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Vicational Service

Membership in Rotary is based on a member’s vocation, with each club striving to create a microcosm of its community’s business and professional world. This unique feature provides the source for Rotary’s historic commitment to vocational service, the second of Rotary’s four Avenues of Service.

Through vocational service, Rotarians are expected to adhere to and promote high ethical standards in all their business dealings, recognize the worthiness of all useful occupations, and contribute their professional expertise and skills to addressing societal problems and needs. The club and its members share responsibility for promoting vocational service.

Each club should develop projects that allow members to use their business and professional skills. Members are expected to contribute to these projects and to conduct their own business dealings in accordance with Rotary principles.

Historically, Rotarians have promoted the practice of high ethical standards as part of their commitment to vocational service. Two tools developed by Rotarians —

The Four-Way Test and the Declaration of Rotarians in Businesses and Professions —
provide a road map for practicing ethical behaviour in the workplace and other areas of life.

The Four-Way Test

The Four-Way Test was conceived in 1932 by Herbert J. Taylor, a member of the Rotary Club of Chicago who served as the 1954-55 president of Rotary International.
Having been assigned the task of saving a company from bankruptcy, Taylor developed the test as an ethical guide to follow in all business matters. The company’s survival was credited to this simple philosophy. Adopted by Rotary International in 1934, The Four-Way Test remains an essential standard against which Rotarians measure ethical behavior. The test has been translated into dozens of languages and promoted by Rotarians worldwide.

The Four-Way Test
Of the things we think, say or do:
1) Is it the TRUTH?
2) Is it FAIR to all concerned?
3) Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
4) Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?

Declaration of Rotarians in Businesses and Professions

This declaration was adopted by the 1989 Council on Legislation as a means of more clearly defining the high ethical standards called for in the Object of Rotary.
It provides a framework for ethical behavior that all Rotarians can use, together with The Four-Way Test, in their business and professional activities.

Declaration of Rotarians in Businesses and Professions

As a Rotarian engaged in a business or profession, I am expected to:
1) Consider my vocation to be another opportunity to serve;
2) Be faithful to the letter and to the spirit of the ethical codes of my vocation, to the laws of my country, and to the moral standards of my community;
3) Do all in my power to dignify my vocation and to promote the highest ethical standards in my chosen vocation;
4) Be fair to my employer, employees, associates, competitors, customers, the public, and all those with whom I have a business or professional relationship;
5) Recognize the honor and respect due to all occupations which are useful to society;
6) Offer my vocational talents: to provide opportunities for young people, to work for the relief of the special needs of others, and to improve the quality of life in my community;
7) Adhere to honesty in my advertising and in all representations to the public concerning my business or profession;
8) Neither seek from nor grant to a fellow Rotarian a privilege or advantage not normally accorded others in a business or professional relationship. Advancing high ethical standards in the workplace

The classification principle — the guideline by which nearly all Rotary membership is determined — ensures that each club’s membership represents a cross-section of its community’s business and professional population. Classification and vocational service go hand in hand. Just as a Rotarians represent their vocation in Rotary, so too do they represent Rotary in their vocations.

Vocational Service & RI Programs
Several of RI’s programs offer opportunities to exercise Vocational Service, including:
Rotary Volunteers: put your vocational talents to work on a service project
Rotary Fellowships: start or join a vocational fellowship group
RYLA: teach young people leadership skills
Rotary Friendship Exchange: conduct vocational exchanges with Rotarians in other parts of the world

In our Club The Vocational Services Director Rtn. Somdutt Sharma is assisted by the foll: Chairman:

The Projects Taken up under Vocational Services this year are: