Rotary Moment - Part 1
ROTARY INTERNATIONAL IN IRELAND AND GREAT BRITAIN (RIBI):
( part 1 of 2) The structure of Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland (RIBI) forms an interesting chapter in our history. In 1914, after Rotary expanded across the Atlantic to Great Britain and Ireland, the British Association of Rotary Clubs was established as part of the International Association of Rotary Clubs.During World War I, there was little contact between the international clubs, and the British association held the small number of Rotary clubs together in Great Britain, Ireland, and a few other European communities. Following the war, a new Rotary International Constitution was adopted in 1922 that established the principle that whenever a country had 25 Rotary clubs it could become a "territorial unit" and thus have a representative on the RI Board and receive other specific powers. The clubs in Great Britain and Ireland immediately petitioned for and received a status of a territorial unit. No other group in the world made such a request or received that status. (Continued next week.)