professional people. Former participants in the Foundation's programs have
the opportunity to continue their affiliation with Rotary as
Foundation Alumni.
For more information on current Foundation program awards and financial
status see the Rotary Foundation Fact Card and the Rotary Foundation Annual
Report, both of which are available for
download.
Here is a sampling of what some Rotarians, Foundation alumni, and others
who have worked with the Foundation have said about the international work
of The Rotary Foundation:
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"Rotary set me on a course that I am still continuing. If I had not
gone to the United States as an Ambassadorial Scholar, I don't think I
would have pursued the study of International Relations."
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Sadako Ogata
Former United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees
Foundation Scholar, 1951-52 |
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"Rotary International's masterpiece is The Rotary Foundation. It
transforms our dreams into splendid realities . . . it is the most
generous expression of Rotarian generosity — a generosity that not
only brings benefits but also brings help and cooperation to solve the
problems that affect mankind. The Rotary Foundation achieves the best
that mankind can possibly achieve."
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Paulo V.C. Costa
President, Rotary International, 1990-91 |
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| "We always wanted to do something through Rotary. Our decision
was based on six years' involvement with Matching Grant projects in
Haiti, Mexico, India, and South Africa. We were extremely impressed with
the way the program reaches and touches people with much less
administrative problems and costs than any other international
humanitarian organization." |
Frank and Mildred Branscombe
Rotary Club of Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada
donors of an endowed fund to support the Matching Grants program |
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| "From Seattle to Santiago, from Bogota to Bombay, and everywhere
in between, the children of the world are waiting. They are the hope of
the future, and you are their hope that the future will be bright. I
thank you, Rotary, for alleviating the suffering of children." |
Audrey Hepburn
discussing the PolioPlus program on behalf of UNICEF |
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| "In Warsaw, Woijeich Sierpinski, a Rotary club president, took me
on a tour I will never forget. We visited his parent's house — where
they lived during World War II. There in the kitchen, under a dusty
stack of crates was a secret wooden panel in the floor. Woijeich removed
the panel to reveal a tiny room underneath the kitchen floor where his
parents hid their neighbors — a Jewish family — during the war. As I
stood speechless, listening to Woijeich describe how they evaded the
Nazis, I realized the full value of the Group Study Exchange program." |
Ian Oxman
Group Study Exchange team member from California, USA
describing part of his trip to Warsaw, Poland |
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| "The Rotary Foundation's programs are all the more important
because we live in a world of sharp contrasts: fear and hope, illness
and good health, poverty and wealth. Worse, we live in a world in which
inequalities of income, unemployment — and presumably exclusion from
well-being — have sensibly increased in the last fifteen years, not so
much between countries, but within countries, developed and developing
alike. In such a situation, the role of The Rotary Foundation is of the
utmost importance." |
Bertrand Rene Munier
Professor of Economics
Ecole Normal Superieure, Cachan, France
Ambassadorial Scholar 1967-68 |
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