Further Suggestions on Activities

A Word to the Small Club

Even a small club can discover local
needs, give attention to them, or per-
haps encourage the setting up of a
suitable executive body to deal with
them. In the smaller cities many of
the agencies mentioned in this pam-
phlet do not exist. This should not di-
minish the club’s interest in community
service. The activities of the club will
conform to local conditions.

Where a permanent organization is
created as the result of a community
survey, members of the Rotary club,
as individuals, will naturally give this
organization their continuing support.

The Rotary club is made up of suc-
cessful business and professional men.
It cannot afford to be identified, in the
public mind of the community, with
any unsuccessful community projects.
Therefore, be sure before you start. Is
the project feasible as a Rotary club
project or local community under-
taking? First be sure; then go ahead.

Suggested Meetings on Community
Service

Successful effort in this phase of
Rotary service is in a large measure
dependent on the recognition of the
individual Rotarian’s responsibility in
community service. Early in the year
a meeting for the presentation of this
subject is advisable. The chairman of
the community service committee or
some other well-qualified Rotarian
should stress the fact that each Ro-
tarian should personally put the ideal
of service into active practice in his

community life. It is a responsibility
which he, as a Rotarian, cannot escape.

If the community service committee
is planning a community survey (See
pages 36-38, Pamphlet No. 3, “The
Rotary Program”), a meeting of the
club should be devoted to a considera-
tion of the project.

A later meeting should relate to a
subject similar to the following: “The
Opportunity of the Rotary Club of
___... in Community Service.”
At this meeting the community service
committee will make a report to the
club members as to the findings which
have resulted from the survey of com-
munity activities. The meeting may
then be resolved into an open forum
for a discussion of ways and means
by which Rotarians can best meet the
uncared-for needs discovered by the

 

survey. From such a forum an interest-
ing and worth-while meeting is assured.

Club meetings given over to com-
munity service topics are of vital im-
portance if the members of the club
are to have a true sense of perspective
in this field of Rotary activity.

Summary and Conclusion

(Rotary’s policy in community service
as expressed in “Resolution 34” will be
found in the Manual of Procedure,
Pamphlet No. 35.)

Summarized, the policy of Rotary in
regard to community service is a sim-
ple one: That the Rotary club usually
should try to see that the community
as a whole, through some existing agen-
cy or one to be created, provides the
needed service. Occasionally coopera-

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