WELCOME

TO THE ROTARY CLUB OF AUCKLAND

The Rotary Club of Auckland is a service Club of 170 of Auckland's business and community leaders. Established in 1921, the Club is one of the longest serving in Australasia. The Club reflects the vision of Rotary founder Paul Harris in fostering the spirit of both individual and groups to reach out in service to help others less fortunate in the community - providing the opportunity and vehicle for members to develop acquaintance, fellowship and action networks through membership of the Club.

Club membership is by invitation. It is based on a classification system of choosing a representative of each vocation, business, profession and institution in the community. This ensures that Club members comprise a true cross section of our community's leaders of business and professional life.

As a representative of one's vocation, acceptance of membership represents a personal commitment on the part of the member to embrace the ideals of Rotary and to exemplify high ethical standards in his or her own vocation or occupation. The concepts of fellowship and active involvement are encouraged. Members enjoy regular attendance at weekly meetings, either within our Club or at make-up visits to enjoy the fellowship and experience of other Clubs.

All Rotary Clubs meet weekly, over lunch, dinner or breakfast. The Rotary Club of Auckland meets mid-day each Monday for lunch, followed by news of Club events, a guest speaker or discussion on matters of interest.

• ROTARY'S SERVICE WORK
• CHARITABLE SUPPORT
• ROTARY INTERNATIONAL

ROTARY'S SERVICE WORK

The service work of Rotary is through participation in the various project teams of the Club, and by contribution to local, district, national and international activity which is on-going and has been since the establishment of Rotary nearly a century ago.

Involvement in Rotary can be summarised in the four avenues of service in which the Club may be actively engaged, or in new projects which may be introduced by a member:

• Club Service focuses on strengthening fellowship and ensuring the effective functioning of the club.
• Vocational Service encourages Rotarians to serve others through their vocations and to practice high ethical standards.
• Community Service covers the projects and activities the club undertakes to improve life in its community.
• International Service encompasses actions taken to expand Rotary's humanitarian reach around the globe and to promote world understanding and peace.

The main objective of a Rotary Club is service - in the community, in the workplace and throughout the world. Rotary International has developed a broad range of programmes to help individual Clubs carry out this vital mission. Some of these programmes have been underway for many years, while others have been developed more recently to meet emerging needs.

Rotary's community development programmes address many of today's most critical issues - health, hunger, poverty, the environment, education, and literacy to name a few. Other programmes focus on the development of young people with leadership training and student exchanges.

Vocation concerns figure in many Club and District activities designed to promote ethical standards in the workplace and to help young people and others become and remain productive members of society.

The International nature of these programmes enables Rotary Clubs and Districts to support, participate, share information and arrange exchanges with Rotarians in other countries to aid the international effort and to assist with the development and execution of their own local projects.

In addition to community service, Rotarians are encouraged to put into practice the high ideals of Rotary in their day to day private, business and professional lives, guided by the "Four Way Test" of things we think, do or say.

• Is it the Truth?
• Is it Fair to all concerned?
• Will it build Goodwill and Better Friendships?
• Will it be beneficial to all concerned?

On such platforms is built the spirit of Rotary throughout the world. TOC

CHARITABLE SUPPORT

As part of its service commitment the Rotary Club of Auckland has pioneered and supported a wide range of medical, charitable, youth and education programmes within our city over the last 80 years, and actively supports many other national and international activities.

