Service and The Rotary Family

Rotary will only succeed in the 21st century if it attracts families to its ranks.

But who is the Family of Rotary? Who are its members?

Obviously the Rotarians’ natural family members include spouse, children, parents and grandparents.

However, there are other members in this family. They are the participants of Rotary International’s structured programs, such as: Interact, Rotaract, Youth Exchange and RYLA, along with Rotary Foundation and Rotary International current scholars and alumni.

We can also consider as part of this big family the beneficiaries of Rotary’s humanitarian projects, who had their lives changed for the better and are now living with more dignity.

As with every family, our Rotary Family needs to be nurtured and have a common objective to preserve its unity. It must promote and guarantee the values for which we stand and want to leave as a legacy, values of Integrity, Diversity, Fellowship, Transparency, and Ethics.

It promotes solidarity as a natural human feeling that should be shared with the less fortunate, creating a society where people respect one another and share the responsibility for every person in the community.

Through our Rotary family, for which peace is a way of life, we are building Rotary’s reputation now. Due in great part to its power to form new Rotarians, this same family will sustain Rotary in the future as an active entity. Thus, it is extremely important to combine all the components of service of this Family. Each and every one of these components is equally important, and by putting all of them into action we will achieve our goal of peace and understanding.

Rotary should be able to keep active and useful all of these components that are the characteristics of our family, a family which was formed and grew in more than 100 years through dedication, efforts, availability and creativity.

Everyone has a function and each one of us is equally important. Therefore Rotarians should be called to action and take on responsibilities so they can be reminded of how important they are for Rotary.

And which is the role of each have one of us?

According to our field of action and our involvement with programs, each one of us should:

 Create Oportunities to serve  Act with Effectiveness, and  Fulfill our Responsibilities.

Rotary did not become what it is today by having people with impressive titles; instead, it became what it is because of common people with a passion for making a difference in the world. Paul Harris, Arch Klumph and many others are great examples. Our founder was that kind of person. He wasn’t rich, and was far from being a famous and important attorney from Chicago. Instead he was a young man who had come from a family with problems and was

raised by his grandparents with simple and consistent family values. And then, many years ago, he met with three friends at a restaurant called Madam Galli and changed history.

The seed they planted germinated and influenced:

 Peace among nations  Human rights  Ethical standards for all vocations  The fight against world poverty, illiteracy, and the terrible disease called polio

This is the responsibility and legacy that we have in our hands. As members of a big family, we must take ownership of this legacy having in mind that ROTARY WILL BE IN THE FUTURE WHAT WE MAKE OF IT TODAY.

100