What is Rotary

We have just heard about Rotary’s extensive accomplishments during the past century.  We know that Rotary exists to improve communities locally and around the world and to advance international understanding.

In the three years since I was inducted I have often been asked about Rotary - what it is.  Typically I answer by explaining that Rotary is a group of individuals who get together to perform public service.  I sometimes add that it’s a way to have more of an impact on the local community because by working together we can achieve a greater good. 

But besides its official definition, what really is Rotary?  How do you define that which motivates women and men to march to the tune of service above self?

A fellow Rotarian friend of mine defines it by explaining that Rotary is a group of people interacting symbiotically with synergistic results.  Indeed!  Not quite the answer to my search for its soul. 

In my opinion, Rotary is the collective good of a group of individuals working together to reach a common goal which is simply to better the world.  It is the good deeds of many.

Rotary is friendship.  What binds us together is our desire and purpose to serve humanity.  By working together, friendships blossom, validating Paul Harris’ vision of harnessing the power of friendship to help do the world’s work. 

Locally, it’s being able to reach 90 friends with the expectation that they will at least listen to what you have to say and at best attempt to come up with solutions.  Globally, there’s a million friendships waiting to blossom.  Foreign countries don’t seem so alien anymore because Rotary is there. 

Rotary is ideally the principle of service above self.   I believe a true Rotarian embodies this principle in all aspects of his or her life.  It is not a theory practiced occasionally to earn points in the Karmic scoreboard, but it’s a belief that becomes an intrinsic part of a true Rotarian.  Rotary is the medium that allows us to act on behalf of the common good. 

By working on the present, Rotary is the future.  It is an open road where the avenues of service come together leading to numerous destinations.  It is up to us to select which path to take in the Rotary world, and therefore Rotary is freedom.  It’s our ability to pursue a worthy cause and succeed at it because we are not going at it alone. 

Rotary is a sense of accomplishment – a teaching aid in the classroom, a baseball diamond worth more to a Little Leaguer than a real diamond, a gift to the community that shows we care.  It’s satisfaction,  going home after volunteering all day knowing that you did your share, contributing just a little bit to the benefit of humankind.  Rotary is the vehicle that makes it happen. 

It’s faith in our youth, fairness in our dealings, our hope for the future.  Rotary is a legacy.  It started in 1905 with Mr. Harris and continues with each of us. 

So how do you describe all this to someone who asks to know what Rotary is? To attempt to capture Rotary’s definition in one or two sentences is cursory at best, as if trying to paint a detailed picture with the strokes of a wide brush.

You, nonetheless, start by saying that it’s a group of individuals who get together to perform public service, and you plant a seed that you hope will flourish.