Rotary International through the Years.
Rotary's humble beginning and a thing or two from the early days.
Background
Rotary started with the vision of one man — Paul Harris to enable professionals with diverse backgrounds to exchange ideas and form meaningful, lifelong friendships while giving back to society through Community Outreach, Philanthropy, Capacity Building and Community Service among other avenues.
The essence of this Rotary material is to help Rotarians, Rotaractors and Interactors learn more about the colourful history of their organization, its customs and traditions, as well as its global programs.
Introduction
The world’s first service club, the Rotary Club of Chicago was formed on 23 February 1905 by Paul P. Harris, a Chicago attorney who wished to capture the same friendly spirit he had felt in the small towns of his youth in a professional club.
Rotary International(RI) is one of the largest service organizations in the world.
What is Rotary?!
In 1976 the Rotary International Board of Directors was interested in creating a concise definition of the fundamental aspects of Rotary preferably in a one-sentence definition, which came to be;-
“Rotary is an organization of business and professional persons united worldwide who provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations and help build goodwill and peace in the world.”
This one-sentence definition of Rotary was prepared and presented, by three men who were then serving on Rotary’s Public Relations Committee after numerous drafts and has been used since in various Rotary publications.
This has occasionally been tweaked over the years but the fundamental message has remained the same to date.
Today, Rotary is defined on the Rotary International(RI) website as;-
“A global network of 1.4 million neighbours, friends, leaders, and problem-solvers who see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change — across the globe, in our communities, and in ourselves.”
You can check About Rotary to read more.
The many characteristics of Rotary, “Rotary- Rotaract-Interact Clubs” as well as the activities of a million Rotarians can be described through the features of service, internationality, fellowship, classifications of each vocation, development of goodwill and world understanding, the emphasis of high ethical standards, concern for other people and many more descriptive qualities.
The Beginning of Rotary
In 1905, Harris was inspired to start Rotary by the friendly spirit that he had known in the villages where he had grown up.
It was Harris’ desire for camaraderie among business associates that brought together four friends; — Paul Harris, Gustavus Loehr, Silvester Schiele, and Hiram E. Shorey in Loehr’s office in downtown Chicago on the evening of February 23, 1905, to discuss his idea for a businessmen’s club that would go on to be known as the first Rotary club meeting.
As these friends continued to meet, adding others to the group, they named their new club “Rotary” to describe the practice of rotating at the members’ various places of business, eventually leading to an international organization of service and fellowship.
Over the next five years, the Rotary movement spread as clubs were formed in other U.S. cities and in August 1910, the 16 Rotary clubs that existed at that time united to form the National Association of Rotary Clubs Rotarians which held its first convention in Chicago and Paul Harris was elected president, serving in this position for two years from 1910 until 1912.
And thus, the founder of the Rotary Idea, who declined to be president of the first club, became the first president of the worldwide organization, Rotary International.
And during the 1911–1912 Rotary year, the National Association of Rotary Clubs became the International Association of Rotary Clubs in 1912 following a club being formed in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, and then in England, Ireland and Scotland, eventually adopting the name Rotary International (RI) in 1922 to reflect the addition of clubs in other countries.
Who Was Paul Harris?!
Paul Harris was born in Racine, Wisconsin, in 1868, but moved to Wallingford, Vermont, at the age of three where he was raised by his paternal grandparents.
Harris attended the University of Vermont and Princeton University and received his law degree from the University of Iowa in 1891.
After graduating as a lawyer, Paul gave himself five years to see as much of the world as possible before settling down. And in 1896, Harris settled in Chicago and opened a law practice.
Paul Harris was not the first president of a Rotary club but he was the first president of Rotary International. Although Paul Harris was the founder and organizer of the first Rotary Club in Chicago in 1905, the man selected to be the first president was one of the other founding members, Silvester Schiele.
After his term, and as the organization’s only president-emeritus, Paul continued to travel extensively, promoting the spread of Rotary both in the USA and abroad.
Being a prolific writer, Paul. P Harris wrote several books about the early days of Rotary International and the role he was privileged to play in it. These include This Rotarian Age and his autobiography My Road to Rotary. And was also involved in a number of civic organizations, including the Chicago Club and the Commercial Club.
