Membership section 1912-1913

“1. Membership in this Association shall consist of established Rotary Clubs which shall pay the current per capita tax, and shall have been duly admitted to membership. Only one Rotary Club from any city shall be eligible to membership in this Association, excepting in the city of Greater New York, where there may be one club in each of the respective five boroughs thereof.

2. Upon the payment of the dues by an affiliating Rotary Club, there shall be issued to such Rotary Club a certificate signed by the President, Secretary and Treasurer of this Association, under its seal, setting forth the fact that such Rotary Club is an affiliating Rotary Club of this Association and that such affiliating Rotary Club , in accepting such certificate, thereby ratifies and agrees to be bound by the Constitution and By-Laws of this Association.

3. All applications for membership in this Association shall be made to the Secretary in writing, accompanied by a copy of the Club’s Constitution and By-Laws and a roster of its membership, and shall be by him referred to the Board of Directors, whose action in accepting or rejecting said application shall be final.

4. Any affiliating Rotary Club failing for two successive years to send a delegate or delegates to the annual convention shall thereby forfeit its membership in this Association.

5. Any affiliating Rotary Club which shall be more that sixty (60) days in arrears of dues shall cease to be a member of the Association, provided two notices of such arrearages shall have been duly given by the Secretary by registered mail.

6. Any officer or member of this Association may, for cause, by a majority vote of the Board of Directors, be disciplined or suspended, and by a two-thirds vote expelled; provided such officer or member shall have been served with a copy of the charges at least 30 days before the hearing thereon, and shall have been given notice of the time of such hearing; such officer or member shall be entitled in 30 days file a written notice of appeal from the action of the Board of Directors, which appeal shall be heard and decided at the next succeeding annual convention of this Association.

7. Any member may resign from this Association and such resignation shall become effective immediately upon its delivery to the President or Secretary, providing all indebtedness of such member to the Association has been paid.

8. Any member or officer may be reinstated by a two-thirds vote of the Board of Directors upon payment of all arrearages.”

“This is the complete section on membership in the 1912 constitution with revisions of 1913. So you see, the International Association was by and large unconcerned with numbering the clubs in order.”
Cyndi Beck, Rotary Archives