About Rotary

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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 more than 165 countries worldwide, approximately 1.2 million Rotarians belong to more than 33,000 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.

Find out more about Rotary by visiting the Rotary International web site and reading this Wikipedia article.

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 2016, Rotary is now partnered with WHO, UNICEF, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Because of this Partnership, more than 15 million people who would otherwise have been paralyzed for life by polio are walking today. ?Polio cases in the world are now less than 100/year and shrinking.  The money that the world will save over the next 20 years by being polio-free will amount to $50 billion, money that can be used to address other critical problems.?

ABCs of Rotary

The ABC's of Rotary were written by Past RI President Cliff Dochterman (1992-93) for his Rotary Club's weekly bulletin. The ABCs have been published into a booklet given to new members and for people considering membership in Rotary. Click here to view an online version.

Information on this page came from:

The About Rotary and the RI Programs pages on the Rotary International web site.