Paul P. Harris died on 27 January 1947 in Chicago at age 78, after a prolonged illness. Upon news of his death, Rotary created the Paul Harris Memorial Fund as a way to solicit these donations and Rotarians were encouraged to commemorate the late founder of Rotary by contributing to the fund, which would be used for purposes dear to Harris’ heart.
The Official Rotary Flag
The first Official Rotary Flag was reportedly flown in January 1915, in Kansas City, Missouri, followed by a small Rotary flag reportedly being carried over the South Pole by Admiral Richard Byrd, a member of the Winchester, Virginia, Rotary Club In 1922. Four years later, the admiral carried a Rotary flag in his expedition to the North Pole.
RI formally adopted an Official Flag at the 1929 Convention in Dallas, Texas.
The Rotary flag consists of a white field with the official wheel emblem emblazoned in gold in the centre of the field with four depressed spaces on the rim of the Rotary wheel coloured royal blue and the words “Rotary” and “International” printed at the top and bottom depressions on the wheel rim also in gold. The shaft in the hub and the keyway of the wheel are white.
The Official Rotary Flag is displayed at the World Headquarters, Official RI events, and conventions as well as used as a banner at club meetings by some Rotary Clubs.
Rotary’s Wheel Emblem
Rotary’s symbol has been a wheel since the organisation’s earliest days. The first design was made by Chicago Rotarian Montague M. Bear, an engraver who drew a simple wagon wheel, with a few lines to show dust and motion and was said to illustrate “Civilization and Movement.”
Most of the early clubs had some form of wagon wheel on their publications and letterheads when finally, in 1922, it was decided that all Rotary clubs should adopt a single design as the exclusive emblem of Rotarians.
In 1923, the present gear wheel, with 24 cogs and six spokes was adopted by the “Rotary International Association” but a group of engineers advised that the geared wheel was mechanically unsound and would not work without a “keyway” in the centre of the gear to attach it to a power shaft.
Therefore, in 1923 the keyway was added and the design as we know it today was formally adopted as the official Rotary International emblem and formally approved by the board in January 1924.
Rotary World Over
As Rotary grew, members pooled their resources together while using their skills and talents to serve their communities. The organization’s dedication to this ideal is best expressed in its motto: Service Above Self.
Members of Rotary have a long track record of addressing challenges in their communities and around the world.
Over time, Rotary’s reach has extended to humanitarian service. These humanitarian activities of Rotary International are organised through The Rotary Foundation, Rotary’s charity.
The 4-Way Test
The Rotary “4-Way Test.” It was created by Rotarian Herbert J. Taylor in 1932 when he was asked to take charge of the Chicago- based Club Aluminum Company, which was facing bankruptcy.
Taylor looked for a way to save the struggling company so he drew up a 24-word code of ethics which became the guide for sales, production, advertising and all relations with dealers and customers and a simple philosophy to which the company’s survival was credited.
The 4-Way Test was adopted by Rotary in 1943 and has been translated into more than 100 languages and published in thousands of ways now known and followed by all Rotarians, Rotaractors & Interactors as; —
“Of the things we think, say or do:
- 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?”
Rotary Mottoes
The first motto of Rotary International, “He Profits Most Who Serves Best,” was approved at the second Rotary Convention, held in Portland, Oregon, in August 1911.
The phrase was first stated by a Chicago Rotarian, Arthur Frederick Sheldon, who made a speech in 1910, which included the remark, “He profits most who serves his fellows best.”
At about the same time, Ben Collins, president of the Rotary Club of Minneapolis, Minnesota, commented that the proper way to organize a Rotary club was through the principle his club had adopted — “Service, Not Self.”
These two slogans after being slightly modified, were formally approved to be the official mottoes of Rotary at the 1950 Convention in Detroit — “He Profits Most Who Serves Best” and “Service Above Self.”
The 1989 Council on Legislation established “Service Above Self” as the principal motto of Rotary, since it best explains the philosophy of unselfish volunteer service.
