An important distinction between Rotary and other organizations is that membership in Rotary is by invitation only. Rotary clubs invite individuals to join and become members.

Membership is vital to a Rotary club's operations and community service activities. A primary goal of the club is to continually expand the club with committed members who have the interest and ability to get involved in their community through service and humanitarian projects. Prospective members must:

• hold — or be retired from — a professional, proprietary, executive, or managerial position;
• have the capacity to meet the club's weekly attendance or community project participation requirements;
• live or work within the locality of the club or the surrounding area.

The membership process
Often a person being considered for membership is invited by a member/sponsor to attend one or more club meetings to learn about Rotary.  The sponsor may then submit the name of the candidate to the club's membership committee,  The membership committee is responsible for checking the qualifications of the candidate, assigning them a classification based on there profession, making sure that their membership meets the criteria of our club and Rotary International.  The club limits the number of candidates it accepts under any one classification.  If the candidate is approved, the membership and classification committees will recommend that person to the Board of Directors and their name will be listed on the Club's weekly newsletter (Rotograph) as a proposed member for about one month.  After that time, the Board of Directors will vote on whether or not to accept the candidate for membership based on the recommendations by the membership committee and any responses it received from other club members in the club.  If approved the candidate will be contacted by their Rotary sponsor to accept or decline membership in the club.  If they accept they will be inducted as a member at an appropriate time once payment of their annual dues and initiation fee are received.  Our club's initiation fee is $65.00 and our annual dues are $150.00 per year.  To be considered for membership in the Hagerstown Rotary please follow this link.

Classifications: professional representation
Rotary uses a classification system to establish and maintain a vibrant cross-section or representation of the community's business, vocational, and professional interests among members and to develop a pool of resources and expertise to successfully implement service projects. This system is based on the founders' paradigm of choosing cross-representation of each business, profession, and institution within a community.

A classification describes either the principal business or the professional service of the organization that the Rotarian works for or the Rotarian's own activity within the organization. Some examples of classifications include: high schools, universities, eye surgery, banking, pharmaceutical-retailing, petroleum-distribution, and insurance agency.