How to become a Member

How to Join Rotary No funny handshakes, no archaic rituals, just 1.2 million ordinary men and women in 34,000 clubs in 220 countries working together to do extraordinary things. That’s reason enough to join a Rotary club. Whether you want to make life a little easier for the people in your own community or people on the other side of the world, there’s no more effective way to do it. That’s what Rotarians do. Rotary is a worldwide network of inspired vocationally based individuals who translate their passions into relevant social causes and service to change lives in communities.

 

That could mean any number of things to different people. Helping to build or upgrade a playground at the local school, working to raise funds for much needed equipment at the local community centre, working with fellow Rotary club members to remove graffiti, raising funds to send young people on overseas student exchanges, or to provide leadership training and mentoring, sending talented and motivated university graduates to overseas universities to further their understanding of other cultures and their own areas of expertise. Or it could be building schools in the developing world, wells for villages to ensure the supply of clean water, establishing a program of micro-credit loans to enable the desperately poor to get a real start in life, or immunising children against the ravages of polio. Indeed, Rotarians the world over have contributed literally billions of dollars towards the fight to eradicate polio over the past 25 years or so. In partnership with the World Health Organisation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and several other Government and non-Government organisations, Rotary has been a driving force behind 99 per cent decrease in the incidence of polio in that time. There are now only four polio-endemic countries -- India, Pakistan, Nigeria and Afghanistan. In India there was only one reported new case of polio between January 1 and September 15 when this was written. When polio is eradicated – and it will be very soon – it will be only the second time in the history of mankind that a disease has been eradicated. Reason enough for Rotarians to be proud. Not only have they contributed billions (Australian Rotarians alone have contributed more than $1.3 billion since the fight began in 1987), but they have been on the ground in countries such as India and Nigeria, taking part in National Immunisation Days during which literally millions of children are immunised at the same time.

 

So how do you join? Every one of the 34,000 Rotary club meetings around the world each week is a public event. You can simply turn up and ask to participate. That is no guarantee you will be offered membership, but if you turn up three or four times and show a real interest in contributing, it is far more likely than not that you will be asked. Provided, of course, that you’re okay with Rotary’s overriding focus on ethics in the workplace and life in general, as summed up in its Four Way Test.

 

Or contact the Rotary Club of Dalkeith's Director of Membership; Peter Panek.  ppanek@merit-group.com.au