Lunching with the Rotary Club

 What would it take to change the world? Rotary's 1.2 million members believe it starts with a commitment to Service Above Self. 

 http://www.rotary.org

The quote above is how the Rotary Club's "About Us" information tab begins its organizational narrative. There is something refreshing in the direct and simple commandment. The question is daunting. It is the kind of question that makes people throw up their hands and go about their business. One hour of broadcast news can fell a person, knock them flat down. Rivers burning, oceans turning into plastic dumps, bees up and disappearing, despots ruling and running for office, people dying in small and heartbreakingly tragic number and at numbers so great we could not count them in a day--there is a story to break you in half on the half hour.

What would it take to change the world? The world is such a big place, how could the question possibly be answered? I study and write about place, because I think that place is where we begin our world experience. From home to hometown, from feeling at home and in place to being lost and feeling out of place, we put ourselves into action in location. Even if it is a mental action, and the place is far away or imagined, place is where we come into the world, the boundary between our skin and our society. There is something both old fashioned and deeply spiritual about claiming the world can be saved through a "commitment to Service Above Self."

The history of the Rotary Club, as per the Rotary Club International resonates with my small town place study:

           The world's first service club, the Rotary Club of Chicago, was formed on 23 February 1905 by Paul P. Harris, an attorney who wished to capture in a professional club the same friendly spirit he had felt in the small towns of his youth. The Rotary name derived from the early practice of rotating meetings among members' offices.

           Rotary's popularity spread, and within a decade, clubs were chartered from San Francisco to New York to Winnipeg, Canada. By 1921, Rotary clubs had been formed on six continents. The organization adopted the Rotary International name a year later.

           As Rotary grew, its mission expanded beyond serving club members’ professional and social interests. 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 motto: Service Above Self.

           By July 1925, Rotary had grown to more than 2,000 clubs and an estimated 108,000 members. The organization's distinguished reputation attracted presidents, prime ministers, and a host of other luminaries to its ranks — among them author Thomas Mann, diplomat Carlos P. Romulo, humanitarian Albert Schweitzer, and composer Jean Sibelius.

           The Four-Way Test

           In 1932, Rotarian Herbert J. Taylor created The Four-Way Test, a code of ethics adopted by Rotary 11 years later. The test, which has been translated into more than 100 languages, asks the following questions:

           Of the things we think, say or do

                     Is it the TRUTH?

                     Is it FAIR to all concerned?

                     Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?

                     Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?

           Rotary and World War II

           During World War II, many clubs were forced to disband, while others stepped up their service efforts to provide emergency relief to victims of the war. In 1942, looking ahead to the postwar era, Rotarians called for a conference to promote international educational and cultural exchanges. This event inspired the founding of UNESCO.

           In 1945, 49 Rotary club members served in 29 delegations to the UN Charter Conference. Rotary still actively participates in UN conferences by sending observers to major meetings and covering the United Nations in its publications.

           "Few there are who do not recognize the good work which is done by Rotary clubs throughout the free world," former Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Great Britain once declared.

           Dawn of a new century

           As it approached the 21st century, Rotary worked to meet society’s changing needs, expanding its service efforts to address such pressing issues as environmental degradation, illiteracy, world hunger, and children at risk.

           In 1989, the organization voted to admit women into clubs worldwide. Today, women are an integral part of Rotary's membership.

           After 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. The first Russian Rotary club was chartered in 1990, and the organization underwent a growth spurt for the next several years.

           More than a century after Paul Harris and his colleagues chartered the club that eventually led to Rotary International, Rotarians continue to take pride in their history. In honor of that first club, Rotarians have preserved its original meeting place, Room 711 in Chicago’s Unity Building, by re-creating the office as it existed in 1905. For several years, the Paul Harris 711 Club maintained the room as a shrine for visiting Rotarians. In 1989, when the building was scheduled to be demolished, the club carefully dismantled the office and salvaged the interior, including doors and radiators. In 1993, the RI Board of Directors set aside a permanent home for the restored Room 711 on the 16th floor of RI World Headquarters in nearby Evanston.

           Today, 1.2 million Rotarians belong to over 32,000 Rotary clubs in more than 200 countries and geographical areas.  

This history hints at some of the problems with Rotary Club, a charge that can be leveled at about any institution in American society. The quiet mention that women were allowed in right before the 1990s speaks to a history of exclusion in American. Gender, race, class and sexual orientation have kept a lot of people out of private "members only" clubs. And public organizations. And away from all kinds of social and civic rewards. America's history, which is also a global history, is one of segregation and exclusion, violent or benign. It is a history of how we use categories to define others. This is a big part of why the world is in such desperate need of saving in my opinion.  

When I mentioned to a friend yesterday that I had been to lunch with the Rotary Club of Truth or Consequences, as a guest, there was a subtle derision in the laughter. It had nothing to do with the nations or the worlds history of malfeasance, or any particular knowledge of this particular Rotary Club, it was a little closer to the small town "club," which honestly rankled me. As though going to Rotary Club lunch was so old fashioned and small town that it was funny. He certainly thought it was funny. But this guy is a bit of a cynic. When I got off of the phone I kept thinking on it though. I am now writing madly so I can get some of this posted before tonight's town planning meeting on the old youth center site. More on that in my next post.   

I will say this, it was rather old fashioned. In a Christmas Caroling door-to-door old fashioned. Old fashioned in the help your neighbor kind of way. A presentation was given on a new foundation established to serve individuals in the community with prescription pill addictions. It was a moving and harrowing presentation. I will talk about New Mexico's drug epidemic soon, because in a state that ranks at the top for addition and overdoses, Sierra County ranks at the top in the state. But there was a good willed can-do spirit in the room that took the edge off of these statistics. Attendance dollars were gathered for missed meetings. I loved being there. I was gifted a happy dollar, or perhaps an announcement dollar, in order to introduce my work and me self. I was not taking notes because I was so busy eating the K-Bobs salad bar I had heaped in front of me. Lunch, as an invited guest, was also gifted. Everyone was so nice. I honestly felt a little out of time. 

The next day I interviewed the club's restaurant server. She was generous and willing to give me some time. She is gorgeous and friendly and sharp. Her girl is one, and we met at Ralph Edwards park so my girl could run around while we talked. She wants to move away, and I wanted to know why. She said it was because she is tired of New Mexico's rankings. The lists that we top are the bad ones. We are a poor state, and we have a lot of problems. She wanted to move closer to her family, she said, because home is more about family than about place. I am still thinking that one through. When I asked her the worst thing about the town, she laughed and said it was the trash talking. Trash is not the word she used. Everyone is in your business. Everyone knows your business. But this is also what she described at the best part of the town. You know everyone, and when you need help, people are there. They may talk about you, but they care about you too. And they will put their money and time where their mouths are. 

This is what I was thinking of when I called my friend, excited about my field work and my growing body of interviews and my Rotary Club luncheon. Because what she said helped me figure out why I liked being at the "club" so much. You got the feeling that these people were good for their word, and that their words and deeds would be pretty well aligned. Having been in Truth or Consequences for over a month now, I can guarantee someone will read this post and set me straight, because word will get around that I am a Rotary Club cheerleader now. What can I say? I served in AmeriCorps, one of my favorite quotes is Mahatma Gandhi's "Be the change that you wish to see in the world," and I believe in Service Above Self. Our reach can only extend so far, but join hands you know.   I think that thinking around ourselves and seeing beyond ourselves might be the only way we can save the world. I also loved the international flags on the banners. A "friendly spirit of small towns" does not have to be provincial, it can be global. Small towns are everywhere the world over.