General Membership Information

Rotarians are business and professional leaders who take an active role in their communities while greatly enriching their personal and professional lives. A Rotary club contains a diverse group of professional leaders from the community that the club serves.

Through Rotary's service programs, a Rotary club can have a significant effect on the quality of life in its community. Programs of The Rotary Foundation offer opportunities to form international partnerships that help people in need worldwide. More than 1.2 million Rotarians make significant contributions to the quality of life at home and around the globe.

The goal for a club's membership is an up-to-date and progressive representation of the community's business, vocational, and professional interests.

An important distinction between Rotary and other organizations is that membership in Rotary is by invitation. Rotary clubs invite individuals to join and become members.

Membership is vital to a Rotary club's operations and community service activities. A primary goal of the club is to continually expand the club with committed members who have the interest and ability to get involved in service and humanitarian projects. Prospective members must:

• hold — or be retired from — a professional, proprietary, executive, or managerial position
• have the capacity to meet the club's weekly attendance or community project participation requirements;
• live or work within the locality of the club or the surrounding area.

Often a person being considered for membership is invited by a member/sponsor to attend one or more club meetings to learn more about Rotary. The sponsor may then submit the name of the candidate to the club's membership committee.

An individual who is interested in membership but doesn't know any Rotarians can contact the local club directly.