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Records of the Boise Rotary Club MSS 138
Paul Harris founded Rotary in the first decade of the twentieth century. He wanted to bring together business people with varied background for social fellowship and community service. The first official Rotary Club meeting was on February 23, 1905, in Chicago, Illinois. Paul Harris promoted the idea outside of Chicago and by 1908 San Francisco became the hometown of the second Rotary Club. By 1910 there were 16 Clubs throughout the United States. That same year club representatives met in Chicago in August to form the National Association of Rotary Clubs. In 1912, Canada and England established clubs and the name changed to the International Association of Rotary Clubs. The Rotary convention of 1922 shortened the name to Rotary International, which has remained to the present. The Rotary Club is a business service organization. Locally supported clubs involve themselves in community projects for the betterment of society. Rotary Club International developed membership requirements for participation in the club based on business activities. Membership in Rotary is by invitation only, and only a Rotarian can propose someone for new membership. Membership classification is broken down into hundreds of professions, but at any given time there can only be one representative from each classification. The Boise Rotary Club formed in 1917. The Boise Chamber of Commerce called an organizational meeting early in the year in which about fifteen businessmen attended. The first meeting of record occurred on March 29, 1917. Seventeen charter members were present and they established important committees. Boise was the 120th Rotary club formed. As of the mid 1980s membership was approximately 250. Future weekly meetings were set for lunch on Thursdays, which have remained constant throughout the club’s history. A second meeting was on April 5, 1917, during which they installed the first officers, C.A. Barton as President, H.F. Lemp as Vice-Pres, R.R. Alexander as Secretary. During the Saturday evening banquet of April 28, 1917, at the Owyhee hotel, the Governor of District 14, Dr. R.C. Witherspoon, officially installed the officers of the new Boise Rotary club. More than 100 men from Boise, Salt Lake City and Portland attend the banquet. Portland Rotary Club President Charles E. Cochran presided. The first service obligation that the Boise Club accepted on June 7, 1917, was to raise $2200 for the Salvation Army. The various clubs of Rotary International are divided into districts. Each district elects a Governor who presides for one year. These districts change as new clubs are added and the membership increases. The result is that the Boise Club has been in several different districts. The club was founded while in district 14. Boise is presently in district 540 of Rotary International. Community service projects of the Boise club have included such things as the Annual High school scholarships, the international student exchange program, Crime stoppers, a playground for handicapped youth, a soccer field, the young artist competition, and the annual Business Week. With the increasing growth of Boise came the necessity of new Rotary Clubs. The Rotary formed second club on January 20, 1972. Since then two other clubs have been established in Boise to bring the total to four clubs. The Boise Rotary Club has maintained a membership over 200 since the 1960’s. by David H. Crain
Scope
and Contents Note
N.B. Additions have been received which
extend the dates of many of the series in the collection.
1. Reports The Rotary Club is organized according to the policies and guidelines of Rotary International. The fiscal year of the Rotary Club runs July 1 through June 30. This is the time frame that the officers serve within and the method by which business is conducted. Officers are elected annually and serve for a one year period. There does not appear to be a limitation of the president who presides over an elected board of directors. The various service committees of the organization report directly to the board of directors. The collection is not an exhaustive record of the Boise Rotary. This appears to be a result of different record keeping practices of the various secretaries who headed up the administrative affairs of the organization. Some secretaries stayed in office for many years while others maintained the position for the one year period. Some secretaries obviously archived more materials than others. The result is a spotty record with very little information in some periods and an over abundance in others. Most of the files are organized by fiscal year. Others were collected in calendar year groups. Two books were removed from the collection and cataloged: History of District 542, by T. Earl Pardow, and Service is My Business, which is a publication of Rotary International. These two books can be located through the Library's catalog. Also removed from the collection was a set of the annual convention year book of Rotary International. The collection was donated to the Albertsons Library by the Boise Rotary Club in November 1994. Additions to the collection are expected.
Collection Number: MSS 138 Box and Folder List
N.B.
Additions have been received which extend the dates of many of the series in the
collection. The files in this box contain information about club activities, committee reports, membership and some budget reports. Box 1: Reports
Folder 1: Monthly Reports, 1917-1920
Box 2: Bank Deposit / Budget
Folder 1: Bank Deposit Slips, 1925-1927
Box 3: Misc Receipts / Income Tax Returns The income tax returns below are not complete for all the years indicated. The miscellaneous receipts are a varied collection of transactions, mostly 1940’s, not organized in any manner.
Folder 1: Income Tax Returns, 1969-1988
Series 3: Board of Directors- Minutes
Box 4: Board of Directors Minutes – Bound Books These are bound pages of records of the meetings. Earlier pages contain minutes of both the Board of Directors as well as weekly club meetings. Book 1: Board Meeting Minutes, 1920-1922 Regular Club Meeting Minutes, 1920-1922 Book 2: Board Meeting Minutes, March 1924- June 1950 Regular Club Meeting Minutes, March 1924 – June 1950
Box 5: Board of Directors Minutes The minutes in box 5 are a collection of loose pages which appear to have come out of the bound books of the previous box. Folder 1: Board of Directors – Minutes, January- December 1917 Folder 2: Board of Directors – Minutes, January- December 1918 Folder 3: Board of Directors – Minutes, January- December 1919 Folder 4: Board of Directors – Minutes, January- December 1922 Folder 5: Board of Directors – Minutes, January- December 1923 Folder 6: Board of Directors – Minutes, January- March 1924
Box 6: Board of Directors Minutes Box 6 contains a nearly complete record of the monthly Board of Directors meetings, some months are missing.
Folder 1: Board of Directors, July 1966 – June 1967
Box 7: Secretary Files
Folder 1: 1917-1922 Box 8: Secretary Files
Folder 1: July 1973 – June 1974 Box 9: Secretary Files
Folder 1: July 1986 – September 1986
Box 10 contains information related to the annual district conference.
Folder 1: District Conference, 1927
Box 11 contains a collection of annual address books of the members. It is a complete list of names and addresses of members and in later publications it also includes photos of each member. This box contains an assortment of record as listed on individual file folders Box 12: Miscellaneous
Folder 1: Correspondence - Undated
Box 13: Boisetarian
Folder 1: July 1948 – June 1949 Box 14: Boisetarian
Folder 1: July 1961 – June 1962 Box 15: Boisetarian
Folder 1: July 1977 – June 1978 Series 7: Miscellaneous News Letters
Box 16: Miscellaneous News Letters
Folder 1: Rotary International News, 1917-1922 Special Edition of the North Side News, Jerome, ID. Coverage of the District 540 Conference, June 17-19, 1982, at Twin Falls Return to Special Collections homepage For questions or comments about this page, contact the Special Collections Department This page created: 2 November 2007 |
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