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. Rotary club membership represents a cross-section of the community’s business and professional men and women. The worlds Rotary clubs meet weekly and are non-political, non-religious, 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 plus 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.
Object 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 Rotarians occupation as an opportunity to serve society;
THIRD:
The application of the ideal of service in each Rotarians personal, business, and community life;
FOURTH:
The advancement of international understanding, goodwill, and business and professional persons united in the ideal of service.
