Rotary International

Highlights of the May 2014 and «July» 2014 Board of Directors meetings include:
Alumni and current participants of Rotary and Foundation programs are now eligible to join Rotarian Action Groups.
Regional membership plans, approved in 2011 and set to expire on 30 June 2015, will continue as part of Rotary’s ongoing membership efforts.
The 2014-15 budgets for Rotary International and for Rotary Foundation programs are approved.
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Read the May and «July» minutes (English only)
Highlights of the June 2014 Rotary Foundation Trustees meeting include:
The worldwide Annual Fund…

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With 12 children — six girls and six boys — the Labordes hardly needed to add another member to their family. But they did: Over 40 years ago, Julia Mullikin, a Rotary Youth Exchange student from the United States, became like another daughter to this large family in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico.
«She’s been a blessing for us,» says Maria Victoria Hallal de Laborde who was 18 when Mullikin arrived in 1973. Like many exchange students, Mullikin remains close to her host family. So close that when one of Laborde’s sisters was diagnosed with a rare, fatal disease, Mullikin arranged to send the…

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More than three years after an earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster triggered widespread devastation in Japan, the physical scars are beginning to mend. Debris has been removed. Coastal communities are being rebuilt. Farming and fishing have resumed, and thousands of people have moved in to new housing.
But the Rotary Clubs of Koriyama West, Japan, and Englewood, New Jersey, USA, are concerned with the emotional and psychological impact caused by the triple disaster, known in Japan as 3/11, which claimed more than 19,000 lives and displaced hundreds of thousands of people.
In a country…

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RI President Gary C.K. Huang officially declared John F. Germ Rotary International’s president-nominee on 1 October.
The Nominating Committee for President of RI selected Germ, a member of the Rotary Club of Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA, in August. He will be formally elected at the 2015 RI Convention in São Paulo, Brazil and will become president on 1 July 2016.
Read more about Germ

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Every three years, Rotary International’s Council on Legislation meets to debate and vote on policies and ideas submitted by clubs, districts, and the RI Board. This process gives your club and district a voice in how our organization is governed.
The Council has the authority to amend RI’s constitutional documents, as well as adopt resolutions. Each district sends a representative to the meeting, and every club and district may propose legislation. The scope of legislation covers everything from club attendance requirements to the qualifications of the RI president.
Clubs and districts…

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This Membership Month, in celebration of over 100 years of service, we dug into the archives and found any number of parallels between today’s Rotary and yesterday’s. Though our world is constantly changing, this gallery reminds us how Rotary’s core values have remained intact through the decades.

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With bloody conflicts raging in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and parts of Central Africa, the message of nonviolence and reconciliation that nations worldwide will observe on 21 September demands more urgent and collective attention.
In 2001 the United Nations designated the September date as an annual International Day of World Peace «to be observed as a day of global ceasefire and nonviolence» according to a General Assembly resolution.
The day’s devotion to peace connects closely with what Rotary members have been fostering since The Rotary Foundation’s mission to advance world…

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When a serious illness stripped away many of her professional ambitions, Amanda Wirtz, a former U.S. Navy code breaker and professional violinist, turned to humanitarian service and Facebook to give her life new purpose.
Wirtz was in her twenties and pursuing a career as a fitness trainer when a sharp pain in her abdomen sent her to the emergency room. Expecting something manageable like appendicitis, she instead found herself facing a rare tumor disorder that required her to undergo 30 surgeries over the next several years.
Forced to rethink her life plans, Wirtz began focusing on how to…

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Erin Mills had just finished teaching for the day in Montevideo, Uruguay, when her smartphone buzzed with a message.
An impromptu gathering to watch Uruguay’s World Cup soccer match was being organized. Through the power of a mobile messaging app, a majority of the Rotary Club of Plaza Matriz had soon assembled at a member’s home to munch on baked goods and chips while rooting for their national team.
That enthusiasm and ability to draw a crowd has made the club, which just received its charter in July, a success in the country’s capital city. Made up almost entirely of young professionals,…

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Rotary celebrates World Polio Day on 24 October with a Livestream event featuring expert speakers and celebrity performers. Hosted by Time magazine science and technology editor Jeffrey Kluger, the Chicago event also includes a global status update on the fight to end polio and the challenges that remain, as well as information about joining Rotary’s historic campaign.
The program, being held before a live audience at 18:30 Chicago time (UTC-5), includes a performance from Tessanne Chin, 2013 winner of the TV show «The Voice,» an introductory message and videotaped performance by reggae star…

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