"Rotary is the world's first service club and is a worldwide organization of business and professional leaders that provides humanitarian service, encourages high ethical standards in all vocations, and helps build goodwill and peace in the world."
Approximately 1.2 million Rotarians belong to more than 32,000 clubs in more than 200 countries and geographical areas.The Alexandria Rotary Club meets at noon on Thursdays at the Garden Center's Broadway Ballroom. Join us.
The collaboration is part of an initiative to make Rotary's historical resources more accessible to Rotarians worldwide.
"Google is doing all of the scanning and indexing to make the material searchable -- and at no cost to Rotary," says Stephanie Giordano, archivist for Rotary International.
More than 72,000 pages will be available once Google finishes scanning and uploading all 1,100 issues. The first issue was published in January 1911, when the magazine was called The National Rotarian.
RI President-elect Ray Klinginsmith announced the 2010-11 Rotary International theme, Building Communities -- Bridging Continents, during the opening plenary session of the 2010 International Assembly."I decided to search for a briefly stated theme that would fulfill two objectives: the first to
explain Rotary to non-Rotarians, and the second to validate our work
for Rotarians," Klingsmith said. "The words I have selected to describe
Rotary's current mission and to highlight our achievements are what we
do best: Building Communities -- Bridging Continents. "
(from rotary.org) The 1989 Council on Legislation vote to admit women into Rotary clubs worldwide remains a watershed moment in the history of Rotary.
"My fellow delegates, I would like to remind you that the world of 1989 is very different to the world of 1905. I sincerely believe that Rotary has to adapt itself to a changing world," said Frank J. Devlyn, who would go on to become RI president in 2000-01.
The vote followed the decades-long efforts of men and women from all over the Rotary world to allow for the admission of women into Rotary clubs, and several close votes at previous Council meetings.
The response to the decision was overwhelming: By 1990, the number of female Rotarians had skyrocketed to over 20,000.
Twenty years after the Council on Legislation's vote, Rotary has nearly 188,000 female Rotarians. Women have served in leadership positions as high as the RI Board of Directors and The Rotary Foundation Board of Trustees. (Watch a videoabout women in Rotary from RVM: the Rotarian Video Magazine volume 4, issue 3)
Business leaders in central Minnesota and western Wisconsin are working to bring the world to Minneapolis/St. Paul in 2015.
Rotary International Districts 5950 and 5960 are bidding to bring the 2015 Rotary International Convention to the area. An estimated 18,000 to 25,000 Rotarians from some 139 countries and geographical areas attend the service organization’s annual convention. This year’s convention was held in Los Angeles. The 2009 convention will be held in Birmingham, England.
email the Alexandria Rotary Club
