General Discussion
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(23,664 posts)I was a member for a few years until I realized I couldn't really afford it. At least around here, it tends to attract a lot of professional and management types and the fines they handed out for various real and imagined infractions were like 50 bucks. Most of the members (or their employers) could afford those kind of fines, but I couldn't and my employer wouldn't. So I dropped out.
It was a congenial group and they actually do a lot of good. Like any club ours was comprised of two kinds of members. The older, more affluent folks just got out their checkbooks when it came time for the club to do a project or raise funds, while the younger members rolled up our sleeves and actually did the grunt work.
Needless to say, you won't find a lot of potential DU'ers among the members, especially among the small town small business types that were in our club. But if you can overlook the free enterprise Chamber of Commerce mindset and concentrate on the person underneath you might find some compatible people among the membership.
If you have the dough, that is.
NYC_SKP
(68,644 posts)None of the problems, as I'm led to believe, that you are suggesting with that other group.
My mom benefited greatly from the Shriners.
Who knows?
Demeter
(85,373 posts)wondering if it was worth pursuing.
TreasonousBastard
(43,049 posts)I've worked with a lot of them a charitable functions and they always come through
JEB
(4,748 posts)from the local Rotary Club towards his college education. Now I always buy a x-mas wreath from them as that is how they fund their scholarship fund.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)I attended a picnic they hosted, and wondered what the gig was.
mnhtnbb
(31,319 posts)that is mostly composed of lefties from UNC - Chapel Hill.
My father--years ago--was very involved in his local Rotary which was mostly
a right wing chapter in North San Diego county.
It's an international group, though, and there are chapters all over the world.
The Chapel Hill Rotary was established in 1928 as a dinner club. It is the oldest club in the Chapel Hill area and the parent of the East Chapel Hill and Chapel Hill-Carrboro Sunrise clubs as well as the Hillsborough Rotary Club. The Chapel Hill Rotary has always been a mix of business, professional and university leaders from the local communities with a strong history of service to the community.
The Club has a tradition of producing leaders. Eminent past members include Luther Hodges, who was the Governor of North Carolina from 1954-1960. Hodges served as president of Rotary International in 1967, the only North Carolinian ever to hold the title. Club member James Peacock, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at UNC, was the founder of the Rotary Peace Scholars Program at Carolina and Duke University. Ken Morgan is a past district governor and member of the Board of Directors of Rotary International. And the list goes on
.
The Chapel Hill Rotary Club was one of the first clubs in the country to admit women, and one of our club members was a strong advocate to Rotary International for admitting women to clubs worldwide. Sharon Finch was the Chapel Hill Rotarys first female member. Legend has it that, at her first meeting in 1987, she and fellow club members were treated to an illustrated talk on diseases of the prostate!Things settled down after that, however, and the club has since had several female presidents and boasts a healthy (and growing) percentage of female members.
Jim Peacock is the member who recruited my husband to join Rotary.
Katashi_itto
(10,175 posts)Also Global extortion. Funding various organizations that are dedicated to summoning the Eldar Gods of chaos.
And they do charities and sometimes bake sales.