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What Rotary is
The reconstruction
period following the second world war saw Rotarians and Rotary
clubs all over the world contributing generously to relief
activities. They sent clothing, books, food packages, and many
other things to people living in war-devastated areas.
The recipient of
one such package wrote a "thank-you" note to the donor he had
never seen. After expressing gratitude for the relief from
extreme circumstances, he asked, "Are you by any chance a member
of a club that believes 'he profits most who serves best'?"
This concept, in
many different forms, is at the root of any definition of
Rotary. Ask any member in any community the question: "What
does Rotary mean to your community?" and you will get a variety
of answers. One may say, "Rotary has helped to make our
community a more friendly place in which to live."
Another may reply,
"It has helped obliterate community factions by providing a
common meeting ground."
Still another: "It
has strengthened our civic organizations through its facility
for unselfish co-operation."
A fourth: "Rotary
in my town has provided training ground for constructive
leadership—an invaluable asset to any community."
And one more: "I
feel that Rotary has linked my city with other cities and towns
all over the world. With so many friends in so many places, life
seems sweeter and more enjoyable—and safer."
In other words,
Rotary is many things to many people. Technically, Rotary is an
organization of local clubs unified through a larger grouping
called "Rotary International." The individual—the heart of
Rotary—is a member of the local club; the club is the member of
Rotary International.
Technically, too,
a Rotary club is an association of representative business and
professional men of the community who have accepted the ideal
of service as the real basis for attaining success and happiness
in personal, business, and community life. And the ideal of
service? In general, it is an attitude that relates persons and
things with action—constructive action; thoughtfulness of others
is the basis of this service, and helpfulness to others is its
expression.
Rotary also has
been called "an ideal in action" and "friendship organized."
Translated into deed, it is thoughtful action, quick response to
need, and the giving of the most valuable possession of any
man—himself. In the beginning, Rotary came from a lonely man's
hunger for friendship and fellowship. The first meeting of
"Rotarians" was held in the name of acquaintance, but that
acquaintance was designed to lead to increased business for each
man. The meaning of Rotary, however, grew as the men grew, and
the new organization expanded and deepened its challenge. Rotary
became a spirit of service which men took into the market place,
or into the office, or to whatever point they struggled to
create order where there had been chaos, beauty where there had
been ugliness, and fellowship where there had been loneliness
and misunderstanding.
At no point in its
development have men been able to say: "This is Rotary. This is
the place where we can stop, and the world can move on." For the
world does move on, and Rotary moves with the men who move the
world. More than 30 years after Rotary's beginning, when lesser
men might have thought in terms of solidifying the stream of
progress, Paul Harris, the founder, wrote: "This is a changing
world; we must be prepared to change with it. The story of
Rotary will have to be written again and again."
The story's
setting has been more than half of the terrible and magnificent
twentieth century, the century when man probed the atom and
found there the power to destroy himself. It is the century of
more material progress than in all the rest of man's time put
together. It is the century in which man pushed back the
frontiers of Outer Space while at the same moment he was
confounded by the gaps of misunderstanding and selfishness
within the "inner space" of mankind. In spite of this lag,
however, it is the century in which individualism ascended to a
very high place, a century in which increasing numbers of men
found ways to fulfill a sense of personal success.
Out of such a
social context came Rotary. And Rotarians have been so deeply
concerned with the deeper meaning of what they have created that
they have pondered it and debated it in convention. A part of
one resolution, adopted many years ago, is appropriate here for
the light it sheds on the definition of Rotary:
. . .
Fundamentally, Rotary undertakes to reconcile the ever present
conflict between the desire to profit for oneself and the duty
and consequent impulse to serve others. This philosophy is the
philosophy of service—'service above self— and is based on the
practical ethical principle that 'he profits most who serves
best.'
Primarily a Rotary
club is a group of representative business and professional men
who . . . have accepted the Rotary philosophy of service and are
seeking: first, to study collectively the theory of service as
the true basis of success and happiness in business and in life;
and second, to give, collectively, practical demonstrations of
it to themselves and their community; and third, each as an
individual, to translate its theory into practice in his
business and in his everyday life; and fourth, individually and
collectively, by active precept and example, to stimulate its
acceptance both in theory and practice by all non-Rotarians as
well as by all Rotarians . . .
