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Rotary International
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Image:RotaryIntLogo.png 125px|right
'''Rotary International''' is an organisation whose members comprise Rotary Clubs (
service clubs) located all over the world. The members of Rotary Clubs are known as '''Rotarians''' and are business and professional leaders who provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help build goodwill and peace in the world. Their motto is "Service above Self."
The world's first service club, the first Rotary Club was founded in
1905 in
Chicago by attorney
Paul P. Harris and three other businessmen. The National Association of Rotary Clubs was formed in
1910. The name was changed to ''Rotary International'' in
1922 because branches had been formed in many other countries. It has by now spread to 167 countries and now has more than 1.2 million members in over 32,000 clubs. The name Rotary was chosen since meetings were originally rotated to different locales of members of the organization. Members of a specific club meet weekly for breakfast, lunch or dinner, which as well as serving as a time to organise work on their service goals, is a social event.
Membership
Rotary is a non-partisan, non-sectarian organisation, according to its constitutions. Its membership tends towards the middle-aged and wealthy, although it is open to business and professional leaders of all ages and wealth is not a membership criterion.
Image:InnerwheelLogo.jpg right|100px|Innerwheel
Image:RotaractLogo.png right|100px|Rotaract
Image:InteractLogo.jpg right|100px|Interact
After years of debate, women were admitted in
1989, and now make up a little under 12% of the membership. Previously, women were able to join a linked organization for the wives and daughters of Rotarians, the
Inner Wheel. Many Inner Wheel groups still exist.
Other Rotary sponsored organisations include: '''
Rotaract''' - a service club for young men and women ages 18 to 30 with around 185,000 members in 8,000 clubs in 155 countries; '''
Rotary Interact Interact''' - a service club consisting of more than 239,000 young people ages 14-18 with over 10,400 clubs in 108 countries; and '''Rotary Community Corps''' (RCC) - a volunteer organisation with an estimated 103,000 non-Rotarian men and women in over 4,400 communities in 68 countries.
Active Membership is by invitation from a current Rotarian, to professionals working in diverse areas of endeavour. Each club can have up to ten per cent of its membership representing each business or profession in the area it serves. The goal of the clubs is to promote service to the community they work in, as well as to the wider world. Many projects are organised for the local community by a single club, but some are organised globally.
Honorary membership is given by election of a Rotary Club to people who have distinguished themselves by meritorious service in the furtherance of Rotary ideals. Honorary membership is conferred only in exceptional cases. Honorary members are exempt from the payment of admission fees and dues. They have no voting privileges and are not eligible to hold any office in their club. Honorary membership is time limited and terminates automatically at the end of the term, usually one year. It may be extended for an additional period or may also be revoked at any time.
Rotary programs
Polio-Plus
Image:Polioplus Logo.png right|100px|Polio-Plus
The most notable current global project, '''Polio-Plus''', is contributing to the global eradication of
polio. Since beginning the project in
1985 Rotarians have contributed over US$500 million and tens of thousands of volunteer man-hours, leading to the inoculation of more than one billion of the world's children. Inspired by Rotary's commitment, the
World Health Organization (WHO) passed a resolution in
1988 to eradicate polio by
2000. Now in partnership with WHO,
UNICEF and the US
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Rotary is recognized by the
United Nations as the key private partner in the eradication effort.
Exchanges and Scholarships
Image:RotaryYouthExchangeLogo.jpg right|100px
Other of Rotary's most visible programs include '''
Rotary Youth Exchange''', a
student exchange program for students in
secondary education, and Rotary's oldest program,
Ambassadorial Scholarships. Today, there are six different types of
Rotary Scholarships. More than 30,000 men and women from 100 nations have studied abroad under the auspices of Ambassadorial Scholarship, and today it is the world's largest privately funded international
scholarships program. In
2002-
2003 grants totaling approximately US$26 million were used to award some 1,200 scholarships to recipients from 69 countries who studied in 64 nations.
Rotary Centers for International Studies
Starting in 2002, '''
The Rotary Foundation''' partnered with eight universities around the world to create the '''Rotary Centers for International Studies''' in peace and conflict resolution. The universities include
International Christian University (Japan),
University of Queensland (Australia), ''
Paris Institute of Political Studies Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po)'' (France),
University of Bradford (United Kingdom),
University del Salvador (Argentina),
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (USA),
Duke University (USA), and
University of California, Berkeley (USA). '''Rotary World Peace Fellows''' complete two year masters level programs in conflict resolution, peace studies, and international relations. The first class graduated in
2004 [http://www.rotary.org/foundation/educational/amb_scho/centers/index.html]. In 2004, Fellows established the
Rotary World Peace Fellows Association [http://www.rotarypeace.org] to promote interaction among Fellows, Rotarians, and the public on issues related to peace studies.
