26 May, 1944

To Club Presidents and Secretaries

The News Letter

No. 20—1943-44

From the R. |. Secretariat (Central Office)
35 E. Wacker Dr., Chicago 1, Ill., U. S. A.

 

Summary of Legislation Adopted at Chicago

Council on Legislation—The compo-
sition of the council was amended in
enactment 44-1 to provide that the
chairman of the council, the chair-
man of the constitution and by-laws

committee, and the nominee, or

nominees, for president of R.I. shall
be members of the council; the pro-
vision that the president’s appoint-
ments to the council be submitted to
the board for approval was deleted,
and the number of representatives-
at-large reduced from six to three.

Voting by Mail—The by-law author-
izing the board to transact business
by mail was modified by enactment
44-2 to provide that voting by mail
be considered closed if and when a
majority of the votes in the affirma-
tive, or a majority of votes in the
negative, has been returned, irre-
spective of whether or not thirty
days have elapsed since the ballot
was mailed.

Magazine Committee—The magazine
committee was made a standing
committee and its composition and
terms of reference were incorporat-
ed in the by-laws. Enactment 44-3
also provides for the publication of
the magazine in as many editions
as the board shall authorize, the
basic edition being published in
English and being known as THE
ROTARIAN. (At present there is
only one such other language edi-
tion, the Spanish edition, REVISTA
ROTARIA.)

Term of Office of Secretary—Enact-
ment 44-4 provides that the term of
office of the secretary shall run con-
currently with the calendar year.
Instead of taking office on July Ist,
hereafter the secretary of R.I. will
take office on the first day of Janu-
ary.

Permanent Home for Rotary-—In
1928 the Minneapolis convention
adopted a resolution (28-11) em-
powering, authorizing and directing
the board of R.I. to acquire, as a
permanent home for Rotary, a suit-
able site or building in the city of
Chicago. The 1944 convention, in
resolution 44-7, amended the Min-
neapolis resolution so as to em-

power, authorize and direct the

board to acquire, as a permanent
home for Rotary, a suitable site or
building located anywhere in the
Rotary world.

Outpost Membership—Resolution
44-8 rescinded resolution 36-13A of
the 1936 (Atlantic City) convention
which had authorized the R.I. board
to experiment with various forms of
outpost membership.

Relief Fund—Resolution 44-9A clari- —

fied the provisions relating to the
relief fund for war-affected Rotar-
ians and provided that the relief
fund, earmarked for the uses and
purposes for which contributed,
shall be transferred to the Rotary
Foundation to be administered and
disbursed by the trustees of the
Foundation.

Rotary Foundation—The transfer of
$150,000 from the surplus funds of
R.I. to the Rotary Foundation was
authorized by the adoption of reso-
lution 44-11, and in resolution 44-12
the convention adopted a statement
of objectives for the Rotary Foun-
dation.-—~

The complete text of all proposed
legislation, together with the rec-
ommendations of the council and
the action of the convention, will
be published in the convention pro-
ceedings book.

 

A ROTARY CLUB can only justify its
existence in any community to the degree
of service that the individual members
make toward the betterment of the civic,
educational and spiritual life of their
community. Rotary has a wonderful code
of ethics and many inspiring ideals, but
Rotary is known and respected only if the
members take their proper place in the
worth-while, forward-looking programs of
the city in which they live. Too many
individuals are proudly carrying Rotary
cards, yet making no return contribution
to the furtherance of the aims and objects
of Rotary.—Rotoservice, Glendale, Calif.

 

Now
5,196 Rotary Clubs

225,350 Rotarians

(Of these 53 clubs with 1600 members in war-
affected countries are inactive.)

144 New Clubs in 22 Countries
Since July 1, 1943

 

 

 

Charlie Wheeler Says —

I realize what a keen disappointment
it was to many Rotarians not to have
been able to attend the convention in
Chicago. I shall always regret that cir-
cumstances were such this year that
the board of RI. felt called upon to
restrict the attendance at the conven-
tion. However, I cannot let the year
end without expressing my appreci-
ation and the appreciation of the entire
R.I. board for the wholehearted co-
operation of Rotary clubs in so loyally
observing the request not to send dele-
gates except those in the categories
outlined by the board. The report of
the registration showed that there was
a total of only 403 in attendance at the
combined assembly-convention meet-
ing—proof that the board’s request was
observed almost to the letter.

 

 

 

 

Commissions To Reestablish
Rotary Clubs

The board of directors at its
January, 1944, meeting authorized
the president to appoint two com-
missions of Rotarians representa-
tive of the diversified interests
involved, one to advise the board
with regard to reestablishing Ro-
tary clubs in Continental Europe,
and the other with regard to re-
establishing Rotary clubs in the Far
East.

President Wheeler announced at
the 1944 convention that he has ap-
pointed the following Rotarians to
these two commissions which will
work within the framework of plans
already set up by the board:

Far East

Carl Carlsmith, Hawaii

Angus Mitchell, Australia

Kish Naoroji, India

Carlos P. Romulo, The Philippines

C. T. Wang, China

Secretary to the Commission:
Philip C. Lovejoy

Continental Europe

Wilfrid Andrews, England
Charles Hunt, Newfoundland
Jan Hyka, Czecho-Slovakia
C. T. Steiger, Switzerland
C. Harald Trolle, Sweden
Richard Wells, U.S.A.

- Ali Yehia Pascha, Egypt
Secretary to the Commission:

Lester B. Struthers