Rotary Historian visits Byesville Rotary

Pictured: Larry Miller, Speaker Host, and Elden Hudson, Speaker.

Meeting notes:
The club has reserved two spots for local students at the 2012 RYLA Conference that will beld this summer in Athens.

Elden Hudson, a member of Rotary for 56 years and currently a member of the Zanesville Noon Rotary Club, spoke to Byesville club members about the 100 year history of Rotary International

In 2012, Rotary Clubs celebrate 107 years of service. Unlike some service clubs, Rotary has survived 2 world wars and the Great Depression. Rotary clubs were the inspiration of one man with an idea. Paul Harris established the first club on February 23, 1905 in Chicago. Only four men attended the first meeting. By October, the new club had 30 members.

Club meetings were informal and were open to business and professional men. The meeting place changed or “rotated” each week with a different member hosting the meeting at his place of business. This characteristic lead to the adoption of “Rotary” as the official club name. The rules and activities of these early meetings are reflected in the characteristics of modern Rotary meetings.

The goal of the club was to provide a place for business men to meet in fellowship with each other. At Rotary meetings, members addressed each other by their first names—a big change in etiquette during the early 1900’s when businessmen always addressed each other as “Mr.” Members were fined for “misdeeds” such as forgetting to wear the club pin or getting their picture in the paper.

In 1908, a second club was established in San Francisco. By 1910, ten clubs had been established around the United States. By 1911, the club was international with clubs in Canada, England and Ireland.

Rotary began developing from a club enabling member to network with other businessmen to a service club soon after Rotary was established. The first recorded humanitarian act was when club members donated $150 dollars to a help a young doctor replace his horse. In 1907, the Chicago Rotary financed a public restroom for Chicago. The importance of service to club members is reflected in the club motto “Service Above Self.”

Today, Rotary is an international club with a total of 4200 clubs worldwide and over 200 million members.
Byesville Rotary meets every Tuesday, 7:30 am, at the Stop Nine Senior Center at 60313 (GPS use 60299) Southgate Road, Byesville. Anyone interested in learning more about the Byesville Rotary can call Membership Chairs Marty Patchen, 740-685-3828, or Randy Launder, 740-685-8294.