The Conspirators

I find it interesting that, when the very first Rotary Club was created, on 23 February 1905, the name for the club that was preferred by Paul Harris, at first, was ‘The Conspirators’.

I guess he appreciated the fact that in garnering support for a brand new venture there is, at first, intimate discussions with a very few others to sound out interest, issues, fears and hopes.   In that sense there was a conspiratorial feel to those initial discussions that eventually gave rise to the movement of which we are all a part today.

 

New ideas have to start somewhere and inevitably involve small groups that might wear the badge – ‘conspirators’.   Our prospective merger with the Macquarie Club is a case in point.   Macquarie Club first raised the prospective idea of a merger and prima facie there seems to be merit in a merger of the two clubs.

 

This is the issue that the ‘conspiratorial’ working group has been discussing and hopefully we will see a result that both clubs are happy with.   The result that the first Rotarians achieved was described by Paul Harris who, incidentally, was neither the first nor even the second President of the first Rotary Club.  Harris said “…the greatest of all things developed in Rotary is the idea of service which we now have as Rotarians.”

 

When we come to vote on whether or not to merge with the Macquarie Park Club, I am sure we will each consider whether Rotary service will be enhanced, or otherwise.