June is designated as Rotary Fellowship Month. Fellowship is an integral part of your Rotary experience.
Rotary Fellowship:
- Enables Rotarians to make lasting friendships within their own club, district, country, or globally.
- Contributes to the advancement of Rotary's public image and identity
- Serves as an incentive for joining Rotary and for continuing as a member
Rotary International also has a large variety of Rotary Fellowship programs, which are international, independently organized groups of Rotarians, Rotary partners, and Rotaractors who share a common recreational interest or vocation. This month recognizes the opportunity to have fun, make new friends around the world and enhance the experience of Rotary that belonging to a Rotary Fellowship enables.
Rotary Fellowships began informally in 1928 when a group of Rotarians with an interest in Esperanto joined together. In 1947, Rotarians organized a group of boating enthusiasts, which became the Yachting Fellowship. This joining together to share common interests and activities gained attention and operated over the years under various names as World Fellowship Activities; International Vocational Contact Groups; Rotary Recreational and Vocational Fellowships; and finally Rotary Fellowships.
Fellowship activities vary widely. Some groups come together around hobbies or special interests. Others are based on common vocations. Some Fellowships are purely social, while others use their fellowship for service projects. To learn more about the many fellowship programs available to you, go to www.rotary.org/fellowships
Rotary provides us with an extraordinary opportunity to help the world one person at a time. It also provides us as Rotarians an opportunity to bond together as a fraternity who believe in “Service Above Self.” It has truly helped me personally when times were tough, and I hope it will be a support to you. We truly are, as our Past District Governor Mary Bates used as her theme, part of a “Rotary Chosen Family.”
Thank you for “being the change” you wish to see in your communities (and in yourselves!).
Yours in Rotary,
Gary Chow
Governor, 2022-2023
Rotary International
District 5150
Gary Chow
Governor, 2022-2023
Rotary International
District 5150