Object of Rotary
The Object of Rotary is “to encourage and foster the ideal of service as a basis of worthy enterprise.” by focusing on four areas:—
- 1st: The development of acquaintance as an opportunity for service;
- 2nd: 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;
- 3rd: The application of the ideal of service in each Rotarian’s personal, business, and community life;
- 4th: The advancement of international understanding, goodwill, and peace through a world fellowship of business and professional persons united in the ideal of service.
The Object of Rotary has not always been expressed in this manner. The original Constitution of 1906 had three objects: —
- Promotion of business interests,
- Promotion of good fellowship and
- The advancement of the best interests of the community.
By 1910 Rotary had five Objects as increased emphasis was given to expanding Rotary. By 1915 there were six Objects. In 1918 the Objects were rewritten again and reduced to four. Four years later they had again grown to six and were revised again in 1927.
Finally, at the 1935 Mexico City Convention the six Objects were restated and reduced to four. The last major change came in 1951 when the “Objects” were streamlined and changed to a single “Object” which is manifested in four separate ways.
The “ideal of service” is the key phrase in the Object of Rotary. This ideal is an attitude of being a thoughtful and helpful person in all of one’s endeavours. That’s what the Object truly means.
Rotary through the years
- The first Rotary Club meeting was in Chicago, Illinois, on February 23, 1905.
- Rotary’s first Community Service project took place in 1907 when Chicago Rotarians led a campaign to install a public “comfort station” in the city hall.
- The first regular luncheon meetings were in Oakland, California, chartered in 1909.
- The Rotary club which first held meetings on a weekly basis was Oakland, California, the Number 3 club.
- The first Rotary convention was in Chicago in 1910.
- Rotary’s motto, “He Profits Most Who Serves Best,” was first expressed at Rotary’s very first Convention in Chicago in 1910.
- The first Rotary club outside of the United States was chartered in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, in 1910.
- The first Rotary club banner (from the Houston Space Center) to orbit the moon was carried by astronaut Frank Borman, a member of that club.
- Rotary’s first appeal for aid to disaster victims was in 1913 when $25,000 was given for flood relief in Ohio and Indiana.
- The first Rotary club outside of North America was chartered in Dublin, Ireland, in 1911.
- Rotary became bilingual in 1916 when the first club was organized in a non-English-speaking country — Havana, Cuba.
- The first Rotary club in a non-English-speaking country was in Havana, Cuba, in 1916.
- Rotary established the “Endowment Fund” in 1917, which became the forerunner of The Rotary Foundation.
- The first Rotary club in South America was chartered in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1918.
- The first Rotary club in Asia was chartered in Manila, Philippines, in 1919.
- The first Rotary Club in Africa was chartered in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1921.
- The first Rotary club in Australia was chartered in Melbourne in 1921.
- The first Rotary International convention held outside the United States was in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1921.
- Rotary first adopted the name “Rotary International” in 1922 when the name was changed from the International Association of Rotary Clubs.
- The first head of state to address a Rotary convention was U.S. President Warren G. Harding in 1923 at St. Louis.
- The Rotary emblem was printed on a commemorative stamp for the first time in 1931 at the time of the Vienna Convention.
- Rotary’s first convention held in the Southern Hemisphere was in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1948.
- Rotary was assigned the copyright on the “4-Way Test” in 1954 when its author, Herbert Taylor, became president of Rotary International.
- Rotary first established the Paul Harris Fellows recognition in 1957 for contributors of $1,000 to The Rotary Foundation.
- Rotary’s first Interact club was organized in Melbourne, Florida, in 1962 to become the pioneer for about 7,000 Interact clubs in more than 90 countries.
- 1964–65 was the first year when The Rotary Foundation received total contributions of a million dollars in a single year. Today more than $40 million is given annually.
- Rotary first presented the “Significant Achievement Awards” in 1969 to clubs with outstanding international or community services projects.
Conclusion
Rotary’s popularity spread with clubs being chartered from San Francisco to New York to Winnipeg, Canada within a decade. By 1921 Rotary clubs were established on six continents and the organisation adopted the Rotary International name a year later.
Rotary International today is an immense network of clubs and their individual members who come together in service and fellowship to the community & world over.