Critics and Trivia
Rotary celebrated its centennial anniversary on
February 23,
2005.
Criticisms against social and political characteristics
The role of Rotarians in the power structure of the United States has often been noted (C. Wright Mills, ''The Power Elite'' [Oxford UP, 2000], p. 37, p. 440).
In Italy, the song "Rotary Club of Malindi", by Roberto Vecchioni, received some success on the theme 'World Music'. It speaks of an "organization for white people in depression."
In the Third-World (
Africa,
Asia, and
Latin America) Rotarians began a collaboration with the Ashoka Foundation network [http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=Rotary+site%3Aashoka.org].
Some opponents criticize Rotary for only supporting conservative politicians, including conservative members of the Democratic Party (Dianne Feinstein), politicians linked to the weapons lobby (
Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, Augusto Pinochet), or linked to the ideas of tax suppression (US Senator
John Ensign). These criticisms are based on the support given to
General Pinochet,
Tom DeLay,
Dianne Feinstein and to
George W. Bush via their program of "honorary membership".
Criticisms against Polio-Plus
Concerning the communication of the Rotary International about his program for polio eradication, supported with the World Health Organization, the Rotary International, its communication and its actions were balanced by public authorities of West Africa and, even internally within R.I., in January 2006 by the Rotarian "PolioPlus Commission". Medical research, on its own, has some reserves regarding the adaptation capabilities of the virus and reserves about some disavantadges of the oral vaccines, which seem causing infection resurgences.
sources:
-
http://www.rotary.org/newsroom/downloadcenter/pdfs/polio_facts.pdf
-
http://www.vaccinealliance.org/Resources_Documents/Immunization_Focus/Download/Dec2002SpecialFeature.php
Famous Rotarians
Image:Rotary Club banners in Princeton, New Jersey.JPG thumb|right|250px|Rotary Club banners.
For an extensive list of famous
:Category:Rotary Club members Rotary Club members, see
:Category:Rotary Club members
Honorary members
(click on the name to read biography)
* King
Albert I of Belgium
*
Neil A. Armstrong, US astronaut
* King
Baudouin I of Belgium
*
Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands
*
George W. Bush, US President
*
Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister
*
Calvin Coolidge, US President
*
L. Gordon Cooper, US astronaut
*
Walt Disney,
United States
*
Thomas A. Edison, US inventor
*
Edward VIII of the United Kingdom Edward VIII, Duke of Windsor
*
Dwight D. Eisenhower, US President
*
Dianne Feinstein, US Senator (D-CA)
*
Gerald R. Ford, US President
* King
Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden
*
King Hassan II of Morocco
*
Thor Heyerdahl,
Norway Norwegian adventurer
* Sir
Edmund Hillary,
New Zealander first
Mt. Everest climber
*
Herbert Hoover, US President
*
John F. Kennedy, US President
*
Charles Lindberg, First Trans-Atlantic pilot
*
Douglas MacArthur,
WWII US General
*
Richard Nixon, US President
*
John J. Pershing,
WWI US General
*
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
*
Augusto Pinochet,
Republic of Chile Chile, Chilean General
*
Rainier III, Prince of Monaco Prince Rainier III of
Monaco
*
Ronald W. Reagan, US President
*
Franklin D. Roosevelt, US President
*
Alan Bartlett Shepard, Jr., First US astronaut in the space
*
Margaret Thatcher, British Prime Minister
*
Harry S. Truman, US President
*
Woodrow Wilson, US President
Active members
(click on the name to read biography)
*
Ã?sgeir Ã?sgeirsson, former President of
Iceland
*
Frank Borman, US astronaut
*
Prescott Bush, US Businessman
*
Richard E. Byrd, US admiral and the intrepid Arctic explorer
*
Jimmy Carter, US president
*
Neville Chamberlain, British Prime Minister
*
Tom DeLay,
US Representative,
United States
*
Soleiman Franjieh, President of
Lebanon
*
Jesse Helms,
US Senator,
United States
*
Jim Leach,
US Representative,
United States
*
Thomas Mann,
Germany German novelist
*
Guglielmo Marconi,
Italy Italian inventor
*
Jan Masaryk, President of the Republic of
Czechoslovakia
*
Charles H. Mayo, co-founder of the
Mayo Clinic, USA
*
Albert Schweitzer,
Nobel Prize winner
*
Earl Warren, Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court
*
Orville Wright, US aviation pioneer
See [http://www.rotaryhistoryfellowship.org/history/famous/ Rotary history] for more.
External links
-
Rotary International official website
-
PolioPlus
-
PolioEradication.org
Category:Rotary International *
Category:Fraternal and service organizations
Category:1905 establishments
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