The Need For Extension

One thorny issue, which if not constitutional, nevertheless existed for many years, concerned a club's territory. In order to safeguard clubs from poaching, it was agreed that there should be 'territorial limits' for each club. Thus, for example, all Manchester Rotarians had to have offices or live within the boundaries of the city, and no other club could take members from within those geographical limits. This did not matter in the early days of Rotary when clubs were few and far between. However, as Rotary grew, it became a problem. In the USA particularly, there were and still are some city center clubs who were unwilling to cede territory in the past and had therefore become very large. For many years the Chicago Number One and New York clubs were in this position.

From early in its history, Rotary had formed an 'Extension Committee' dedicated to enlarging the movement but its prime purpose was to develop new countries and new cities. In 1919, the board was authorized to establish special rules and regulations to cover extension. It was already one of the Articles of the Association-number 2 section 1- "to encourage, promote and…