WHAT IS ROTARY? TIP! |
About Rotary and our Club
Find the following on this page:
Rotary
The Object of Rotary
The Four-Way Test
Four Avenues of Service
Our Club Today
Membership of Rotary
Why Join Rotary?
The History of our Club
Also on another page:
Current Membership and Officers
Rotary 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 32,000 clubs in more than 200 countries and geographical areas.
Please find downloadable introductory booklets below:
"What's Rotary?" (click here)
"This is Rotary" (click here)
"Rotary Basics" (click here)
The Object of Rotary is to encourage and foster the ideal of service as a basis of worthy enterprise and, in particular, to encourage and foster:
1. The development of acquaintance as an opportunity for service;
2. 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;
3. The application of the ideal of service in each Rotarian's personal, business, and community life;
4. The advancement of international understanding, goodwill, and peace through a world fellowship of business and professional persons united in the ideal of service.
From the earliest days of the organization, Rotarians were concerned with promoting high ethical standards in their professional lives. One of the world's most widely printed and quoted statements of business ethics is The Four-Way Test, which was created in 1932 by Rotarian Herbert J. Taylor (who later served as RI president) when he was asked to take charge of a company that was facing bankruptcy.
This 24-word test for employees to follow in their business and professional lives became the guide for sales, production, advertising, and all relations with dealers and customers, and the survival of the company is credited to this simple philosophy. Adopted by Rotary in 1943, The Four-Way Test has been translated into more than a hundred languages and published in thousands of ways. It asks the following four questions:
Of the things we think, say or do:
1. Is it the TRUTH?
2. Is it FAIR to all concerned?
3. Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
4. Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
Based on the Object of Rotary, the Four Avenues of Service are Rotary's philosophical cornerstone and the foundation on which club activity is based:
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 Rotary Club of Loughton and Buckhurst Hill is a warm and friendly club that continues to support both Community and International programmes to the best of its ability.
Our meetings take place on Thursdays 12.45 for 1pm (though different arrangements may apply on 5th Thursdays or for some other times - please contact us to confirm)
We meet at the Old Chigwellians' Club: Roding Lane, Chigwell, Essex. IG7 6BE
Membership of Rotary:
Attracting new members is vital to a Rotary club's long term success, and so
clubs put a great deal of emphasis on expanding their membership with
enthusiastic and service-minded individuals.
Prospective members must
actively hold (or be retired from) a professional, proprietary, executive or
managerial position. And they must have the desire and ability to serve and to
meet the club's attendance requirements for its weekly meetings.
An
important distinction between Rotary and other organizations is that membership
in Rotary is by invitation. However this should not stop anyone who feels that
they might like to become a Rotarian from indicating an interest, either by
speaking to a Rotarian, or by getting in touch with a local Club - with no
obligation on either side.
Clubs usually maintain a list of the types of
businesses and professions in their community and seek candidates to fill
classifications not already held by an active member of the club, but
classifications are many and varied.
Examples of classifications
include, for example: Schools; Universities; Eye Surgery; Tyres -Distributing;
Tyres -Retailing; Dramatic Arts; Law -civil.) In this manner, a club aims to
include a significant cross section of its community's vocational life, and has
the widest possible resources and expertise for its service programs and
projects.
If you are interested, we really would like to hear from
you.
Why join Rotary?
We have some downloadable reasons! (click here)
These are the members of the Loughton and Buckhurst Hill Club (click here)
During 1934 Rotarian Bert Wright of the Walthamstow Club was Chairman of the District Extension Committee. It was decided to try and form a Rotary Club in the new Urban District of Chigwell which included Loughton, Buckhurst Hill and Chigwell.
A meeting was held at the offices of Ambrose & Son on 15 March 1935 under the Chairmanship of Rotarian W. Jones, President of the Woodford Club. He and other members of the Woodford Club met Gordon Ambrose (Estate Agent) J. W. Faulkner (Clerk of Chigwell Council) Frank Foster (Builder and also Chairman of Chigwell Council) Harold Mileson (Architect) and R. H. Wickens (Chemist) who undertook to ‘make a survey’ of the District. By 5th December the numbers had increased to 12.
The Inaugural Meeting:
The inaugural meeting was held at the Roebuck Hotel on 5 March 1936 and 120 men attended. The first council meeting was on 17 March 1936. The Loughton Rotary Club received its Charter from District Chairman Rortarian Gordon Bailey at the Chilton Court Hotel on 26 March 1936. The Club was up and running.
1936/7
President L. B. Woodcock (Secretary of Forest Hospital)
Vice-President J. G. Ambrose F.A.I. (Estate Agent)
Hon. Treasurer J. H. Rees (Manager of Barclays Bank)
Hon. Secretary H. Mileson A.R.I.B.A. (Architect)
25 members in total
First Community Service:
All the members were actively engaged in business or professions with four members owning cars. The first community service was to transport sick people in the district, by car, to Forest Hospital as ambulances were scarce.
1938
On the 16 October 1938 the Club had a talk by the Council Air Raid Precautions Officer which resulted in the members forming the first A.R.P. class. Every member present joined and attended weekly lectures in first aid, rescue and the duties of wardens. Other clubs in the District followed our lead and formed classes.
The War years
Following the outbreak of war the Club decided to continue the Thursday meeting as long as possible and the lunch meetings in fact continued throughout the war. The biggest undertaking was the adoption of the drifter ‘Lord Howard’. The wives of Rotarians knitted woolen garments and these were sent with cigarettes, chocolate and other comforts for the crews to ease their arduous duties in the North Sea. The members tightened their belts, the annual subscription was reduced to one guinea and the weekly lunch to two shillings.
1945/6
The greatest work was the transport of returning Prisoners of War mainly from the Far East. Cars would line up at London’s main line stations. Orderlies would shout ‘Car for Southend!’ ‘Car for East Ham!’ Men were then driven to these destinations and hoped to find a loved one and that their home was still standing.
This year saw the institution of an Inner Wheel Club in Loughton, and together with the W.I. collected and sent 1500 parcels to Holland.
1950/60
The Club raised funds for ‘Guide Dogs for the Blind’ as well as providing great service within the community.
1960/70
In the late 1960’s the Club was involved with the Richard Dimbleby Cancer Fund working to find a cure for cancer and to care for those suffering from it.
A Mini car was donated by Rotarian Frank Brown as a raffle prize to raise funds.
(To be continued - under construction)
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