"I love being a Rotarian! I am now friends with a diverse group of top notch people representing many different industries in the Las Vegas Valley. Our membership is involved in so many local worthy service projects, where we can see the fruits of our labor and philanthropy. The members are accomplished and fun individuals and our social activities are great! Being a member of the Las Vegas Southwest Rotary Club has added so much to my life, and I love it!"
Adrienne Cox

Becoming a Rotarian

An association of approximately 32,000 autonomous clubs in over 200 countries and geographical areas, Rotary International is one of the world's largest service organizations. The goal for a club'smembership is an up-to-date and progressive representation of the community's business, vocational, and professional interests.

An important distinction between Rotary and other organizations is that membership in Rotary is by invitation. Rotary clubs invite individuals to join and become members.

Membership is vital to a Rotary club's operations and community service activities. A primary goal of the club is to continually expand the club with committed members who have the interest and ability to get involved in service and humanitarian projects. Prospective members must:

• hold — or be retired from — a professional, proprietary, executive, or managerial position;
  
• have the capacity to meet the club's weekly attendance or community project participation requirements;
  
• live or work within the locality of the club or the surrounding area.

The membership process

Often a person being considered for membership is invited by a member/sponsor to attend one or more club meetings to learn more about Rotary. The sponsor may then submit the name of the candidate to the club's membership committee.

Classifications: professional representation

Rotary uses a classification system to establish and maintain a vibrant cross-section or representation of the community's business, vocational, and professional interests among members and to develop a pool of resources and expertise to successfully implement service projects. This system is based on the founders' paradigm of choosing cross-representation of each business, profession, and institution within a community.

A classification describes either the principal business or the professional service of the organization that the Rotarian works for or the Rotarian's own activity within the organization. Some examples of classifications include: high schools, universities, eye surgery, banking, pharmaceutical retailing, petroleum-distribution, and insurance agency.

For more information call Las Vegas Southwest Rotary at (702) 870-4655.