Please Join Us In Establishing an Enjoyable and Effective Organization of Civic-Minded Wall Street Professionals

Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, is an entrepreneur that many from the Wall Street Community know and respect. In January 2009, Mr. Gates has made another significant contribution to the world by donating a total of $355 million to continue making a difference in the world by partnering with the more than 1.2 million business leaders and professionals in more than 172 countries through the Rotary International network.

Click to watch a 5 minute video of Bill Gates regarding Rotary’s Effectiveness. January 2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tH1vPTVGHOk

Surprising, while there are more than 32,000 Rotary chapters around the world, and five chapters in Manhattan, there is currently no Rotary Club of Wall Street. With this in mind, we are inviting civic and globally-minded Wall Street Professionals to join a seasoned group of like-minded business owners and professionals that know the benefits and effectiveness of the Rotary model to establish a chapter here on the “Street”.

Information about Rotary:

Established in 1905, Rotary International provides an organized and enjoyable way for civic-minded executives and professionals to contribute their skills to the progress of New York and to the needy areas of the world because you and your company will become part of the 1.2 million worldwide network, and warmly welcomed at the 33,000 clubs in more that 172 countries. You will also establish life-long friendships with other like-minded men and women in a cross-section of industries and professions.

In concert with a number of interesting and enjoyable fund raisers, our club will provided support to needy local and international projects -The Heart and Soul of our Club. Part of our club’s service projects include providing technical and financial assistance, as well as providing helping-hands and recognition to a number of worthy New York organizations.

Guest Speaker Program

At nearly every weekly meeting, we invite an informative and recognized industry leader to meet with club members. They provide us with first-hand insight on a wide-array of relevant topics such as politics, economics, finance, poverty-eradication, health, media, art, music, history, film, etc. The presentation and Q&A period normally lasts about 30 minutes, but our guest(s) usually remain after the lunch for an informal, extended conversation.

Where We Meet – The Downtown Association 5:30 to 6:30 PM for cocktails.

One of the wise policies of Rotary Clubs is not to own any real estate for our weekly meetings. Rotarians prefer to spend their time and energy on service projects and fellowship with other like-minded individuals, rather than expending resources on the costly responsibility of maintaining and managing a building. It is the tradition of Rotarians to simply meet at a comfortable and convenient restaurant or hotel to enjoy our weekly meetings.

Flagship Program

Rotary’s Polio-Plus Program that was started in 1985 is credited with the near-eradication of polio from our planet. We are very proud of the recent Wall Street Journal Editorial. The NY Times had a similar editorial but did not recommend us for the “Noble Peace Prize”.

It should be noted that our Polio-Plus program is only the tip of the iceberg. Tens of thousands of Club to Club poverty-eradication projects are completed every year. Most of these projects are not registered with any central agency or even with Rotary International. Therefore, there is no centralized annual accounting of these projects, but it is in the tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars. Visit any developing country and it would be very difficult to find a region where a Rotary Club from an economically developed country has not built a school house, medical clinic, or ball field.

Rotary and the United Nations

In 1945, forty-nine Rotary members served in 29 delegations to the United Nations Charter Conference. Rotary still actively participates in UN conferences by sending observers to major meetings and promoting the United Nations in Rotary publications. Rotary International’s relationship with the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) dates back to a 1943 London Rotary conference that promoted international cultural and educational exchanges. Attended by ministers of education and observers from around the world, and chaired by a past president of RI, the conference was an impetus to the establishment of UNESCO in 1946.

Click here for information about Rotary Peace Scholars: http://www.clubrunner.ca/Data/7230/3633/html/67209/rotary_peace_efforts.htm

What is Rotary International?

Rotary International is a worldwide organization of business and professional leaders that provides humanitarian service, encourages high ethical standards in all vocations, and helps build goodwill and peace in the world. Approximately 1.2 million Rotarians belong to more than 31,000 Rotary clubs located in 167 countries.

