Membership
Active Membership
There are two types of membership in a Club, Active Membership and Honorary Membership. Both forms of membership concern personal membership rather than membership of a person's business or organisation.
Rotary is non-denominational and non-political and encompasses a diverse membership base, including a range of ages, professionals, experiences, religions, races, cultures and networks. In particular, Clubs are composed of adult members who exhibit good character, integrity and leadership and good business, professional and/or community reputation who have their place of business or residence located in the locality of the Club or the surrounding area.
When you join a Rotary Club, you also join a worldwide Rotary family, who are united in fellowship to provide humanitarian service, to encourage high ethical standards in all vocations and to create goodwill and achieve peace throughout the world.
Membership in Rotary is an honor and privilege that comes with obligations. Rotary is a service organization, in which its members are united through ‘service above self’ to encourage and foster the ideal of service as a basis of worthy enterprise. The community will come to know and judge Rotary based on its member’s actions and ideals.
Classification
Upon induction, active members are assigned a classification based on their current or former business, profession, or type of community service. This is unique to the member and any contribution of an educational value pertaining to the member's classification will come to the Club through that member. In turn, the member will also become an ambassador of Rotary to their classification by demonstrating the Rotary ideals and principles of service in their work.
Benefits of Membership
- Attend international events, e.g. International Convention
- Develop a network of business professionals
- Develop and enhance personal and professional skills
- Develop confidence
- Form lifelong friendships
- Fulfill ‘community service’ requirements of your workplace
- Make positive changes in people’s lives
- Mentorship
- Opportunities to learn, share, collaborate and work on projects with people all over the world
- Participate and run projects that will have a local, national and/or international component and/or national and/or global impact
- Participate in a diverse range of social events and join fellowship groups
- Partner with other organizations
- Role mode of high ethical standards in your workplace and profession
- Visit Clubs anywhere in the world (see the Rotary Down Under website to find Clubs within Australia and/or the Rotary International website to find Clubs internationally)
Honorary Membership
Honorary membership may be bestowed upon individuals who have distinguished themselves by meritorious service in the furtherance of Rotary ideals or by their permanent support of Rotary's ideals and they are in turn considered friends of Rotary.
Honorary members shall be exempt from the payment of fees and are not entitled to vote vote nor hold any office in the club. Honorary members are though entitled to attend all meetings and enjoy all the other privileges of the club.
We are delighted to have a number of Honorary members of the Rotary Club of Monash.
Women and Rotary Membership
Rotary was founded in 1905 by by Paul Harris as a Club of male business professionals for community and fellowship. Prior to 1989 Rotary Membership was therefore only available to males. This restriction was eliminated in 1989 and currently of the 1.2million Rotarians worldwide there are over 200,000 women Rotarians with many holding or having held leadership positions within their Club and District.
We encourage a diverse membership base and encourage the nomination of eligible women for membership.
Young Professionals
Young professionals can find membership of Rotary particularly beneficial as they commence and start to establish themselves in their careers. Rotary provides many opportunities for developing business networks, mentoring and the development of professional skills through training, publications, engagement in projects and the holding of leadership positions at Club and District levels.
Dual Rotary and Rotaract Membership
In line with the changes implemented by the 2016 Council on Legislation of Rotary International, Rotaractors can now simultaneously hold separate membership in a Rotaract club and a Rotary club. To help make Rotary more accessible to Rotaractors we have implemented a reduced membership fee, reduced recommended attendance requirement and a payment plan option.
We inducted our first duel Rotaractor Rotarian in August 2016.
Our first duel Rotaractor Rotarian, PDRR Bianca with 2017-18 DGN and Immediate Past Rotaractor Chair Malcolm and 2016-17 Club President Les
Rotary Code of Conduct
Rotarians:
- Act with integrity and high ethical standards in their personal and professional life.
- Deal fairly with others and treat them and their occupations with respect.
- Use their professional skills through Rotary to mentor young people, help those with special needs, and improve people’s quality fo life in their community and the world.
- Avoid behaviour that reflects adversely on Rotary or other Rotarians.
Fees
Members pay an annual fee. The amount is set by the board each year.
The current fee for the Rotary year (July 2021 - June 2022) is $350.00.
New members pay a pro rata amount depending on the month of joining plus a one off joining fee of $80.00.
Apply for Membership or Want Further Information?
If you are interested in applying for membership or would like to know further details, please contact the Director of Membership, Ian Donald.
