The main objective of Rotary is service -- in the community and throughout the world. Rotarians build goodwill and peace, provide humanitarian service, and encourage high ethical standards in all vocations. The Rotary motto is "Service Above Self."

What is 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.

              What does Rotary mean to me?

The Declaration of Rotarians in Businesses and Professions is a statement of recent origin. It was adopted by the Rotary International Council on Legislation in 1989 to provide more specific guidelines for the high ethical standards called for in the Object of Rotary. Here is the text:

As a Rotarian engaged in a business or profession, I am expected to:

1. Consider my vocation to be another opportunity to serve;

2. Be faithful to the letter and to the spirit of the ethical codes of my vocation, to the laws of my country, and to the moral standards of my community;

3. Do all in my power to dignify my vocation and to promote the highest ethical standards in my chosen vocation;

4. Be fair to my employer, employees, associates, competitors, customers, the public and all those with whom I have a business or professional relationship;