About Rotary
Rotary in Poland
Rotary has worked in Poland since 1931. Today the Polish clubs form District 2231, which links the local work of the clubs with Rotary’s programmes, grants and international network.
as of 22.08.2024
How Rotary began in Poland
- 1931
RC Warszawa is registered
Official registration by Rotary International of RC Warszawa (club number 3427). Its president is Piotr Drzewiecki — head of the Polish League and mayor of Warsaw in 1917–1921.
- 1933
Three more clubs
RC Łódź (3632), RC Kraków (3660) and RC Katowice (3702) are founded.
- 1934
RC Gdynia
RC Gdynia (3722) is founded.
- 1935
RC Bielsko and RC Lwów
RC Bielsko (3756) and RC Lwów (3899) are founded.
- 1936
A district of its own, number 85
RC Bydgoszcz (3906) is founded. The Polish clubs now work within a district of their own, number 85.
- 1937
A founding committee in Poznań
A founding committee for RC Poznań is at work, but the club is never registered.
- 1938
RC Pabianice
RC Pabianice is founded.
- 1939
War interrupts the clubs’ work
The outbreak of the Second World War interrupts the work of Rotary clubs in Poland and in other countries occupied by Germany and the Soviet Union. A year later the RI Board revokes the charters of the clubs in those countries.
- 1940
Rotarians in exile
Kazimierz Zienkiewicz, a former president of RC Katowice, initiates in London the founding of the International Representation of European Rotary Clubs. It is joined by Rotarians in exile from five countries occupied by Nazi Germany: Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, Holland and Poland. The body is given a special status and, under changing names — among them the Rotarian Fellowship of the United Nations and the Rotary Post for Rotarians in Exile — works until 1944. It is worth recalling that it was in this forum that the idea of founding UNESCO was born, and the part Polish Rotarians played in its genesis was considerable.
- 1989
A return after fifty years
After fifty years of absence Rotary returns to Poland. On 10 June 1989 Rotary Klub Warszawa becomes the first club in the post-communist countries to be officially admitted to membership of RI. The club belongs to District 2390 in Sweden — as do the clubs founded after it, and so it remains until 1997.
- 1995
A Special Extension Area
So that an independent Polish district could come about, a “Special Extension Area” (“Specjalny Obszar Rozwoju”) is created for the Rotary clubs in Poland, chaired by PDG Gunnar Fjellander (D-2390, Sweden).
- 1997
District 2230 inaugurated in Warsaw
With Rotary International president-elect James Lacy present. It was the first Rotary district in Eastern Europe after the Second World War. It covered 47 Polish clubs, and its first governor was Bohdan Kurowski of RC Olsztyn.
- 1999
Clubs from Ukraine and Belarus join
The decision was taken during the celebration of the tenth anniversary of Rotary’s return to Hungary, with RI president Carlo Ravizza present. The agreement was signed by Bohdan Kurowski and Miroslav Gavryliv. The first governor of the enlarged district was Ryszard Kaszuba-Krzepicki of RC Gdańsk-Sopot-Gdynia, and the first governor from the Ukrainian side was Pavlo Kashkadamov.
- 2008
First attempts to divide it
As the years passed the number of clubs and of Rotarians grew and the district was becoming too large — above all for its governors, who under Rotary rules should visit every club at least once a year. The great District 2230 covered over 1.1 million km², and the distances between its furthest clubs exceeded 2,000 kilometres.
- 2013
The RI Board of Directors decides
The attempts begun in 2008 only succeeded five years later, by a decision of the Rotary International Board of Directors to divide the district.
- June 2016
The last governor of District 2230
This was Barbara Pawlisz of RC Sopot International — and at the same time the first woman to hold the office. At the moment of the split the district already had 130 clubs, 80 of them in Poland.
- 1.07.2016
Two districts instead of one
Under Rotary International rules the new districts were given numbers: 2231 — Poland and 2232 — Belarus together with Ukraine. The first governor of the Polish District 2231 was Krzysztof Kopyciński of RC Bydgoszcz, and of District 2232 — Gienadij Kroichyk of RC Lviv.
Our club on that map
The club was founded in 2001, still in the days of the great District 2230 — the one that reached from the Baltic to eastern Ukraine. After the split in 2016 we found ourselves in District 2231.
Our long-standing contacts with clubs and Rotarians from Ukraine have remained an important part of our history and of our international cooperation. After 2022 they took on particular importance, in connection with help for Ukraine and for the people who found shelter in Poland.
The history of our Club is therefore part of the wider history of Rotary in Poland and in Central and Eastern Europe.
What this means for our club
Rotary Club Warszawa-Belweder belongs to District 2231. A district does not run projects on behalf of its clubs — it connects them, trains them and receives their reports. The project stays the club’s project; the district gives it access to Rotary Foundation grants and to partner clubs in other countries.
The neighbouring number 2232 is Belarus and Ukraine — the same district both countries left together with us in 2016. For a club that helps refugees from Ukraine and holds meetings in Ukrainian as well, that is not a historical footnote.
Magazine
The “Rotary Polska” magazine
More about the work of Rotary in Poland can be learnt from the magazine “Rotary Polska”, devoted to the projects, the events and the people who make Rotary in our country.
The magazine shows what the clubs in different parts of Poland are busy with, and how local initiatives connect with the work of Rotary around the world.
“Rotary Polska” is present in our Club as well — it lets us follow what other clubs are doing, learn good practice and draw inspiration for our next initiatives.