Because he who
serves must act, Rotary is not merely a state of mind, nor
Rotary philosophy merely subjective, but must translate itself
into objective activity; and the individual Rotarian and the
Rotary club must put the theory of service into practice . . .
He who serves must
act . .
. for service is not a state of mind—as necessary as is the
proper state of mind. Voluntary service implies freedom,
to act, too. Amidst gathering war clouds in 1940, the
international convention at
Havana,
Cuba, adopted a
resolution which said, in part: ". . . Rotary is based on the
ideal of service, and where freedom, justice, truth, sanctity of
the pledged word, and respect for human rights do not exist,
Rotary can not live, nor its ideal prevail."
Rotary is not a
substitute for any other organization; it
flourishes only
where other free institutions are strong. The ideal of service
is put into practice by each Rotarian who, as a resolution of
another convention put it, is "a loyal member" of his church or
religion and "a loyal and serving citizen of his own country."
What is Rotary?
It is the
experience of men of different faiths and different opinions and
different nationalities growing in fellowship wherever they may
be. It is men discovering their responsibilities toward one
another and finding themselves in purposeful action.
Rotary may be—and
is—a man in
Australia
pondering the destruction of uncontrolled water and initiating a
program to conserve the precious soil. It may be—and is—a
school for underprivileged children in
Sao Paulo, Brazil; a hospital in Indiana, U.S.A., where
children can go to repair
the ravages of the great child cripplers. It may be— and is—a
school for deaf and mute children on the
island
of Cyprus.
It may be—and is—a remote village in
India
struggling upward with the help of its "foster parents," a
Rotary club. It may be—and is—a Rotary-sponsored student wending
his way from his home to a university across the seas.
Many men have
tried to define Rotary, but Sir Harry Lauder, the famous
Scottish folksong- and ballad-singer, drew a picture definition
with words:
I have always
likened Rotary to a light, and it is a great thing to have a
light—a beacon.—in front. I remember once I traveled all through
one dreary Sunday, and when in the gloamin' of the evening,
sitting at the window of my hotel, I saw a lamplighter come down
the darkening street, sticking his pole in the lamps as he
passed, and I thought: "He is doing a great thing—he is lighting
up the way so that the wayfarer may walk without falling." That
lamplighter reminded me of the light of Rotary. Encourage your
sons to be Rotarians, because some day you will pass off the
road of Rotary—and it will be a good thing to know that you left
your sons to follow the light of Rotary, and to follow it with
enthusiasm.
By the very nature
of Rotary, every Rotarian writes his own definition; the "story"
of Rotary to which its founder referred is rewritten every time
a new member is welcomed into a club and every time a new Rotary
club is formed. No two Rotarians are alike, no two communities
are alike—but the pattern of service is always cut from the
cloth of thoughtfulness of and helpfulness to others.
For example, the
Australian Rotarian mentioned previously had frequent
professional contacts with farmers in his community. As he
observed the farms, he could see the beginning of soil erosion.
He could see the rivers which once ran clear carrying a heavy
load of silt—rich soil washed off the upper reaches when the
plows stripped off natural cover. He could see gullies forming
in the wake of recurring floods.
This Rotarian took
his special knowledge—and his concern—to his club. The club, in
turn, embarked upon a project of making a motion picture about
soil conservation—a film to be promoted for public showing.
It would not be
accurate to say that this one thing reversed the process of
erosion in Australia. The
problem remains, but a man and his club, armed with specific
knowledge, initiated constructive action which has importance
far beyond the confines of a single region, since conserving the
soil is one of the basic concerns of mankind.
Rotary helps to
make a man sensitive to need; it impels him to bring his special
knowledge and experience to the task and, above all, to
act—alone, if he can, or in company with his fellow men if this
is the better way. The Rotarian himself gives immediate and
concrete meaning to "service above self" and "he profits most
who serves best." The compilers of dictionaries do not build the
meaning of such mottoes; nor do they dictate that Rotary should
be known as a "service" club. These concepts are made meaningful
by men of action, their action defining the words.
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