• In 1935, New Zealand Rotary established The Crippled Children Society (CCS), which the Auckland club continues to support.
• In 1945, the Club established the Obstetrical and Gynaecological Committee, which raised funds to endow a Professorial Chair and the University of Auckland, which eventually led to the establishment of National Womens' Hospital in Auckland.
• To mark the 50th Anniversary of Rotary International in 1955, the District Golden Jubilee Committee developed ROTA (Rotary Overseas Travel Award), which was so successful that it was subsequently adopted by The Rotary Foundation and adapted to become the Group Study Exchange, still one Rotary's most successful international programmes.
• In 1961, the Club's Youth Committee project sparked off a project that with the support of the Governor General, Viscount Cobham, and other was to become know as The Outward Bound Trust, which continues its characters-building adventure training for young people to this day.
• On the Club's 50th Anniversary in 1971, Rotary raised $340,000 to establish The National Children's Health Foundation.
• 1987 saw the establishment of the Reaching out Trust, which grew to become The Child Development Foundation of New Zealand, a programme dedicated to helping intermediate school children grow into better citizens as they cope with the problems of peer pressure in their developmental years.
• In 1994, the club looked to build an event to raise funds for charitable work on an annual basis. From this stemmed the nationally and internationally acclaimed Ellerslie Flower Show. In 2004, the Ellerslie Flower show was sold, after having distributed $645,000 in surpluses for local charities.
• In 1996 the TYLA - Turn Your Life Around - programme was established with the help of the Rotary Club of Auckland. This is a year long course supported by the police that aims to make a positive difference to the lives of at-risk youths.
• The Books for Babes project began in 1997 when the Rotary Club of Auckland sought to put resources into the local community for early health and wellbeing. Books purchased by the club were distributed with ideas on how to reading to very young children through the Well Child initiative. The project now extends across many parts of Auckland with support from Auckland City Libraries and of various visits and reading programmes.
• In 2008 the Rotary Club of Auckland ran its initial Golf Team Invitational fundraising tournament as a successful way to increase both club fellowship and fundraising for further charitable works.

Throughout the years, the Rotary Club of Auckland has initiated and continued support through both governance and/or funding of many major deserving organisations including the Scouts, YMCA, Plunket, Salvation Army, Heritage, Junior Symphony orchestra, Intellectual Handicapped, Auckland City Mission, Outward Bound, Craftsman Training, Medical Graduate Award, Vocational Service Award, Nursing Trophy of Tradition, Rotary Youth Leadership Awards, Spirit of New Zealand, Youthtown and many others.

At international level the Club supports (amongst other worthy projects) the Rotary Foundation, the 3H Programme (Health Hunger and Humanity), and Rotary's Polio Plus programme, which collectively have distributed hundreds of millions of dollars towards education, health and support of the handicapped, underprivileged and hungry throughout the world.

The Polio Plus programme, launched in 1985, aims to immunize all of the world's children against polio. To date over 2 billion children have benefited. Working with the World Health Organisation, UNICEF and the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention Rotary has contributed nearly US$700 million to keep alive the dream of a polio-free world. TOC

ROTARY INTERNATIONAL

Many satisfying achievements and lifelong friendships have ensued from the fellowship and enjoyment of worthwhile community service through membership of the Rotary Club of Auckland, and its affiliation with Rotary International.

Rotary, established in 1905, was the world first service Club organisation. Today it is an association of nearly 33,000 local clubs, with over 1,200,000 members in more than 200 countries and geographic areas - gathered into a larger organisation called Rotary International. The individual Rotarian - the heart and soul of Rotary - is a member of his or her local club; all Clubs are members of Rotary International.

As the entity representing the global association of all Rotary Clubs, Rotary International's mission is to assist Rotarians and Rotary Clubs to accomplish the Object of Rotary, emphasising service activities by individuals and groups. In particular, those that enhance the quality of life and human dignity, encourage high ethical standards, and create greater understanding among all people to advance the search for peace in the world.

The Object of Rotary is the cornerstone of the organisation. It states the essential purpose of Rotary, to encourage and foster the ideal of service as a basis of worthwhile enterprise and list four areas by which this Ideal of Service can be fostered.

• The development of acquaintance as an opportunity for service.
• The promotion of high ethical standards in business and professions, the recognition of the worthiness of all useful occupations and the dignifying of each Rotarian's occupation as an opportunity to serve society.
• The application of the Ideal of Service in every Rotarian's personal, business and community life.
• The advancement of international understanding, goodwill and peace through a world fellowship of persons united in the ideal of service.