A ROTARY HISTORY LESSON

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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 30,000 Rotary clubs.

In nearly 100 years, Rotary has grown from a small club of four members to a worldwide network of men and women who share a common vision for a better world. The world's first service organization, Rotary has a long history of helping those in need and uniting people of different cultures and beliefs. Through the work of individual Rotary clubs, and through the programs of Rotary International and The Rotary Foundation, Rotary is making the world a better place.

OBJECTIVES:

The Objectives 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.

Declaration of Rotarians in Businesses and Professions is a statement of recent origin adopted by the Rotary International Council on Legislation in 1989 to provide more specific guidelines for the high ethical standards called for in the Object of Rotary:

As a Rotarian engaged in a business or profession, I am expected to:

• Consider my vocation to be another opportunity to serve;
• Be faithful to the letter and to the spirit of the ethical codes of my vocation, to the laws of my country, and to the moral standards of my community;
• Do all in my power to dignify my vocation and to promote the highest ethical standards in my chosen vocation;
• Be fair to my employer, employees, associates, competitors, customers, the public and all those with whom I have a business or professional relationship;
• Recognize the honor and respect due to all occupations which are useful to society;
• Offer my vocational talents: to provide opportunities for young people, to work for the relief of the special needs of others, and to improve the quality of life in my community;
• Adhere to honesty in my advertising and in all representations to the public concerning my business or profession;
• Neither seek from nor grant to a fellow Rotarian a privilege or advantage not normally accorded others in a business or professional relationship.

Visit www.rotary.org for more detailed information about Rotary's rich history.