|
In St. Louis, between
the 18th and 22nd of June 1923 during the
14th International Convention of Rotary, the
delegates overwhelming approved Resolution 23-34, which specified "the
policy of Rotary towards community activities.” Part of the beginning of
what is now known as the “Evolution of Rotary,” Resolution 23-34,
along with the “Aims
and Objects Plan,” formed the basis of what we now know as the
“Avenues of Service.” It was a complete expression (so far as Community
Service is concerned) of the policy of personal rather than corporate
responsibility already enumerated in 1916. It was at that point that
Rotary began changing from a business orientation to one of community
service.
Resolution 23-34 and its Adoption
RESOLUTION NO. 34, TO REAFFIRM THE POLICY OF ROTARY
TOWARD OBJECTIVE ACTIVITIES AND TO FORMULATE
CERTAIN PRINCIPLES FOR THE FUTURE GUIDANCE OF
ROTARY INTERNATIONAL AND OF ROTARY CLUBS
Offered by the Resolutions Committee: ADOPTED
It Is Resolved by Rotary International, assembled in its
Fourteenth Annual Convention, that, for the guidance of Rotary clubs and
Rotarians and to formulate a policy for Rotary toward objective
activities, the following principles are recognized and accepted as
sound and controlling:
1. Fundamentally, Rotary is a philosophy of life that
undertakes to reconcile the ever present conflict between the desire to
profit for one's self and the duty and consequent impulse to serve
others. This philosophy is the philosophy of Service – “Service above
Self" – and is based on the practical ethical principle that "He profits
most who serves best."
 2. Primarily, a Rotary club is a group of representative
business and professional men who, without secret vow, dogma or creed,
but each in his own way, have accepted the Rotary philosophy of service
and are seeking: First, to study collectively the theory of service as
the true basis of success and happiness in business and in life; and,
second, to give, collectively, practical demonstrations of it to
themselves and their community; and, third, each as an individual, to
translate its theory into practice in his business and in his everyday
life; and, fourth, individually and collectively, by active precept and
example, to stimulate its acceptance both in theory and practice by all
non-Rotarians as well as by all Rotarians.
3. Rotary International is an organization that exists
(1) for the protection, development, and worldwide propagation of the
Rotary ideal of service, (2) for the establishment, encouragement,
assistance, and administrative supervision of Rotary clubs, and (3) as a
clearing house for the study of their problems and, by helpful
suggestion but not compulsion, for the standardization of their
practices and of such objective activities, and only such objective
activities, as have already been widely demonstrated by many clubs as
worth while and as are within, and will not tend to obscure, the objects
of Rotary as set out in the Constitution of Rotary International.
4. Because he who serves must act, Rotary is not merely a
state of mind, nor Rotary philosophy merely subjective, but must
translate itself into objective activity; and the individual Rotarian
and the Rotary club must put the theory of service into practice.
 5. Each individual Rotary club has absolute autonomy in
the selection of such objective activities as appeal to it and as are
suited to its community; but no club should allow any objective activity
to obscure the objects of Rotary or jeopardize the primary purpose for
which a Rotary Club is organized; and Rotary International, although it
may study, standardize and develop such activities as are general and
make helpful suggestions regarding them, should never prescribe nor
proscribe any objective activity for any club. |
6. Although regulations are not prescribed for an
individual Rotary club in the selection of objective activities, the
following rules are suggested for its guidance:
(a) Because of the limited membership of Rotary, only in
a community where there is no adequate civic or other organization in a
position to speak and act for the whole community should a Rotary club
engage in a general civic activity that requires for its success the
active support of the entire citizenship of the community; and, where a
Chamber of Commerce exists, a Rotary club should not trespass upon nor
assume its functions, but Rotarians, as individuals committed to and
trained in the principle of service, should be members of and active in
their Chamber of Commerce and as citizens of their community should,
along with all other good citizens, be interested in every general civic
enterprise, and, as far as their abilities permit, do their part in
money and service.
(b) As a general thing, no Rotary club should endorse any
project, no matter how meritorious, unless the club is prepared and
willing to assume all or part of the responsibility for the
accomplishment of that which it endorses.
 (c) A Rotary club, in selecting an activity, should seek
neither publicity nor credit for itself but only the opportunity to
serve.
(d) A Rotary club should avoid duplication of effort and
in general should not engage in an activity that is already being well
handled by some other agency.
(e) A Rotary club in its activities should preferably
cooperate with existing agencies, but where necessary may create new
agencies where the facilities of the existing agencies are insufficient
to accomplish its purpose. It is better for a Rotary club to improve an
existing agency than to create a new and duplicative agency.
(f) In all its activities a Rotary club acts best and is
most successful as a propagandist. A Rotary club discovers a need but,
where the responsibility is that of the entire community, does not seek
alone to remedy it but to awaken others to the necessity of the remedy,
seeking to arouse the community to its responsibility so that this
responsibility may be placed not on Rotary alone but on the entire
community where it belongs; and while Rotary may initiate and lead in
the work it should endeavor to secure the cooperation of all other
organizations that ought to be interested and should seek to give them
full credit, even minimizing the credit to which the Rotary Club itself
is entitled.
(g) Activities, which enlist the individual efforts of
all Rotarians generally are more in accord with the genius of Rotary
than those requiring only the mass action of the club, because the
objective activities of the Rotary club should be regarded only as
laboratory experiments designed to train members of a Rotary club in
Service.
Also see a 1949
editorial referencing the resolution.
Graphics:
Calum Thomson
|
