What C-K Rotary Is All About
Club Growth to
“Create Lasting Impact”

Our Vision

To be a vibrant, inclusive Rotary fellowship of diverse people who are leaders in our community and the wider world engaging together with others in service to create hope in tangible ways.

Mission

We are a group of community leaders who make the world a better place through service in Rotary’s areas of work, with special emphasis locally on food security, youth, the environment, and Indigenous peoples.

Aspiration

Every member happily, knowledgeably, and productively engaged in Rotary:

• happily: doing what we really enjoy and find rewarding;
• knowledgeably: aware of our club focus, priorities, and particular service activities as part of Rotary International;
• productively: contributing to our focus in a personally well-balanced way and communicating well through deep listening and thoughtful input with other members, those we serve, our partners, and the general public.

Focus

As part of the world-wide Rotary International, we strive, individually and collectively, through thoughtful action:

• to follow RI’s guiding principles, including The Guiding Principles of Rotary with its Objects, Avenues of Service, and Four Way Test as a useful tool to guide our own thoughts and actions and to measure our corporate decisions;
• to follow the ideal of Service Above Self, each in our own way;
• to engage in Our Work as part of Rotary International.

We place special emphasis on our interconnected club priorities (recent examples in parentheses):

• food security and housing (Partners include: Ryandale House, Tipi Moza, Lionhearts, and Martha's Table);
• serving underserved children, youth, and adults (Partnerships include Pathways to Education, Unnamed Youth Project, Sistema Kingston, H'art Centre, and The Mess Studio);
• world understanding and peace through international collaboration on a wide range of humanitarian work through an extensive and evolving network of Global Grant partnerships
• working with Indigenous peoples (Partnerships inlcude: the Indigenous Peoples Partnerships Cluster, Honouring Indigenous Peoples (HIP), Tipi Moza, and Kingston Native Centre and Language Nest);
• addressing environmental concerns (Partnerships include: Loughborough Public school and its greenhouse and teaching kitchen, Little Forests Kingston, and Turtles Kingston)
• fun and fellowship (club potluck dinners BBQs, Paul Harris recognition events, collaborative work bees)

We act on our focus through:

• Contributing substantially to The Rotary Foundation, especially its Annual Fund and Polio Plus;
• Contributing to specific projects and programs through our service committees, through financial allocations, and through hands-on work;
• Collaborating closely with other clubs locally, regionally, and internationally;
• Striving to build ongoing relationships with partner organizations;
• Emphasizing: hand-up vs hand-out, small and startup projects or operations, and networking;
• Telling our story in a compelling and inviting way through public outreach through the Internet and community events.

How we operate

Overall Operating Principles

• each Rotarian connects to club activities that “speak” to them;
• each Rotarian connects with some club activities or projects;
• all members remain open to input and ideas from others;
• we seek to build interconnections and inter-dependency among all aspects of what we do.

Meetings

Meetings are the heart and lungs of our club. Our gatherings are organized flexibly at times and places that match the community we serve. It’s in our meetings that we gather, learn about and discuss our work, and engage with inspiring speakers about matters of interest and concern to us. We have regularly-scheduled discussion of committee work and discussion to guide our board in its policy-making and operational decisions. Our social gatherings are opportunities to get to know each other and our community partners better and to celebrate our work. Our hands-on activities show us as people of action joining with others to strengthen our community.

Board

The board, in close consultation and communication with the whole club, sets the overall direction for the club and develops a budget. It is both a policy and administrative body.

Committees and Teams

It’s through our committees and teams (Community Service, National and Regional, International, Youth Services/New Generations, Foundation, Membership/Communications/Club Admin, and Auction/Bingo) that we do much of the detailed work of service and the underlying organizational and administrative work. Committee and team work ties in with the emphasis set each year by the club as a whole. Committees and teams also bring ideas of new possibilities to the whole club for its consideration. Every member is expected to be active in at least one committee or team.

Auction and Bingo: our main fund-raisers

Everyone is part of this work and the auction has a wide variety of roles including community relationship building.

Leadership

Everyone in the club contributes to leadership in a variety of ways. This can be through assuming particular responsibilities and offices, through contributing ideas that help to shape club focus and direction, and through connecting us to the communities we serve.

Revised July 13, 2026, updated August 3, for club review August 4