About Rotary

• ROTARY is an organisation 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.
• ROTARY is the world’s first service club.
• ROTARY is about 1.22 million Rotarians, members of more than 32,756 Rotary clubs in more than 200 countries.
• ROTARIANS meet weekly for fellowship and interesting and informative programs dealing with topics of local and global importance.
• ROTARIANS plan and carry out a remarkable variety of humanitarian, educational and cultural exchange programs that touch people’s lives in their local and world communities.

The Object of Rotary is:
to encourage and foster the ideal of service as a basis of worthy enterprise and, in particular:

• Development of acquaintance as an opportunity for service.
• 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.
• The application of the ideal of service in each Rotarian’s personal, business and community life.
• The advancement of international understanding, goodwill, and peace through a world fellowship of business and professional persons united in the ideal of service.

Rotary is essentially
a grassroots organisation, with most of its service efforts being carried out at the club level. The district and international structure is designed to support the clubs and help them provide more service in their communities and abroad.

• Clubs: Rotarians are members of Rotary clubs, which belong to the global association Rotary International (RI). Each club elects its own officers and enjoys considerable autonomy within the framework of Rotary’s constitution and bylaws.
• Districts: Clubs are grouped into 530 RI districts, each led by a district governor, who is an officer of RI. The district administration, including assistant governors and various committees, guides and supports the clubs.
• RI Board: The 19-member RI Board of Directors, which includes the RI president and president-elect, meets quarterly to establish policies.
  Traditionally, the RI president, who is elected annually, develops a theme and emphasis for the year.
• The Secretariat: Rotary International is headquartered in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois, USA, with seven international offices in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, India, Japan, Korea, and Switzerland. The RI in Great Britain and Ireland (RIBI) office, located in England, serves clubs and districts in that region. The Secretariat’s active managing officer is the RI general secretary, who heads a 650-member staff working to serve Rotarians worldwide.

AUSTRALLIAN DISTRICT GOVERNORS MARCHING AT CONVENTION IN CHICAGO.