Emerald City Rotary

Membership Guidelines

General Qualifications — Rotarians are adults of good character and good business or professional reputation, who hold or have held an executive position with discretionary authority in any worthy and recognized business or profession.

Active Membership — Active members must meet the above qualifications, as well as live or work within the club’s locality or surrounding area.

Honorary Membership — People who have distinguished themselves by meritorious service in the furtherance of Rotary ideals may be elect-ed to honorary membership.

Classification — Each active member of a Rotary club is classified in accordance with the member’s business or profession. A classification describes the principal and recognized activity of the firm with which an active member is connected or the member’s principal and recognized business or professional activity.

The club shall not elect a person to active membership from a classification if the club already has five or more members from that classification, unless the club has more than 50 members, in which case, the club may elect a person to active membership in a classification so long as it will not result in the classification making up more than 10% of the club’s active membership. Retired members require a classification but are not included in a club’s total number for each classification.

NOTE — Holders of public office. Persons elected or appointed to public office for a specified time are not eligible for active membership under the classification of such office, except persons elected or appointed to the judiciary or educational offices. Standard Procedure The prospective member’s name is submitted to the board of directors. The board ensures that the person is fully qualified and approves or disapproves the proposal within 30 days. The club secretary notifies the proposer of the decision.

NOTE — Until approval is granted, prospective members should not be informed that they have been proposed for membership. After approval has been announced, the prospective member is fully informed of privileges, expectations and responsibilities of club membership. He or she is then asked to complete the proposal form and give written per-mission to publish his or her name and pro-posed classification to the club membership. If no objections to the proposal are received within seven days following the publication of the name, that person, upon payment of an admission fee, is a new Rotarian. The club secretary sends a completed new member report form to Rotary International as recommended by Rotary Club Bylaws or submits the new member’s name via www.rotary.org.