The world's first service club, the Rotary Club of Chicago, Illinois, USA, was formed on February 23, 1905 by Paul Harris, an attorney who wished to recapture in a professional club the same friendly spirit he had felt in the small towns of his youth. The name "Rotary" derived from the early practice of rotating meetings among members' offices.

Rotary's popularity spread throughout the United States in the decade that followed; clubs were chartered from San Francisco to New York. By 1921, Rotary clubs had been formed on six continents, and the organization adopted the name Rotary International a year later.

The Object of Rotary is to "encourage and foster the ideal of service as a basis of worthy enterprise. Rotary strives to achieve it’s objective of "Service Above Self" through activities in four primary areas. These are often referred to as the Four Avenues of Service.

Club Service
This "Avenue" promotes the development of acquaintance as an opportunity for service. It involves the activities necessary to make the Club function successfully and achieve its goals.

Vocational Service
This area represents the opportunity that each Rotarian has to represent the dignity and utility of one’s vocation as an opportunity to serve society. Rotarians promote and foster high ethical standards in business and professions and promote the recognition of the worthiness of all useful occupations.

Community Service
This "Avenue" relates to the activities that Rotarians undertake to improve the quality of life in their community. Particular emphasis is given to helping children, needy families, the aged, the handicapped, and those most in need of assistance. Rotarians strive to promote the ideal of service in their personal, business, and community lives.

International Service
In this area, Rotarians strive for the advancement of international understanding, goodwill, and peace through a world fellowship of business and professional persons united in the ideal of service. International Service Projects are designed to meet the humanitarian needs of people in many lands, with particular emphasis on the most underprivileged children and families in developing countries.

From the earliest days of the organization, Rotarians were concerned with promoting high ethical standards in their professional lives. One of the world's 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?

Rotary International impacts people all over the world. Some of Rotary International’s service projects are:

Polio Plus: A pledge by Rotary International for global eradication of polio by the year 2005. So far, Rotary has reduced the incidence of Polio worldwide by 99%.

Interact: A Rotary-sponsored service club for teens aged 14 –18 years of age. Usually organized within a school.

Rotaract: A Rotary-sponsored service club for young adults aged 18 – 30.

Youth Exchange: Since 1927, students and host families all over the world have had their horizons broadened and their lives enriched by the generosity of Rotary's Youth Exchange program. Administered by Rotary clubs, districts and multidistrict groups, the program today involves more than 82 countries and over 8,000 students each year.

The first documented exchanges date back to 1927, when the Rotary Club of Nice, France, initiated exchanges with European students. Exchanges between clubs in California, USA, and Latin American countries began in 1939, and exchange activities spread to the eastern United States in 1958. In 1972, the Rotary International Board of Directors agreed to recommend Youth Exchange to clubs worldwide as a worthwhile international activity promoting global peace and understanding.

Scholarship: The Rotary Foundation's oldest and best-known program is Ambassadorial Scholarships. Since 1947 more than 30,000 men and women from 100 nations have studied abroad under its auspices. Today it is the world's largest privately funded international scholarships program. More than 1,100 scholarships were awarded for study in 2002-03. Through grants totaling approximately US$26 million, recipients from some 69 countries studied in more than 64 nations.

For more information:

 http://www.rotary.org/programs/index.html