Boise Rotary Club Records

Boise Rotary Club Records, 1916-2019

Overview of the Collection

Title: Boise Rotary Club Records
Dates: 1916-2019 (inclusive)
19162019
Quantity: 17 linear feet, (25 boxes and 1 oversize folder)
Collection Number: MSS 138
Summary: Correspondence, minutes, reports, financial papers, newsletters and other records pertaining to the Rotary Club of Boise, Idaho.
Repository: Boise State University Library, Special Collections and Archives
Special Collections and Archives
1910 University Drive
Boise ID
83725
Telephone: 2084263990
archives@boisestate.edu
Access Restrictions: Collection is available for research. Some financial records may be restricted.
Languages: English
Sponsor: Funding for encoding this finding aid was provided, in part, by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Historical NoteReturn to Top

Paul Harris founded the Rotary Club in the first decade of the twentieth century to bring together business people with varied background for social fellowship and community service. The first official Rotary Club meeting was on February 23, 1905, in Chicago, Illinois. Paul Harris promoted the idea outside of Chicago and by 1908 San Francisco became the hometown of the second Rotary Club. By 1910 there were 16 Clubs throughout the United States. That same year club representatives met in Chicago in August to form the National Association of Rotary Clubs. In 1912, Canada and England established clubs and the name changed to the International Association of Rotary Clubs. The Rotary convention of 1922 shortened the name to Rotary International, which has remained to the present.

The Boise Rotary Club formed in 1917 and the 320th club formed. The Boise Chamber of Commerce called an organizational meeting early in the year in which about fifteen businessmen attended. The first meeting of record occurred on March 29, 1917. Seventeen charter members were present and they established important committees. Future weekly meetings were set for lunch on Thursdays, which have remained constant throughout the club's history. A second meeting was on April 5, 1917, during which they installed the first officers, C.A. Barton as President, H.F. Lemp as Vice-Pres, R.R. Alexander as Secretary. During the Saturday evening banquet of April 28, 1917, at the Owyhee hotel, the Governor of District 14, Dr. R.C. Witherspoon, officially installed the officers of the new Boise Rotary club. More than 100 men from Boise, Salt Lake City and Portland attend the banquet. Portland Rotary Club President Charles E. Cochran presided. The first service obligation that the Boise Club accepted on June 7, 1917, was to raise $2200 for the Salvation Army.

Community service projects of the Boise club have included the Annual High school scholarships, the international student exchange program, Crime stoppers, a playground for handicapped youth, a soccer field, the young artist competition, and the annual Business Week.

With the increasing growth of Boise came the necessity of new Rotary Clubs. The Rotary formed second club on January 20, 1972. Since then two other clubs have been established in Boise to bring the total to four clubs. The Boise Rotary Club has maintained a membership over 200 since the 1960's.

Content DescriptionReturn to Top

The Boise Rotary Club Records contains records of the club, beginning with the formation of the organization in 1917 continuing through the present.

The Rotary Club is organized according to the policies and guidelines of Rotary International. The fiscal year of the Rotary Club runs July 1 through June 30. Officers are elected annually and serve for a one year period. The various service committees of the organization report directly to the board of directors.

See also the cataloged book, The World of Rotary, published by Rotary International in 1975.

Use of the CollectionReturn to Top

Preferred Citation

[item description], Boise Rotary Club Records, Box [number] Folder [number], Boise State University Special Collections and Archives.

Administrative InformationReturn to Top

Arrangement

The collection is organized into six series: 1. Administrative; 2. Financial; 3. Minutes; 4. Membership; 5. Programs, Events, and Grants; 6. Newsletters.

Acquisition Information

Gift of the Boise Rotary Club in November 1994 with additions in 1995, 2004, 2007, 2013, and 2023. The "History of the Boise Rotary Club" (1916-2012) was donated by Dr. Gerald H. Schroeder in 2013.

Separated Materials

Two books were removed from the collection and cataloged: History of District 542, by T. Earl Pardow, and Service is My Business, which is a publication of Rotary International. These two books can be located through the library's catalog. Also removed from the collection was a set of the annual convention year book of Rotary International.

Detailed Description of the CollectionReturn to Top

1: AdministrativeReturn to Top

The files in this box contain information about club activities, committee reports, secretary files and some budget reports.

Container(s)		Description	Dates
Box	Folder
1	1	Monthly Reports	1917-1920
1	2	Semi-Annual Report	1969-1971
1	15	Semi-Annual Report	2004-2008
1	3-14	Annual Report	1964-2008
1	21	Annual Summary	2013-2016
7		Secretary's Files	1917-1973
8		Secretary's Files	1973-1986
9		Secretary's Files	1986-1989
	Folder
10	1	District Conference	1927
10	2-3	District Conference	1931
10	4-5	District Conference	1935
10	6	District Conference	1941
10	7	District Conference	1945-1947
10	8	District Conference	1948
10	9	District Conference	1976
10	10	Other
12	1	Correspondence	undated
18		Correspondence	1979-1996
	Folder
20	25-30	Correspondence	2004-2008
12	9	Constitution and By-laws
12	8	Club Committees	1923-1932
20	23	Club Committees	2009-2011
12	10	Elections	1918-1948
12	11	Miscellaneous
12	12	Outline of Classifications	1937
12	13	"History of the Boise Rotary Club" Written by William L. Woolley and Dr. Gerald H. Schroeder.	1916-2018
1	18-20	Meeting Handouts	1995-2005
19	8	Boise Rotary Founding Fathers	2002
19	9	Club History for Charles Hummel Presentation	1997
19	15	Rotary Club History Committee	1992-1999
1	23	Rotary Club of Boise: The First 100 Years, 1917-2017 (two signed copies)	2017
1	24	Rotary 100 Celebration Program	2017
19	28	History of Rotary District 542 by T. Earl Pardoe	1966
19	29	President Stanley Burns	1980-1982
19	30	President Dirk Manley 2018-2019	2019

2: FinancialReturn to Top

This is a record of weekly deposits, amounts deposited, and in the early records, a record of individual amounts. The budget files contain spreadsheet style annual budgets. The income tax returns below are not complete for all the years indicated. The miscellaneous receipts are a varied collection of transactions, mostly 1940s, not organized in any manner.

