Gov. Bruce received word March 16, 2011 that Rotary International has approved District 6440’s Application for Authorization to Incorporate. In reality, it was our District’s Request for Authority to file with the Illinois Secretary of State “Articles of Amendment” to comply with RI Rules and Regulations for incorporation and to change the name from “Rotary District  6440”, an Illinois Not For Profit Corporation,   to “Rotary International District 6440, Inc.”, an Illinois Not For Profit Corporation.

     

 

In 1977 the District was incorporated as Rotary District 644 with the name amended to Rotary District 6440 in 1992 when RI changed District boundaries and numbers. At the time when the District was incorporated in 1977, RI did not authorize Districts to incorporate and District Leadership at the time was not aware of that fact. However, no harm resulted to the District or to RI. From a District standpoint, incorporation provided liability protection.

Present leadership first learned of the 1977 incorporation last July when leadership was exploring incorporation and discovered that the District had been incorporated in 1977. To satisfy RI Rules and Regulations, RI agreed to accept incorporation of the District If we obtained approval of two-thirds of the clubs and filed Articles of Amendment containing RI requirements.

In January the required club approval was obtained and the Amendment to Articles was subsequently approved by RI in March. We will now proceed to file the Amendment to Articles with the Illinois Secretary of State. Under the Amendment to Articles, the current District Governor, the Governor- elect and the most recent Past District Governor and such other Rotarians, if any, as determined by the District, shall constitute the Board of Directors. The present board consists of DG Bruce Baumberger, DGE Carlos Frum, and PDG William Ferreira.

Also under the Amendment to Articles, the current District Governor is the highest officer of the corporation and is to report annually to the clubs on the status of the corporation. DG Bruce will report on the status of Rotary International District 6440, Inc., at the District Conference, April 28 – May 1, 2011.