Resources for Prospective Members

Becoming a Rotarian

Responsibilities of Membership

Most of the information on this page was taken from the Rotary International web site.

It has been modified slightly for our club.

Click on Rotary International to go directly to the membership page on the RI site.

Information for Prospective Members

Rotarians are business and professional leaders who take an active role in their communities while greatly enriching their personal and professional lives. A Rotary club contains a diverse group of professional leaders from the community that the club serves.

Membership in a Rotary club offers a number of benefits, including:

Become connected to your community.
Work with others in addressing community needs.
Effect change within the community.
Develop leadership skills.
Gain an understanding of — and have an impact on — international humanitarian issues.
Develop relationships with community and business leaders.

Through Rotary's service programs, a Rotary club can have a significant effect on the quality of life in its community. Rotary Foundation programs offer opportunities to form international partnerships that help people in need worldwide. Some 1.2 million Rotarians in 30,000 clubs in more than 160 countries make significant contributions to the quality of life at home and around the globe.

View a Rotary prospective member video

View or order a three-minute video, without narration, illustrating international scenes of Rotary club members in action. The video, called Rotary Possibilities, emphasizes Rotary's motto, Service Above Self. View 30-second or 3-minute versions of the video here, then order it directly via the online catalog. The video may also be ordered by contacting Publications Order Services; tel.: 847-866-4600; fax 847-866-3276.

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	High Speed \| Low Speed (3 min - 27.6 MB)*
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Resources for Prospective Members

To find out more about Rotary's rich history and the organization's mission and structure, see About Rotary. Recent issues of the Rotary News Basket and The Rotarian spotlight Rotary club projects that promote literacy, provide disaster relief, support Rotary's global effort to eradicate polio, and address other critical community and world issues. See Becoming a Rotarian for Rotary's membership requirements and procedures.

Rotary membership is by invitation only. See About Us If you would like to learn more about the South Puget Sound Rotary club and its various service projects.

Becoming a Rotarian

An association of some 31,000 autonomous clubs in 166 countries, Rotary International is one of the world's largest service organizations. The goal for a club's membership is an up-to-date and progressive representation of the community's business, vocational, and professional interests.

An important distinction between Rotary and other organizations is that membership in Rotary is by invitation. Rotary clubs invite individuals to join and become members.

Membership is vital to a Rotary club's operations and community service activities. A primary goal of the club is to continually expand the club with committed members who have the interest and ability to get involved in service and humanitarian projects. Prospective members must:

hold — or be retired from — a professional, proprietary, executive, or managerial position;
have the capacity to meet the club's weekly attendance or community project participation requirements;
live or work within the locality of the club or the surrounding area.

The membership process
Often a person being considered for membership is invited by a member/sponsor to attend one or more club meetings to learn more about Rotary. The sponsor may then submit the name of the candidate to the club's membership committee.

An individual who is interested in membership but doesn't know any Rotarians can contact the local club directly.

Classifications: professional representation
Rotary uses a classification system to establish and maintain a vibrant cross-section or representation of the community's business, vocational, and professional interests among members and to develop a pool of resources and expertise to successfully implement service projects. This system is based on the founders' paradigm of choosing cross-representation of each business, profession, and institution within a community.

A classification describes either the principal business or the professional service of the organization that the Rotarian works for or the Rotarian's own activity within the organization. Some examples of classifications include: high schools, universities, eye surgery, banking, pharmaceutical-retailing, petroleum-distribution, and insurance agency.

Responsibilities of Membership

Rotary club membership carries with it certain responsibilities.

Members are expected to attend weekly programs of the club. Opportunities to make up attendance include attending the regular meeting of another Rotary club, attending various other Rotary meetings, or attending a club service project authorized by the club board of directors.
Members are required to pay annual dues.
Members are expected to participate in local or international activities or projects of the Rotary club.
Clubs encourage members to aspire to leadership or committee roles within their clubs.
New members in South Puget Sound Rotary are provided a Red Name Badge. Click to see how members transition to their Blue Name Badge.