Club Membership

Membership Inquiry

Our club is actively seeking new members who believe in the Rotary principle of “service above self,” who are members of the local community and are willing to commit to fully participate in our club. That includes regularly attending our meetings and demonstrating a willingness to act according to the Rotary Four-Way Test in all personal, professional and community activities.

We are a service organization, but we are also a social group. For many of our members, the Wilmington Rotary Club is a large extended family. Rotarians represent a wide range of professions, and our members include many of Southeastern North Carolina's most influential leaders. That makes the club useful as a source of professional contacts.

The chief qualifications for becoming a Rotarian are recommendations from club members, a history of involvement with community, volunteer or service organizations, and adherence to Rotary's ethical standards. (See The Four-Way Test.) Joining Rotary doesn't involve any elaborate initiation process. We have no secret handshakes or high-signs, no hazing rituals or ceremonial regalia.

If you are interested in finding out more about our club and how to join, please submit an inquiry through our Contact us page and someone will get back you shortly.

Go to Contact form.

Propose a new member

Active members of our club can propose a new member by downloading and completing the the new-member proposal form. The form, with a checklist, explains how to initiate the process.

NEW Member Checklist & Proposal Form

Our club brochure

This brochure, downloadable in PDF format, explains the basics about our club and about Rotary.

Wilmington Rotary Club brochure

Why Rotary?

The video below, from Rotary International, provides a succinct answer to questions about the benefits of membership, and what Rotary stands for world-wide.


 For more information, go to Rotary International website.

Why not Rotary?

Frankly, we have encountered more than one person who has an outdated or unrealistic idea of what Rotary is all about. There's no question that some still consider Rotary to be an "old boys'" club, and that has deterred them from learning more or getting involved. But in fact Rotary is a diverse world-wide movement, and our club has benefited immensely from the addition of women to both its membership and its leadership. (For a historical perspective on our club's diversity, see an article about Seeking Diversity.)

In recent years, both Rotary International and this club have committed themselves to greater diversity, equity and inclusion in both membership and leadership. Our current 2021-24 Strategic Plan sets the goal to "increase the diversity of our club membership to reflect our community," and in the process "Encourage leadership by sectors of the club that historically have been under-represented in leadership positions." For more on the club's diversity, equity and inclusion objectives, see the DEI Committee page.

Then there is the false perception that we're one of those "secret-handshake" outfits.

So we'd like to give the lie to all those incorrect notions, and also emphasize how the inclusion of women in the ranks of Rotarians in the past thirty years has enhanced both our mission and our membership recruiting.

Club Leaders
Bi-monthly club newsletter
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Weekly program speakers
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