Just recently I have started re-reading A Century of Service, the Story of Rotary International. I thought I was pretty well versed in Rotary lore but was amazed at what I had forgotten or might never have known. While our Rotary magazine keeps us informed of what is going on now, how we got to where we are in the world takes a little digging. What I intend to do is send you a monthly Rotary message. I hope it can be informative for newer members and a refresher for older members.
My purpose in reviewing our history is to deepen our understanding of how our beginnings as an organization have shaped what we are today and likely to become in the future. We don't just gather for a meal and talk to each other; we are an impressive and powerful service organization.
Sarah Bishop, Assistant Governor District 5470, 2025-26
My Rotary story this week is how our organization expanded from a narrow focus on fellowship and exchanging trade among businessmen to becoming a service organization. (All quotations are from A Century of Service, the Story of Rotary International by David C. Forward) "Fellowship and mutual business boosting, not community service, attracted the first members to Rotary. It was not that those first Rotarians were opposed to volunteerism; it was simply not a common concept in the early 20th century." (p. 138) That changed in 1906 when Donald Carter joined the Chicago Rotary club and advocated a third objective to the club's constitution: "The advancement of the best interests of Chicago and the spreading of the spirit of civic pride and loyalty among its citizens."
(p. 139) [The first two objectives are: "First. The promotion of the business interests of its members. Second. The promotion of good fellowship and other desiderata ordinarily incident to social clubs." (p. 138)]
The club's first act of community service was to buy a local preacher a horse to replace one that had died. Two years later the first club project was a "comfort station", one for men and one for women, in downtown Chicago. "The comfort stations remained in place for several decades, and the community service idea became the very soul of Rotary." (p. 140) Rotary's motto, Service Above Self, and the slogan, He Profits Most Who Serves Best appear to have been adopted at the second Rotary convention in 1911.
I will write more about Rotary service later. Next month, I will talk about how singing became part of Rotary.