June is Rotary Fellowship Month

The final month of every Rotary year is Rotary Fellowship month and it is a fitting finale because "fellowship" is such an important part of Rotary. The word "fellowship" is right there at the top of the current core values of Rotary. It's the reason why we have Rotary "clubs", so we can do our good in the world along side fellow Rotarians and not just by ourselves. For many Rotarians, the highlights of their Rotary experiences usually revolve around doing projects with others. It is probably the reason why so many Rotary Fellowships have developed where Rotarians from around the world can join together doing activities they enjoy. We often hear Rotarians say that they joined Rotary to "make a difference", but they stay in Rotary "because of the fellowship".

 

And yet, many Rotarians, don't like to use the word, "fellowship", possibly because it is a word that seems to be more at home in the past than in the modern world. It also seems to be more of a masculine word when we are trying to encourage more women to become part of our movement. It is no doubt a complex word that has many shades of meaning, and as an example, I discovered this list of synonyms listed by PDG Dennis Shore on the District 9800 web site a couple of years ago: communion, rapport and rapprochement, accord, agreement, concord, harmony, oneness, solidarity, togetherness, unity, affinity, empathy, sympathy, understanding, amity, companionship, friendliness, reciprocity and symbiosis. It might be an old fashioned word, but it sure contains a lot of qualities we would all want to promote in our groups.