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 31,000 Rotary clubs located in
167 countries. You can find a wealth of information about Rotary International at
www.rotary.org
Object of Rotary
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:
First
The development of acquaintance as an opportunity for service;
Second
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;
Third
The application of the ideal of service in each Rotarian's personal, business, and community life;
Fourth
The advancement of international understanding, goodwill, and peace through a world fellowship of business and professional persons united in the ideal of service.
The Four-Way Test
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 ethicsis 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, T
he Four-Way Test has been translated into more than a hundred languages and published in
thousands of ways. The Four-Way Test is in the gold box to the left.