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Rotary International began in 1905 in Chicago with four friends who rotated a weekly meeting in their officesthus the name. Today there are 29,000 clubs with 1.2 million men and women providing community service in virtually every nation in the world.
Rotary Club of West Austin was founded more than fifty-three years ago. A small group met at the Hitching Post restaurant on March 25, 1953 to discuss forming the second Rotary Club in Austin. Less than three months later, on June 18, 1953, District Governor Howard O. Smith presented the charter to Club President Carl Stautz at the installation banquet at the Stephen F. Austin Hotel. We celebrated our 50th anniversary with a special Anniversary meeting, on June 19, 2003 at Westwood Country Club.
Our membership reflects a wide cross-section of community representation. Some of us are business owners or professionals, and some of us are in private industry or are government officials.
One of the joys of being in Rotary is that Rotary Clubs are like a home away from home when travelingand because each club is autonomous, no two clubs conduct their meetings the same way. I look forward to greeting you when you are in Austin and visit one of our next Thursday noontime meetings.