It’s no exaggeration to say that Rotary Basics, our annual August membership primer now going on its seventh year, is the most widely read feature in The Rotarian. Part of the reason is that Rotary Basics also appears in all 31 regional magazines and is available for purchase through shop.rotary.org, making it an essential part of club new member orientation programs. Our staff updates the content each year, ensuring that this resource remains fresh and relevant.

We’re capitalizing on the popularity of Rotary Basics to introduce our new Global Outlook series. The motivation behind this supplement, which will appear four times a year in all Rotary magazines, is to present a consistent, international message and vision of Rotary to all of our members. The regional magazines, as part of the extended network of RI magazines, are the local voice of Rotary going into the homes and clubs of 760,000 members around the globe. These magazines are able to supplement the monthly content reprinted from The Rotarian with details about local events that RI alone couldn’t possibly cover. Global Outlook can fill an existing void in all of these magazines (and The Rotarian) by providing a unified global image of Rotary to all of its readers. My hope is that Global Outlook will educate all Rotarians on our organization’s key initiatives and inspire members to greater service and participation in Rotary’s international efforts. Look for the next Global Outlook, devoted to polio eradication, in the November issue.

The opening photo in Rotary Basics – by Susan Wischhusen of the Rotary Club of Shirley and the Mastics, N.Y., USA – was one of six finalists in our recently concluded photo contest. The picture is of Didier Fosse, a pharmacist and member of the Rotary Club of Sablé-sur-Sarthe, France. You can go to www.rotary.org for the contest results, and in October we’ll tell you more about the winning photographer.