International

• support humanitarian programmes of the Rotary International and in particular, support programmes associated with the Presidential areas of emphases, including Water, Sanitation, Health concerns, Poverty reduction strategies and Literacy promotion
• promote projects between Clubs and Districts in RIBI with those in overseas countries, encouraging hands on efforts, international cooperation and fellowship
• respond to disaster relief efforts and rebuilding processes following natural disasters.
• build and sustain international friendship and service through the Rotary Fellowships and Rotarian Action Groups.
• promote International Service Projects, including those associated with the web based publication.” Opportunities to Serve”. The projects will be classified as Core projects, RIBI approved projects and Charity accredited projects
• Supporting and contributing to the International Development Programmes of the UN, in partnership with Governmental Agencies such as the Department for International Development (DfID), and other NGO’s in the programmes associated with the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) of the UN.
• Liaising and collaborating with other programmes within the RIBI such as Membership Development, The Rotary Foundation, Youth Services, Community and Vocational Development and Communication within and outside of Rotary, in an organisation of joined up Rotary demonstrating that Rotary Shares.
• Adapting and conforming to the RI strategic goals, in relation to the programmes in Clubs and Districts in RIBI.
• Supporting RI president and RIBI president ,in their aims for International Service.

Rotary Foundation

The mission of The Rotary Foundation is to enable Rotarians to advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through the improvement of health, the support of education, and the alleviation of poverty.

The Foundation is a not-for-profit corporation supported solely by voluntary contributions from Rotarians and friends of the Foundation who share its vision of a better world.

The Rotary Foundation relies on the enthusiastic support of Rotarians voluntarily giving generously of their time and money, and has become one of the foremost non-governmental foundations in the world. The educational support program is the largest private scholarship endowment in the world.

It is said that every minute of every day Rotary will touch the lives of millions somewhere in the world. The Rotary Foundation is one of the world’s leading charitable foundations and each Rotarian can be justly proud of its achievements in the past, present and in the future.

Polio Eradication remains a top priority for Rotary

In 1985 Rotary International started a campaign to immunise the children of the world against polio. Rotary is a spearheading partner in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (the largest public health initiative the world has ever known) that has spanned 200 counties, utilised 20 million volunteers, immunised over 2 billion children, probably spared 5 million from disability and averted more than a million deaths.

The history books tell us that Rotary had its beginnings with the first meeting of the Rotary Club of Chicago on a cold winter's night on the 23rd of February 1905, in room 711 of the Unity Building in North Dearborn Street. In reality, informal meetings had been going on for a number of months previously to see if the idea had any merit. The same history books highlight the founder as Paul Harris, with scant mention being given to his companions. Of these, there were four in particular, only three of whom were present on that February night. They were Silvester Schiele, a lawyer, Hiram Shorey, a merchant tailor, and Gus Loehr, a mining engineer who hosted that first meeting.

The actual name Rotary related to the fact that these early meetings rotated round the offices of the participants. The emblem of Rotary had a number of different forms before the now familiar wheel with six spokes and 24 cogs was adopted. Silvester Schiele became the first President of the Rotary Club of Chicago. The fifth person who was not present that evening but who went on to have a major influence in both the Rotary Club of Chicago, and the Rotary movement as a whole, was Harry Ruggles, a printer. Another who became involved later and also went on to play a major part in Rotary International as the Assistant Secretary, was Paul Harris' brother, Cecil.

Paul Harris became the driving force in Rotary and was a single minded and committed individual in its promotion, but it was not always the case that he was so clear about the direction of his life. As a young man, he had a real touch of wanderlust, and travelled widely while finding it difficult to settle to the pursuit of a career. However, a number of businessmen saw his potential as a young man and helped him to obtain qualifications and work, one of the reasons why he was so committed to helping young people. The other benefit of his upbringing in America, and his travel there and in other parts of the world, was the exposure he received to the problems of society, which lead to his strong commitment to the humanitarian principles of Rotary.

A defining moment in the life of Paul Harris was his marriage to Jean Thomson from Edinburgh. Jean's father came from Forfar and her mother from Peterhead. All their lives, this led to Paul and Jean retaining a strong interest and connection with Scotland. For example, their house in Chicago was called “Comely Bank” as a constant reminder of these Edinburgh links. The same strong ties resulted in our District becoming the first in Rotary – District 1. The needs of computers may have resulted in the gradual dilution of this number, first to District 101 and then to District 1010, but we still occupy an important position in the history of Rotary. Jean never lost her affection for Scotland and indeed, she returned to Scotland after Paul's death in 1947 and stayed firstly with a brother in Ayrshire, then a sister in Dundee, before finding a home of her own in Edinburgh. She died in 1963 and is buried in Edinburgh's Newington Cemetary.

Rotary's popularity spread in the first decade of its existence with Clubs being formed from New York to San Francisco and as far north as Winipeg in Canada. By 1921, there were Clubs on six continents. Even so, it is sometimes quite hard to appreciate the extent of this spread to the 1.2 million Rotarians who now exist round the world.

The first Rotary Convention was held in 1910, at which time the organisation was known collectively as the International Association of Rotary Clubs. The name Rotary International was only adopted in 1922. Rotary's motto of “Service Above Self” was originally that of the Rotary Club of Minneapolis in 1913, but soon became the motto of the whole Rotary movement.
Rotary came to Scotland in1912 with the formation of Clubs in Glasgow and Edinburgh to be followed by Aberdeen(1916), Perth(1917) and Dundee(1921).

Service to society, both at home and abroad, has always been a key part of the Rotary movement, but perhaps the defining moment in expanding such activities came with the creation of The Rotary Foundation, Rotary's own and only charity. This was the brainwave of another towering figure in Rotary's history, Arch Klumph, who proposed such an organisation at the International Convention at Atlanta, Georgia, in 1917.

Many articles conclude with the statement, “The rest is history”. I hope that this is not the case, and never will be the case, with our Rotary movement, because the need for its existence has never been greater. We live in times of great change and Rotary is changing with this. The past 30 years have seen the disappearance of some national boundaries and the creation of others. We have seen disasters on a mammoth scale, ethnic wars and the inexorable spread of diseases such as malaria and AIDS.