Container(s)		Description	Dates
Box	Folder
2	1-10	Bank Deposit Slips	1925-1950
2	11-15	Budget	1920-1989
3	1	Income Tax Returns	1969-1988
25	6-8	Income Tax Returns (Form 990)	1992-2017
3	2-6	Miscellaneous Receipts
21-23		Financial Records (closed)	1993-2017

3: MinutesReturn to Top

These are bound pages of records of the meetings. Earlier pages contain minutes of both the Board of Directors as well as weekly club meetings. The minutes in box 5 are a collection of loose pages which appear to have come out of the bound books of the previous box. Box 6 contains a nearly complete record of the monthly Board of Directors meetings, some months are missing.

Container(s)		Description	Dates
Box	book
4	1	Board Meeting Minutes	1920-1922
4	1	Regular Club Meeting Minutes	1920-1922
4	2	Board Meeting Minutes	1924-1950
4	2	Regular Club Meeting Minutes	1924-1950
5		Board of Directors	1917-1919
5		Board of Directors	1922-1924
6		Board of Directors	1982-2004
	Folder
19	18-24	Board of Directors	2004-2009

4: MembershipReturn to Top

The Membership files contain a wide variety of information concerning the administration of the club. These files include correspondence, membership, and activities. Box 10 contains information related to the annual district conference. Box 11 contains a collection of annual address books of the members. It is a complete list of names and addresses of members and in later publications it also includes photos of each member.

Container(s)		Description	Dates
Box	Folder
10	11	Roster of Members and Committees	1928-1989
11		Complete set of membership booklets from 1960-2004 except for the fiscal year 1990-1991.	1960-2008
	Folder
1	16-17	Attendance Records	2005-2010
		Attendance Records	2008-2009
Box	Folder
20	31-34	New Members	2005-2009
1	22	Obituaries	2014

5: Programs, Events, and GrantsReturn to Top

This box contains an assortment of records as listed on individual file folders.

Container(s)		Description	Dates
Box	Folder
12	2-3	Rotary Foundation / Paul Harris Fellow	1981-1985
12	4	Group Exchange	1982-1986
12	5-6	Youth Exchange	1977-1987
20	35-43	Rotary Youth Exchange	2008-2017
12	7	Soccer Field Pledges	1987-1990
19	1	5th District Conference	1935
19	2	50th Anniversary	1967
19	3-6	75th Anniversary	1992
19	12	75th Anniversary, Photographs	1992
23		75th Anniversary, video footage (DVD)	1992
	Folder
19	7	90th Anniversary Governor's Proclamation	1995
1	24	Rotary 100 Celebration Program	2017
19	10	Photographs, 1931 Convention	1931
19	11	Photographs	1996-1997
19	13	Photographs, 80th Anniversary	1997
19	14	Pins, Russian Chapter	undated
19	16	110th District Conference, Theater Tickets	1948
19	17	Bob Gibb (VHS tape)	1992
20	1	Rotaract Club Treasure Valley	2005
20	2	Service Clubs Meeting	2006
20	3	Presidential Citation	2005-2008
20	4-14	Matching Grants, Ecuador and Mexico	2005-2008
20	15	Refugees	2005-2006
20	16	District Simplified Grant, Dictionary Project	2009
20	17	District Simplified Grant, Jefferson Elementary Literary Project	2007
20	18-19	District Simplified Grant, Rotary Century Scholars	2006-2007
20	20	District Simplified Grants	2004-2005
20	21	District Conference	2009
20	22	World Service	2005-2006
20	24	Boise Hawks	2009
19	25-26	J. Roger Mendenhall's Scrapbook (includes Rotary Wives)	1954-1956
19	27	Benefit for Rotary Grand Plaza, Julia Davis Park	circa 2016
19	31-32	Rotary Songbook	1986
19	33	Rotary Plaque from School in Sonora, Mexico	2010

6: NewslettersReturn to Top

This is a collection of the weekly newsletter printed by the Boise Club to keep members informed of weekly activities. This is a source of information related to functions and activities of the club. It includes records of who spoke at weekly meetings and what they talked about, names of visiting guests, and news items of significance to the club.

Container(s)		Description	Dates
Box
13		The Boisetarian	1948-1961
14		The Boisetarian	1961-1977
15		The Boisetarian	1977-1989
16		The Boisetarian	1989-2008
24		The Boisetarian	2010-2017
	Folder
25	1-5	The Boisetarian	2017-2018
16	1	Rotary International News	1917-1922
16	2-7	Rotary International Weekly Letter	1916-1921
16	8	Other Rotary Clubs
16	9	District 540 Newsletters	1981-1985
		Special Edition of the North Side News, Jerome, ID. Coverage of the District 540 Conference, at Twin Falls	1982 June 17-19

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