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Brief histories of the
first clubs of each geographic regions or countries
Rotary Club of SAINT-DENIS, the First Club DE LA REUNION
Rotary International
District 9220
A Part of Our History of
Rotary in Africa
Much of the information below was located in a trunk of papers not opened
for more than 50 years.
It was Andre Bacquet who was contacted in November 1958 by Mr. Le Goff, a pharmacist and a member of the Antananarivo Rotary Club
(capital of Madascar.Ed.) of which he was a founder, for the task of studying the possibility of installing a Rotary
Club in Saint-Denis.
A letter of 12 November 1959 from the pharmacist, found André unable to attend the meeting and so he requested the list
of "candidates Rotarians" to be sent to him.
At this stage entered into "track" Doctor Ismael Hassen who was responsible for the exploration of future members.
The contacts were made, the study of the territory was launched in November 1959 and
the end result was sent by secure post,
to Evanston.
It contained 22 names of personalities from all walks of life, but sorted, as we say colloquially, on the cover.
Also from RC Tananarive (French spelling. Ed), the Secretary Julien LEVEQUE on 19 April 1960, asked BACQUET for a short biography of the main future members and suggested that it
would be the last paper before authorization of the constitution.
This authorization was announced by letter of 13 September 1960.
This letter was accompanied by a number of documents to be completed for the next general assembly at which Julien LEVEQUE attended.
By letter dated November 14 of that year, a copy of a letter from Rotary International with specific questions and requests
for certain information was replied to by André: "The name of the club will be" Rotary Club of Saint-Denis ".
The meetings will be held from 17 or 17 h 30"; to satisfy Evanston. In the future it would be possible to choose the time
that works best.
Among the documents recovered, there is the minutes of the Constituent General Assembly of the Rotary Club meeting,
written by hand by André BACQUET.
Even the deletions have a solemn side "on Friday, 7 October 1960 to 21 hours, met in Saint-Denis de la Reunion, Trazzi Hotel
under the chairmanship of Mr LEVEQUE, Secretary of RC Tananarive.
Mr LEVEQUE opened the meeting by saying a few words where he describes some early genesis of the future club whose sponsor
is Mr. LE GOFF, pharmacist in Antananarivo, who then presented the program highlighting the Rotary Club's investiture.
On an element too often neglected, the need for regular attendance is highlighted and soon achieved.
The Assembly then adopted the statutes and decided after review, to allow for different names upon the creation of future
Rotary clubs in the south.
The meeting then proceeded to study the rules of procedure and made certain decisions, such as the date of the annual
meeting for the election of committee members, Wednesday the 4th of March, and the meeting place to be Wednesday in Trazzi.
The costs of aperitifs are to be distributed among all members present or absent, and dinners between
those present alone.
Admissions are 5 000 CFA francs, contributions to 6 000 CFA francs per year.
And then the question of elections was raised.
The inaugural committee will be composed of
- Paul GUEZE, President
- Raymond LAWSON, Vice President
- Isamël HASSEN, Vice President
- VESOUX, Treasurer
- Anatolia VINCENT DOLOR, Head of Protocol
- André BACQUET, Secretary
In the batch of documents, we also find other verbatim records in all 6 Minutes, and 2 income statements
written in English.
The most important piece dated 6 September 1961 reads:
"At 18:30: Plenary Meeting - The President welcomes the presence of five friends from Madagascar: Julien
LEVEQUE, Daoudbhay Akbaraly, Jofferaly CASSAM CHENNAI, Hédaraly BARDAY and Daniel LEBOUCQ: the Chief of Protocol of RC
Tananarive, made a short presentation on the importance of attendance at meetings.
The report presented suggests that the Charter Certificate will be presented on the evening of September 6 1961.
There follows a short excerpt from the book by Daniel Cadet
THE ROTARY AT THE MEETING
In 1985
At the meeting, Rotary was represented by 5 clubs including 2 in Saint-Denis, 1 each from St. Benedict,
St. Paul and stamp.
There were two youth clubs, Interact and Rotaract, also located in Saint-Denis.
All these clubs are part of District 920 and the District Governor for the 1985-1986 year was the Zambian Rotarian, Chris OPAROSCHS.
The list of Rotarians updated annually appears in the directory "blue" Rotary Clubs of France and the Francophone
states published by the Association of French Rotarians.
That of Interacters and Rotaracters can be found at the Rotary Club of Saint-Denis.
Saint-Denis is the oldest club and sponsors meetings with Rotarians from other clubs and youth of the island, except
for Saint-Paul, which is sponsored by the Rotary Club of Saint-Benoît.
The club's boundaries include Sainte-Marie to Saint-Denis and Le Port.
PRESENTATION OF CLUB
Created: Constituent Assembly on 7 October 1960.
Charter presentation on 2 September 1961 by Julien LEVEQUE, delegate of Rotary International
Founding members (22): Gaston AMEDEE - André BACQUET - Pierre BOLOTTE - André BOULOC - Raymond CHERRY - Claude DEBORD -
Heddy CASSAM-CHENNAI - Alain DESSART - Jean-Charles GHAZAROSSIAN - Paul GUEZE - Ismael HASSEN - Guy LAWSON - Raymond LAWSON -
Frédéric LEGROS - Edouard MANOUX - Michel Olgiate - Dominica sage - Rene TIME - Paul VESOUX - Anatolia VINCENT DOLOR -
Jean-DOLOR VINCENT - Ismael ZADVAT -.
As at 1 March 1985, the Club had 58 members and 3 honorary members.
At first our Club was directly linked to Evanston, without belonging to a district.
It was not until the year 1967/68, that RI President Luther Hodges and Club President Andrew BOULOC that our Club was
integrated into District 220, comprising the 12 countries of : Botswana, Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti,
Uganda, Madagascar, Comoros, Mauritius, Seychelles and Reunion.
In 1978, District 220 becomes District 920, without changing its composition.
On 1 July 1987, District 920 is split into two and Reunion is in the party that becomes Distrct 9200 comprising 8
countries: Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia, Uganda, Kenya, Mauritius, Seychelles, Reunion.
Comoros and Madagascar are no longer part of our district.
On 1 July 1996, we change again to District 9220, the one we have now.
Our Club has sponsored the first Rotary Club of Port Louis, Mauritius, as well as those of Saint-Benoît (1970),
St-Pierre-Tampon (1976), St-Denis Bourbon (1982) and St Denis Alizés (1991).
Our club has given the District four Governors.
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