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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2     WHEREAS, The world's first service club, the Rotary Club of
3 Chicago, Illinois, USA, was formed on February, 23, 1905 by
4 Paul P. Harris; the name "Rotary" derived from the early
5 practice of rotating meetings among members' offices; and
 
6     WHEREAS, Rotary's popularity spread throughout the United
7 States in the decade that followed; clubs were chartered from
8 San Francisco to New York; by 1921, Rotary clubs had been
9 formed on six continents, and the organization adopted the name
10 Rotary International a year later; and
 
11     WHEREAS, As Rotary grew, its mission expanded beyond
12 serving the professional and social interests of club members;
13 Rotarians began pooling their resources and contributing their
14 talents to help serve communities in need; the organization's
15 dedication to this ideal is best expressed in its principal
16 motto: Service Above Self; Rotary also later embraced a code of
17 ethics, called the Four-Way Test, that has been translated into
18 hundreds of languages; and
 
19     WHEREAS, The Four-Way Test is the standard by which
20 Rotarians judge all that they do; it was created in 1932 by
21 Rotarian Herbert J. Taylor, who later served as RI president;
22 it includes four questions: is it TRUTH?; is it FAIR to all
23 concerned?; will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?; and
24 will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?; and
 
25     WHEREAS, The Four Avenues of Service are Rotary's
26 philosophical cornerstone and the foundation on which club
27 activity is based: Club Service focuses on strengthening
28 fellowship and ensuring the effective functioning of the club;
29 Vocational Service encourages Rotarians to serve others
30 through their vocations and to practice high ethical standards;
31 Community Service covers the projects and activities the club

 

 

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1 undertakes to improve life in its community; International
2 Service encompasses actions taken to expand Rotary's
3 humanitarian reach around the globe and to promote world
4 understanding and peace; and
 
5     WHEREAS, In 1985, Rotary's members vowed to make the world
6 polio-free; this 20-year commitment to end polio represents the
7 largest private-sector support of a global health initiative to
8 date; Rotary has already committed $500 million and countless
9 hours of volunteer work to help immunize nearly two billion
10 children throughout the world; today, there are only a few
11 hundred polio cases worldwide, a 99.8 percent reduction since
12 1988, when polio paralyzed more than 350,000 children a year;
13 and
 
14     WHEREAS, In an effort to educate tomorrow's peacemakers and
15 ambassadors, Rotary recently launched the Rotary Centers for
16 International Studies for peace and conflict studies at eight
17 prestigious universities worldwide; the program provides
18 master's-level degree education in conflict resolution to a
19 group of 70 Rotary World Peace Scholars chosen annually in a
20 world-competitive selection process; therefore, be it
 
21     RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
22 NINETY-FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
23 we congratulate Rotary International on the occasion of its
24 100th anniversary; and be it further
 
25     RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
26 presented to Rotary International as an expression of our
27 respect and esteem and with best wishes for the organization's
28 continued success.