The Rotary Club of Chicago, Illinois, USA, the world’s first service club was formed in February 1905 by Paul P. Harris, an attorney who wished to recapture in a professional club the same friendly spirit he had felt in the small towns of his youth. The name “Rotary” derived from the early practice of rotating meetings among members’ offices. Rotary’s popularity spread throughout the United States in the decade that followed; clubs were chartered from San Francisco to New York. By 1921, Rotary clubs had been formed on six continents, and the organization adopted the name Rotary International a year later. As Rotary grew, its mission expanded beyond serving the professional and social interests of club members. Rotarians began pooling their resources and contributing their talents to help serve communities in need. The organization’s dedication to this ideal is best expressed in its principal motto: Service Above Self.

Rotary also later embraced a code of ethics, called The 4-Way Test, that has been translated into hundreds of languages.During and after World War II, Rotarians became increasingly involved in promoting international understanding.

An endowment fund, set up by Rotarians in 1917 “for doing good in the world,” became a not-for-profit corporation known as The Rotary Foundation in 1928. Upon the death of Paul Harris in 1947, an outpouring of Rotarian donations made in his honor, totaling US$2 million, launched the Foundation’s first program — graduate fellowships, now called Ambassadorial Scholarships. Today, contributions to The Rotary Foundation total more than US$80 million annually and support a wide range of humanitarian grants and educational programs that enable Rotarians to bring hope and promote international understanding throughout the world. In 1985, Rotary made a historic commitment to immunize all of the world’s children against polio. Working in partnership with nongovernmental organizations and national governments thorough its PolioPlus program, Rotary is the largest private-sector contributor to the global polio eradication campaign. Rotarians have mobilized hundreds of thousands of PolioPlus volunteers and have immunized more than one billion children worldwide. By the 2005 target date for certification of a polio-free world, Rotary will have contributed half a billion dollars to the cause.As it approached the dawn of the 21st century, Rotary worked to meet the changing needs of society, expanding its service effort to address such pressing issues as environmental degradation, illiteracy, world hunger, and children at risk.

The organization admitted women for the first time (worldwide) in 1989 and claims more than 145,000 women in its ranks today. Following the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Rotary clubs were formed or re-established throughout Central and Eastern Europe. Today, 1.2 million Rotarians belong to some 31,000 Rotary clubs in 172 countries.

1905 First Rotary club organized in Chicago, Illinois, USA1905

Second club formed in San Francisco, .

Rotary Club of New York organized in 1909,

First Rotary convention held in Chicago1912.

The Rotary Club of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, becomes the first club outside the United States to be officially chartered. (The club was formed in 1910.)

1917 Endowment fund, forerunner of The Rotary Foundation, established

1932 Four-Way Test formulated by Chicago Rotarian Herbert J. Taylor

1945 Forty-nine Rotarians help draft United Nations Charter in San Francisco

1947 Rotary founder Paul Harris dies;

1947 First 18 Rotary Foundation scholarships granted

1962 First Interact club formed in Melbourne, Florida, USA

1965 Rotary Foundation launches Matching Grants and Group Study Exchange programs

1978 RI’s largest convention, with 39,834 registrants, held in Tokyo

1985 Rotary announces PolioPlus program to immunize all the children of the world against polio

1989 Council on Legislation opens Rotary membership to women worldwide

1989 Rotary clubs chartered in Budapest, Hungary, and Warsaw, Poland, for first time in almost 50 years

1990 Rotary Club of Moscow chartered first club in Soviet Union

1990-91Preserve Planet Earth program inspires some 2,000 Rotary-sponsored environmental projects1994Western Hemisphere declared polio-free

1999 Rotary Centers for International Studies in Peace and Conflict Resolution established

2000 Western Pacific declared polio-free 2002 Europe declared polio-free; first class of 70 Rotary Peace Scholars begin study

2003 Rotarians raise more than US$118 million to support the final stages of polio eradication