TENETS AND SYMBOLS

Rotary Wheel

First Bell

As everyone who is involved in the upper management or ownership of a business can explain, there is a page in every P & L (Profit and Loss) statement called the balance sheet. On it are two listings important to this project. The first is “Retained Earnings.” Retained earnings are the value that management has left in the company, instead of disbursing to the owners or shareholders.

This project is a “Retained Earning” of Rotary. The history, heritage and good deeds done by the members of Rotary clubs around the world are its retained earnings. If they weren’t retained, organizations such as the United Nations wouldn’t call on Rotarians to help end polio in the world. Scholars from Rotary countries wouldn’t apply for scholarships to study their specialties in other countries, and countries wouldn’t elect or appoint Rotarians or Rotary Scholars to important positions.

The second listing is “Intangible Assets.” Intangible assets are those unique elements that make the company different or more valuable. Two such assets are reputation and name recognition. The tenets and symbols of Rotary are its “Intangible Assets.”

From the adoption of a platform in 1911, to the ringing of a bell to call the regular meeting to order; from the adoption in 1923 of the Rotary wheel with its keyway, to the 4-Way Test written by Herb Taylor in 1932; these and more are part and parcel of Rotary’s “Intangible Assets.”

And, it is these elements, philosophical and graphical, integral and spiritual, that comprise the basis of what Rotary is and means today. It was not always so. Between the late 1910s and the early 1930s, Rotary underwent an evolution from a business-oriented organization to a service-oriented organization. The knowledge of Rotary’s Tenets and Symbols will help everyone when trying to understand Rotary’s Evolution.

Tenets and symbols are an important part of the History. Many are those things we see every week at meetings and maybe fail to remember.

This project, the History, is an exhaustive study of all of the tenets and symbols. Some, the mottos and the platform are mostly complete. Others are being worked upon, and portions will be posted as they are finished.

There is a page on the Object of Rotary, and The Four Way Test, yet there is much more to be written on both.

For more use: www.historysearch.org

All of these pages feature multiple links to take you to other reference material within this project, and a good portion of the source material is in the form of complete books that are online, within one of the websites that constitute The History of Rotary.

Doug Rudman