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ROTARY INTERNATIONAL President	Ernesto	Inibassahy	de Mello
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil District 684 Governor	Jim Davis
New Orleans, Louisiana Zone "B” Representative	Mack	Riemann
Gulfport, Mississippi
Rotary began on the 23rd of February, 1905 in Chicago, Illinois, when Paul P. Harris invited three friends to meet with him. He proposed forming a club to enlarge their circle of business and professional acquaintances.
Out of the meeting came a club whose membership would be limited to one representative from each business or profession. It was agreed that the members should be owners, partners, or corporate officials in the field of their membership classification. At first the meetings were rotated (held at the office of each member in rotation) hence the name “Rotary Club”. Later it became more convenient to meet at a fixed location and partake of a luncheon in fellowship.
The idea of Rotary proved popular, and the Rotary Club proliferated so that Rotary is now established with over 15,500 clubs in 149 countries and better than 750,000 members.
All Rotarians must have a classification which describes the type of business activity in which each is engaged. They must also either live or work within the geographic area assigned to the club in its charter. There may be only one active member for any one classification; however, the classifications of Past Service and Senior Active members are open for assignment to new Active members.
CLASSIFICATIONS AND CATEGORIES
Rotary recognizes four categories of memberships:
1.	Active - owners, officers, or managers of a business
or engaged in some professional service.
2.	Past Service - members who were active for more
years and have retired from business.
3.	Honorary - persons voted honorary memberships
by the Board of Directors.
4.	Senior Active - there are a number of ways a
member may become Senior Active, but the most common is by being a member for 15 years.