Wilmington East Rotary Club
Wilmington East Rotary Club
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      • About Us
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  • Home
  • About Us
    • About Us
    • About Rotary
    • Our Photos
    • Rules for Attendance
  • Members
  • Calendar of Events
  • Related Links
  • Contact Us

Rotary International's Mission Statement

The mission of Rotary International is to support its member clubs in fulfilling the Object of Rotary by:  

Fostering unity among member clubs;
Strengthening and expanding Rotary around the world;
Communicating worldwide the work of Rotary; and
Providing a system of international administration.

About Rotary

Rotary  is an organization 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. In 166 countries worldwide, approximately 1.2 million Rotarians  belong to more than 31,000 Rotary clubs.

Rotary club membership represents a cross-section of the community's  business and professional men and women. The world's Rotary clubs meet  weekly and are nonpolitical, nonreligious, and open to all cultures,  races, and creeds.

The main objective of Rotary is service - in the community, in the  workplace, and throughout the world. Rotarians develop community service  projects that address many of today's most critical issues, such as  children at risk, poverty and hunger, the environment, illiteracy, and  violence. They also support programs for youth, educational  opportunities and international exchanges for students, teachers, and  other professionals, and vocational and career development. The Rotary  motto is Service Above Self.

Although Rotary clubs develop autonomous service programs, all Rotarians  worldwide are united in a campaign for the global eradication of polio.  In the 1980s, Rotarians raised US$240 million to immunize the children  of the world; by 2005, Rotary's centenary year and the target date for  the certification of a polio-free world, the PolioPlus program will have  contributed US$500 million to this cause. In addition, Rotary has  provided an army of volunteers to promote and assist at national  immunization days in polio-endemic countries around the world.

The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International is a not-for-profit  corporation that promotes world understanding through international  humanitarian service programs and educational and cultural exchanges. It  is supported solely by voluntary contributions from Rotarians and  others who share its vision of a better world. Since 1947, the  Foundation has awarded more than US$1.1 billion in humanitarian and  educational grants, which are initiated and administered by local Rotary  clubs and districts.  

Rotary International History - Paul Harris

So how did Rotary get its start? A  gentleman named Paul Harris is the founder of Rotary. Born in 1868 in  Wisconsin, Harris attended the University of Vermont, Princeton and  University of Iowa where he received his law degree in 1891. Upon  graduation he travelled the world and worked in a number of jobs as  newspaper reporter, college teacher, actor and cowboy. His early travel  and work experiences broadened his vision and were of material  assistance in the early development of Rotary.
 

In 1896, Paul Harris went to Chicago to practice law. One day in 1900  he dined with a lawyer friend in Rogers Park, a residential section of  Chicago. After dinner they took a walk and he was impressed with the  fact that his friend stopped at several stores and shops in the  neighborhood and introduced him to the owners who were his friends. Paul  Harris’ law clients were business friends, not social friends, but this  experience caused him to wonder why he could not make social friends  out of at least some of his business friends---and he resolved to  organize a club which would band together a group of representative  business and professional men in friendship and fellowship.
 

For the next several years he devoted a great deal of time to reflecting  on conditions of life and business and by 1905 he had formulated a  definite philosophy of business relations. After talking about his ideas  with several business associates he decided, with his friends, to  organize a club which he had been thinking about for five years. On  February 23, 1905, the clubs first meeting took place and the nucleus  was formed for the thousand of Rotary clubs which were later organized  throughout the world. The new club which Paul Harris named “Rotary”  because the members met, in rotation, in their various places of  business, met with general approval and membership grew quickly. Almost  all members had come to Chicago from rural areas and were anxious to  affiliate with other business people when they arrived in Chicago. When  Paul Harris became president of the club in its third year he was  anxious to extend Rotary to other cities because he was convinced that  the Rotary club could be developed into an important service movement. The second club was founded in San Francisco in 1908. The  next two years 16 other clubs were formed and then it was decided they  should be united into an organization which would extend the movement to  other cities and to become a clearinghouse to exchange ideas among the  other clubs and the National Association of Rotary Clubs was formed.  Shortly thereafter Rotary clubs formed in Canada and Great Britain  making the movement international in scope. In 1922 that organization  was renamed Rotary International. Paul Harris was the  first president of the International Association. When he passed away in  1947, he was named president emeritus of Rotary International.
 

During his time in Rotary, Paul Harris was also prominent in many civic  and professional endeavors. Most of his efforts focused on disadvantaged  youth. To this day Paul Harris is considered the “father  of Rotary” and the foundation that now bears his name funds projects all  over the world.   

Objective 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's 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

The 4-Way Test

From the earliest days of the organization, Rotarians were concerned with promoting high ethical standards in their professional Lives. One of the words most widely printed and quoted statements of business ethics is The 4-Way Test, which was created in 1932 by Rotarian Herbert J. Taylor (who later served as RI president) when he was asked to take charge of a company that was facing bankruptcy. This 24-word test for employees to follow in their business and professional lives became the guide for sales, production, advertising, and all relations with dealers and customers, and the survival of the company is credited to this simple philosophy. Adopted by Rotary in 1943, The 4-Way Test has been translated into more than a hundred Languages and published in thousands
of ways. It asks the following four questions:
 

Of the things we think, say or do:

  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?
     


Club Email: werotary@gmail.com
Wilmington East Rotary Club. PO Box 373, Wrightsville Beach, NC 28480.


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