RUNNING HEAD: NON PROFIT AGENCIES
Non Profit Organizations: The Rotary International Club
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Non Profit Organizations: The Rotary International Club
Introduction
Non profit agencies are also referred to as non profit organizations. They are mainly set up and started with an intention to provide funds accumulated on an excessive basis to achievement of its goals as opposed to distribution among its employees, owners and shareholders (Grobman, 2008). They are mostly organizations offering charity, trade unions or associations and organizations of public arts and are wholly informal. Although they may be considered as a different type of organization, most government and their agencies in a variety of countries can also be termed as non profit agencies. Most of these agencies are exempted from regular income as well as taxation of property in many countries.
Non profit organizations are controlled by board members and not private owners. These owners cannot trade their shares to different people or benefit in a personal way from the taxes paid. Most of them hire volunteers who are not compensated for their work while others use their funds to hire and give incentives to their employees.
Since they are able to create a significant amount of income, normally called the surplus, it is retained in the organization as a preserve for expansion among other plans made for the future. According to Anheier, they offer a wide range of services from human services, environment and natural resources, humanitarian relief as well as credit and savings (2005).
There are a large number of such organizations throughout the world due to the varied nature of their services despite a common goal of making the world a habitable and better place in all fields for all humanity. An example is the Rotary International club which is a secular organization. Their main purpose is to provide services to humanity by bringing business along professional leaders together, encouragement of high standards related to ethics in all vocations and the provision of assistance to create goodwill and peace all over the world. These services are provided to all irrespective of their race, creed, gender, political inclination or color. They do this by encouraging and the promotion of ideal service for the creation of meaningful ventures. In addition, they endeavor to eradicate hunger, enhance health along sanitation, offer education as well as training on jobs, promote peace and eliminate polio based on their motto of “Service above Self” and “They profit most who serve best” (Rotary International, 2011).
There are about 33,976 clubs worldwide with an approximate 1.22 million members known as Rotarians who meet every week during weekdays and at mealtimes for either breakfast, dinner or lunch to socialize and realize their goals.
The Rotary International Club was established in 1905 by attorney Paul P Harris at his friend’s Sylvester Schiele’s office in downtown Chicago. This was during a meeting with three of his business acquaintances. The other two who attended the meeting were amines engineer; Gustave Loehr and Hiram Shorey who was a tailor (De Grazia, 2005). The name Rotary was subsequently formed from the weekly meetings that were held by the members where they rotated to the offices of each other. This however changed to a common meeting venue in Chicago due to the increase of its size. With time, other clubs were formed in the Western United States in cities such as San Francisco and Oakland then to other countries outside the United States. The headquarters of the club is currently located in Evanston in Illinois where it is chartered by the Rotary International organization that operates globally. They Club can be contacted through
Data Relations
Rotary International
1560 Sherman Avenue
Evanston, IL 60201-3698 USA or through the phone using the number 847-866-3000 (Rotary International, 2011).
The structure is divided into levels termed as clubs, district and international where the Rotarians are members of their own clubs which form the fundamental unit of the Rotary activity. The membership of the club is thus determined by these clubs. In order to provide better administrative services the large number of clubs is divided into 529 districts that are further grouped into 34 zones. Every club performs its own distinct projects in the community locally, takes part in other special projects with others in the local district as Zilka illustrates by the visit by Korean Rotarians to the United States (2011). Occasionally, they may involve themselves with sister clubs in other nations to perform a special project or hold quarterly social events.
In each club a yearly president and officers are elected from the active members although the club council acts as the governing body. This consists of the president who additionally is the council chairman, an elected president, the club’s secretary and treasurer, and several directors of the club. These directors are chosen by the president to chair the major committees of the club. The district governor is an officer of Rotary International and acts as a representative of its board of directors at the Rotary district. They are nominated by the district clubs and elected in the annual club meetings in different countries. He in turn is responsible in the selection of assistant governors among the Rotarians in the district. The zonal level on the other hand is headed by a zone director heading two zones. He is nominated by the zonal clubs and elected for a two year consecutive term by the convention. Each zone is made of 15 Rotary districts.
The Rotary International in general is governed by a board of directors. This consists of the international president, elected president, the secretary general and 17 zone directors. The president is elected one to three years before officially begins to work. It considers geographical balance among the zones and previous service as a governor in the district and member of board. The general secretary however cats as the chief operating officer of Rotary International heading around 600 members and works at the headquarters (Rotary International, 2011).
Anyone is eligible to be a member though with the sponsorship of a Rotarian .The objectives of the club are wound up into encouragement and fostering and their achievement is evaluated by the “Rotary 4-way Test” that was developed by Herbert J Taylor who was an entrepreneur as a business management standard for ethics. It therefore is used to assess the compatibility of a planned action with the spirit of Rotarians.
A number of websites are associated with the agency but its main site is the http://www.rotary.org/en/AboutUs/Pages/ridefault.aspx from where one can gather information about the Club.
In conclusion, The Rotary International club is an essential part of the society similarly to other non profit organizations. This is because of the important service which they offer normally at no charge.
References
Anheier, H. (2005).Non Profit organizations: theory, management, policy. New
York: Routledge.
De Grazia, Victoria (2005). Irresistible Empire: America’s Advance Through 20th
Century. Europe. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Grobman, G. (2008). The Nonprofit Handbook: Everything You Need to Know to Start
and Run Your Nonprofit Organization (Paperback). Harrisburg, PA: White Hat
Communications.
Rotary International, (2011). About Us. Accessed 27 April 2011 from
HYPERLINK “http://www.rotary.org/en/AboutUs/Pages/ridefault.aspx” http://www.rotary.org/en/AboutUs/Pages/ridefault.aspx
.Zilka, A. (2011). Melting Pot of Zanesville. Whiznews
