What is Rotary?

Rotary is an organization 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. Approximately 1.2 million Rotarians around the world (over 34,000 Rotary clubs in more than 200 countries and geographical areas) initiate service projects to address today’s challenges, including illiteracy, disease, hunger, poverty, lack of clean water, and environmental concerns.

The Rotary Club Of London

The Rotary Club of London, the original service club in London, received its charter in 1915 ten years after Rotary was founded by Paul Harris in Chicago, Illinois and is part of Rotary International District 6330 which incorporates part of the Province of Ontario in Canada and the State of Michigan in the U.S.A.  Our Club is affectionately known the “Downtown” club and we average about 100 members making us the largest Rotary Club in the Greater London Area.  

Influential and a significant force in our community the Rotary Club of London works on local and international projects with the motto "service before self".

The Object of Rotary

The Object of Rotary is to encourage and foster the ideal of service as a basis of worthy enterprise and, in particular, to encourage and foster:

FIRST . The development of acquaintance as an opportunity for service;

SECOND . High ethical standards in business and professions, the recognition of the worthiness of all useful occupations, and the dignifying of each Rotarian's occupation as an opportunity to serve society;

THIRD . The application of the ideal of service in each Rotarian's personal, business and community life;

FOURTH . The advancement of international understanding, goodwill, and peace through a world fellowship of business and professional persons united in the ideal of service.

The Rotary 4-Way Test

One of the most widely printed and quoted statements of business ethics in the world is the Rotary 4-Way Test. It was created by Rotarian Herbert J. Taylor in 1932 when he was asked to take charge of a company that was facing bankruptcy. Taylor looked for a way to save the struggling company mired in depression-caused financial difficulties. He drew up a 24-word code of ethics for all employees to follow in their business and professional lives.  The 4-Way Test was adopted by Rotary in 1943 and has been translated into more than a hundred languages and published in thousands of ways. Here it is in English:

"Of the things we think, say or do:

1. Is it the Truth?
2. Is it Fair to all concerned?
3. Will it build goodwill and better friendships?
4. Will it be beneficial to all concerned?"