Welcome diversions
Liongtime members sometimes refer to the Rotary Fellowships program as "Rotary's best-kept
secret." But with fellowship members in nearly every country where Rotary clubs exist -about
30,000 members in all - the program can hardly be called a secret. Since the first fellowship
was founded in 1928, the program, designed to foster friendships between Rotarians with
common interests, has grown steadily. Today, there are more than 85 fellowships dedicated to
everything from astronomy to yachting.
Mark Wong, Rl's Rotary Fellowships Committee chair for 2003-04, says his participation
has given him opportunities to make friends around the world, strengthened his pride in
Rotary, and helped him obtain assistance for dub projects. Like many Rotarians, Wong, a
member of the Rotary Club of Jakarta-Gambir, Indonesia, first learned about fellowships
at an Rl Convention. That was more than a decade ago. He's since joined the International
Golfing Fellowship of Rotarians and the Stockbrokers/Securities Vocational Fellowship, and
in 1995 he founded the Venture Capital Vocational Fellowship.
Phil Morris, who worked with Wong's predecessor, Ray Taylor, to launch a well-trafficked Web site
dedicated to fellowships, also belongs to multiple groups, including Rotarians-on-the-Internet, the
International Travel and Hosting Fellowship, and the new Rotarian Editors and Publishers Fellowship.
"My involvement in Rotary Fellowships has increased my circle of Rotary friends, and it has made
me realize that what I can contribute to my club, my district, and to Rotary International has value
and is appreciated," says Morris, a member of the Rotary Club of Furnitureland, N.C., USA.
The reasons for joining a fellow ship are as diverse as the interests of individual Rotarians, but whether
they're hitting the slopes in Telluride, Colo., USA, or trolling for tuna off the coast of Tasmania, Australia,
members all have one thing in common: They know how to have a good time.
Joining a fellowship isn't all fun and games, however. Service has long been the focus of many
vocational fellowships, and even recreational fellowships find ways to combine work with play. The new
Fellowship of Quilters and Fiber Artists, for example, sends warm quilts to those in need. Several others,
including the International Fellowship of Fishing Rotarians and the International Skiing Fellowship
of Rotarians, sponsor opportunities for people with disabilities to share in their favorite pastimes. Many of
Rotary's newest fellowships bring together Rotarians with common health- and medical-related interests to carry out service projects.
The Post-Polio Survivors and Associates Fellowship, for example, provides support for polio survivors and
those involved in polio-related programs, while the Rotarian Fellowship for Fighting AIDS is dedicated to education and prevention.
The Fellowship of Rotarians for Mine Action, formed in October 2003 and featured on page 32,
supports projects to remove and decommission land mines, promote land-mine education, and help victims of landmines.
In the following pages, we share stories of how members are putting their skills to good use - and how
they've become quite skilled at having a good time. After you've finished reading about Rotarian
scuba divers frolicking with a whale in the Eastern Caribbean, Internetsavvy Rotarians springing to action
in a time of crisis, and a group of Rotarian yachters setting sail on one adventure after the next, you
won't even remember what it was they used to say about the Rotary Fellowships program." The secret's out.
- M.Kathleen Pratt
Learn more
www.rotary.org/programs/fellowships
www.rotaryfellowships.org
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