Rotary's first day and the years that followed.

February 23, 1905. The airplane had yet to stay aloft more than a few minutes. The first motion picture theatre had not yet opened. Norway and Sweden were peacefully terminating their union.

On this particular day, a Chicago lawyer, Paul P. Harris, called three friends to a meeting. What he had in mind was a club that would kindle fellowship among members of the business community. It was an idea that grew from his desire to find within the large city the kind of friendly spirit that he knew in the villages where he grew up.

The four businessmen didn't decide then to call themselves a Rotary club, but their get-together was, in fact, the first meeting of the world's first Rotary club. As they continued to meet, adding others to the group, they rotated their meetings among the members' places of business, hence the name. Soon after the club name was agreed upon, one of the new members suggested a wagon wheel design as the club emblem. It was the precursor of the familiar cogwheel emblem now worn by Rotarians around the world. By the end of 1905, the club had 30 members.

The second Rotary club was formed in 1908 half a continent away from Chicago in San Francisco, California. It was a much shorter leap across San Francisco Bay to Oakland, California, where the third club was formed. Others followed in Seattle, Washington, Los Angeles, California, and New York City, New York. Rotary became international in 1910 when a club was formed in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. By 1912 the organisation was represented on every continent, and the name Rotary International was adopted in 1922.

What is now The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International grew from a small endowment fund started in 1917. It became the Rotary Foundation in 1928 but grew only modestly until 1947 when it received a number of gifts in memory of Paul Harris upon his death on January 27 of that year. Accelerated growth in recent years has made it a major source of activities to provide humanitarian assistance, to enhance education and promote international understanding and peace. Since 1917, worldwide contributions to the Foundation have total around Aus$ 1.3 Billion, with average worldwide contributions of around Aus$150 Million.

A major source of the foundations recent growth, and Rotary's increasing membership, has been the burgeoning of the Rotary movement in Asia. Also growing is the number of new Rotary clubs in the countries formerly in the Communist-government bloc of Eastern Europe. Countries where there were no Rotary clubs in 1987 now have more than 220.

Among programs that Rotary has undertaken in recent years, the largest is Polio-Plus, whose goal is the education of the disease Polio throughout the world. To achieve that goal, Rotary is working in coalition with the World Health Organisation, UNICEF, the U.S Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, And the Task Force For Child Survival and Development, supplying funds for vaccine purchase and manpower for Polio immunization campaigns in polio endemic countries. It is hoped that Rotary's participation will have assisted the world to be free of Polio by around 2009

Author: Bill Northcott.

What is Rotary?

• Rotary is an organisation of business and professional leaders united worldwide who provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations and help build goodwill and peace in the world.

• Rotary is the world's first service club. It was founded in Chicago Illinois USA on 23 February 1905.

• Rotary is some 1.2 million service-minded men and women belonging to over 32,000 clubs in virtually every nation of the world.

• Rotarians meet weekly for fellowship and interesting and informative programs dealing with topics of local and global importance. Membership is by invitation and reflects a wide cross-section of community representation.

• Rotarians plan and carry out a remarkable variety of humanitarian, educational and cultural exchange programs that touch people's lives in their local communities and our world community.

• Rotary is the Rotary Foundation, which each year provides some US $60 million for international scholarships, cultural exchanges and humanitarian projects, large and small that improve the quality of life for millions of people.