And the next move was that of service.

 Early in the history of Rotary, service became its watchword. But the route it has taken has been a bit circuitous. Arthur Sheldon joined Rotary in Chicago in 1908. He had founded a business school for the stated purpose of helping people build their business. He coined the phrase "he profits most who serves best” with the meaning that if businessmen wanted to earn more money, the way to do it was by providing better service. He had become disgusted with the “caveat emptor” (let the buyer beware) style of business that seem to be prevalent. He introduced the phrase at the 1910 Rotary convention, and by acclamation, it was adopted into the "platform" of Rotary by the convention.

It was years later when the phrase was changed to "they profit most who serve best".  It has since been modified to say "they benefit most who serve best”, lessening the emphasis on profit. It has been superseded by the official motto of Rotary, "service above self". The last phrase has a distinctly different meaning and intent from that of Mr. Sheldon in 1908.  Art Sheldon believed that all of business was aimed at providing  service to those who needed it. It seemed logical and ethically proper to provide the best service. He believed that the basis of all business was service, and that profit was the inevitable result of service.

It was also Arthur Sheldon who introduced the “classification” system into Rotary. The original intent was that a Rotary club would be composed of the leading businessmen of all of the various professions represented in the community. They would seek out these men and recruit them into Rotary. Byproducts of this original approach was that competing business interests would not be represented in the same club while there could be enhanced business relationships within the club. These attributes have largely fallen into disfavor.

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For the record, the current motto of Service Above Self is in line with the two original service projects of Rotary: providing a horse for a circuit-rider clergyman and the first "public comfort station" in Chicago.

In the beginning...

O ne day in the fall of 1900, Paul P. Harris met attorney Bob Frank for dinner in a well-off neighborhood on the North Side of Chicago. They took a walk around the area and stopped at shops along the way. Harris was impressed by how Frank had made friends with many of the shopkeepers.

Since moving to Chicago to set up his law practice, Harris had not encountered the kind of camaraderie that Frank enjoyed with his fellow businessmen. He wondered whether there was a way to channel and expand this type of fellowship, which reminded him of the New England town where he'd grown up.

The thought persisted that I was experiencing only what had happened to hundreds, perhaps thousands, of others in the great city … I was sure that there must be many other young men who had come from farms and small villages to establish themselves in Chicago ... Why not bring them together? If others were longing for fellowship as I was, something would come of it.
-- Paul P. Harris, My Road to Rotary

Eventually, Harris persuaded other local businessmen to meet and discuss forming a club for commercial trade, community, and fellowship. His vision laid the foundation for the Rotary of today.