 The insistence on keeping to
a single member for each classification led indirectly to the formation
of the 'Stand Together Club' in
Kansas City, Missouri, by Dr George W.
Smith in 1912. The classification of 'physician' had already been filled
in the Kansas City Rotary Club, so Smith started a new club with the
motto of 'SERvice TO MAnkind'. This, after a first change of name to
'Co-operative Clubs', was adopted in 1950 as the organisation's title 'SERTOMA'
with the motto 'Make Life Worthwhile'. Operating on a similar model to
Rotary with districts and regions (zones) and a charitable Foundation,
Sertoma is now almost exclusively confined to North and Central America,
but with its headquarters still based in Kansas City. Like Rotary it has
now become a dual gender organisation.Rotary was well aware that
strict adherence to classification rules and limitations on club size
might be barriers to increasing membership. In the 'Manual of Procedure'
in the early 1920s, appears the comment: "And then, too, other similar
organisations with no such restriction, usually profit at the expense of
he Rotary Club having this limitation." There was also a feeling that
Rotary appealed mainly to the older and more senior members of the
community.
This latter concern was met with by another organisation which was
started directly by Rotarians 'Round Table'. In 1927, Louis Marchesi of
the Norwich Rotary Club had realised that there was a need for a club
with similar ideals to Rotary but catering for young business and
professional men (up to the age of 40) who were not yet at a level where
they were eligible for the older organisation. The inaugural meeting was
well attended and so the new club came into being with Marchesi as
Secretary and other Rotarians among its officers. The first club was
soon followed by a second and then several more. On May 25, 1928, the
National Association of Round Table Clubs was formed at a meeting held
at Rotary's London offices and the RIBI conference of 1928 actually
passed a motion "That this conference recommends the Rotarians of Great
Britain and Ireland to foster the promotion ..of clubs of young business
and professional men similar to the Norwich Round Table Club" . Round
Table subsequently became an international organisation in its own right
and has no direct connection with Rotary although many British Rotarians
were originally Tablers, and there is often local co-operation. Another
organisation for younger business men called the 'Young Men's
Progressive Civic Association' had been formed in St Louis, Missouri, by
Henry Giessenbier in 1915 which subsequently became the Jaycees or
Junior Chamber of Commerce in America, and later in other countries.
This was in effect an earlier attempt to do the same as Round Table but
without Rotary input.
In Canada, the need for a younger club was also seen by Hal Rogers
whose father was a Rotarian. He created the KInsmen Club in Hamilton,
Ontario, for the 21-40 age group in 1920 and this led to others
throughout Canada. Paul Claiburne of Auburn, California had a similar
idea in 1922 and he formed a '20-30 Club' in Sacramento. With help from
Rotary headquarters, and the local Rotary club, a second '20-30 Club'
was started in Stockton, California, and others soon afterwards. Both of
these organisations had ideals similar to those of Rotary but were
restricted to North America. |
The second of the big three
of international service organisations is the Lions whose membership was
slightly more open than Rotary or Kiwanis. It was started in 1917 by
Melvyn Jones, a young insurance man, who sought to bring into one
organisation several independent groups of business and professional men
which had been started in the wake of Rotary's success. At Dallas in
October 1917 a convention of some 25 such clubs adopted the motto 'We
Serve' and formed themselves into Lions International. Comparable in
size and spread to Rotary, this organisation also has its headquarters
in Chicago. In 1933, Paul Harris' brother Reginald actually took up a
field position in Lions International The third of the big three
international service organisations, dedicated to 'Serving the children
of the world', is Kiwanis International. Kiwanis was started by Allen
Browne, a professional organiser of groups, who, in 1914, wanted to
start a new kind of organisation for business and professional men in
Detroit, Michigan. The first club there began life in January 1915 and
was soon followed by many more throughout the United States and Canada.
Similar again to Rotary, Kiwanis also faced the problem early on as to
whether their prime purpose was mutual business benefits for members or
community service. In 1921 the membership adopted clear cut policies of
'Service'. Today, Kiwanis has grown into an international service
organisation about half the size of Rotary and represented in perhaps
half the number of countries.
It is interesting to note that all these organisations have mottos
which involve 'Service' and clearly indicate the underlying ideals
behind all of them. Another similarity concerned 'paid' or 'field
organisers'. These were people who took pay for starting clubs or
recruiting members. The case of Stuart Morrow in Rotary is recorded at
our section of
Rotary's early leaders. Kiwanis had
a problem with their founder, Allen Browne, who actually owned rights in
the organisation. In 1919 he had to be paid off at a cost of $17,500!
There are several other organisations throughout the world which
cater for both single and dual gender membership. A few exist in more
than one country but the big three international organisations remain
Rotary,
Lions and
 Kiwanis.
Although these three were for men only, there was a recognition that
a similar organisation was needed for women.
Some of these are
detailed elsewhere.
Basil Lewis |
