Susan from the Rotary Heritage committee passed along this message:
The tradition of singing at Rotary club meetings began in 1905 with Rotarian Harry L. Ruggles of the Rotary Club of Chicago. New Rotary clubs formed, and the practice of singing at club meetings caught on. RI doesn’t track which clubs sing so I don’t have a history of singing clubs. You might try the International Fellowship of Rotarian Musicians, https://ifrm.org.
You might be interested in these mentions of singing in past issues of The Rotarian:
July 1957, pages 14-16, To Sing or Not to Sing?
November 1966, page 39, Everybody…Sing!
February 1994, pages 12 & 66, Letter to the Editor: Sing, Rotarians, Sing!
Ruggles's company published an unofficial Book of Songs -- a collection of patriotic tunes, familiar standards, and Rotary songs (many penned by Rotarians) -- to help clubs make singing a regular part of their meetings. The first official edition of Ruggles's songbook, Songs for the Rotary Club , was published in 1918 and provided lyrics only. Editions with musical notation appeared in 1925.
Later editions offered advice on incorporating music into Rotary club meetings. The 1933 edition encouraged Rotarians to add singing to their weekly meeting agendas. The 1935 edition advised clubs to sing prior to lunch and to select a song leader on the basis of personality, not musical talent. The current edition of the songbook is available at https://shop.rotary.org/songs-for-the-rotary-club-words-and-music-003.
Established in 1911, The Rotarian is the official magazine of Rotary International and is circulated worldwide. Each issue contains feature articles, columns, and departments about, or of interest to, Rotarians. Seventeen Nobel Prize winners and 19 Pulitzer Prize winners – from Mahatma Ghandi to Kurt Vonnegut Jr. – have written for the magazine. You can view them all at books.google.com.
We heard about the upcoming Mandela Washington Fellowship at our club assembly last month. Boise State has 25 young African leaders arriving in June for a six-week stay, and Boise Rotary clubs will be partnering with the college to help support the program. There are 2 current needs:
Host a dinner party on June 25 and invite 2-4 of the fellows. Contact Cornelia if you’d like to showcase Boise Metro hospitality with a homecooked family dinner. We are looking for 3 hosts.
Be a driver on June 22. This is a fun and easy way to build Goodwill and Better Friendships. If you can sign up as a driver, please use this Drivers Wanted Sign-up Sheet.
And check out the following video about the fellowship program. It will get you excited about this amazing opportunity: <link>
With the goal of creating a new songbook for our club, your song leaders have exhausted their libraries. We have "tested" 32 songs since we started. We have removed two from the list as "morbid". We need your suggestions to add to the list. Keep in mind that your songleaders are men of a certain age and are not really "musicians". We have to know what a song sounds like in order to perform it. We are not likely to know anything recorded by Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead or Foo Fighters. Neither are we good with genres like Trash Metal, Grunge or Gothic Rock. Songs have to be simple and singable, with no famous guitar riffs. Please let Cahill or John know of any suggestions.
Fund raising for the Rotary Park on the Greenbelt is underway! Last week, we "sold" the last bench for $2,500. We have applied for District Grants to suppor the benches and interpretive signs. We have set up a GoFundMe account which is already attracting attention. We had a display table set up at District Celebration. There are TWO things you can do right now:
Buy a Rotary Brick. Leave your name to posterity by having a brick engraved in the plaza.
Make a contribution on the GoFundMe page and be sure to share it with your social media contacts.
OK, we won't keep Goodnight Irene....but this week we're really going out on a limb for our opening song!......Michela is still collecting your old phones, mp3 players, tablets, etc.........interesting to hear about Idaho wines last week.....be alert for field trips on the 18th and 25th............we thought Bohemian Rhapsody was way better than Rocketman - same story.
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r speaker this week will be Angela Taylor, founder and CEO of Indulge Boise Food Tours. What? Its a culinary adventure around Downtown's eateries.
Established in 1911, The Rotarian is the official magazine of Rotary International and is circulated worldwide. Each issue contains feature articles, columns, and departments about, or of interest to, Rotarians. Seventeen Nobel Prize winners and 19 Pulitzer Prize winners – from Mahatma Ghandi to Kurt Vonnegut Jr. – have written for the magazine. You can view them all at books.google.com..jpg)
With the goal of creating a new songbook for our club, your song leaders have exhausted their libraries. We have "tested" 32 songs since we started. We have removed two from the list as "morbid". We need your suggestions to add to the list. Keep in mind that your songleaders are men of a certain age and are not really "musicians". We have to know what a song sounds like in order to perform it. We are not likely to know anything recorded by Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead or Foo Fighters. Neither are we good with genres like Trash Metal, Grunge or Gothic Rock. Songs have to be simple and singable, with no famous guitar riffs. Please let Cahill or John know of any suggestions.
Buy a Brick
Make a contribution