In a sense, Rotary can be thought of as a franchise with a central office and branch outlets around the world. When a new Rotary or Rotaract club charters ("franchises") it agrees to abide by the rules and regulations of Rotary International (the "franchisor") and to pay dues to RI for its continuing support of the club.
However, unlike a franchise, the rules under which Rotary operates are controlled by it members in a democratic process through their elected representatives. The challenge is the sheer size of Rotary. With more than 1.3 million members worldwide in 46,000 clubs and 529 districts, a system has been developed which integrates universal participation with cost containment and with the ability for the organization to remain quickly adaptable in this rapidly changing world.
Rotary's answers are the Council on Legislation which deals with the sweeping issues every three years and the Council on Resolutions which gives feedback to the Rotary Board of Directors every year.
The Council on Legislation
The COL meets in March tri annually in person in Chicago and on Zoom with the mandate to add to, amend or delete articles from three of the four controlling documents which define the Rotary system of governance,
- The Rotary International Constitution
- The Rotary International Bylaws
- The Standard Rotary Club Constitution
Council members are required to be Past District Governors, one put forward by each of the 529 Rotary districts. Members serve for a three year term starting the Rotary year (1 July) following the previous COL meeting.
The fourth document, the Rotary Club Bylaws, is left to editing by the club as long as the club's changes do not supersede the other three documents above. For convenience, Rotary provides a basic Club Bylaws template document, available on this page, to which the club can add it's own rules as appropriate.
A related document, the Manual of Procedure (MOP), is Rotary's interpretation of how all this legislation is to be applied to the clubs.
The latest versions of all of these docs are available on this page for download.
The Council on Resolutions
In order to fill in the 3 year gaps between COL sessions, Rotary created the Council on Resolutions (COR) to allow clubs and districts to draw the Rotary board's attention to improvements and new ideas which the majority of the membership want to see implemented. Clubs, through their district rep can submit resolutions to the Rotary board for change each and every year. These submissions are circulated online and voted upon by the 529 COL/COR reps. Approved resolutions are forwarded to the Rotary Board of Directors for review and action at the board's discretion.
How You Can Participate
The purpose of this system is to allow every Rotarian a voice as to the rules and regulations under which their clubs operate. The most common situations where a club needs help with rules are:
Meeting existing regulations.
- Download the Manual of Procedure (MOP) from this page. Do a pdf document search (ctrl-F) on the topic and read what comes up. If that doesn't address the situation, go to...
- Contact your club's Assistant Governor to discuss the issue. The AG can, if needed, contact other district leaders who might have relevant knowledge. If that doesn't address the situation, go to...
- The club might have a situation where no existing bylaw rule applies. At that point the club should contact the district COL rep (see below).
Sponsoring new regulations.
If a club is convinced through it's search of the pdf legislative documents available on this page, this is the time to contact the district COL rep for assistance. Clubs can submit a Resolution which, if approved by the COR votes will go to the RI board for action;
or the club can start the process for a new regulation, an Enactment, and if approved by the COL votes will become a new Rotary bylaw.
The deadline for submitting resolutions to the COR is June 30th of each year. The deadline for submitting enactments to the COL is Dec. 31 two years prior to the next COL meeting. For the 2025 COL, this deadline has, unfortunately, already passed.