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Until the Estoi Palace is ready, weekly meetings will be held at Arte Cultura Gastronomia in Estoi, every Tuesday at 1pm and will comprise lunch and usually an interesting speaker. The club includes ‘International’ in its name to reflect the profile of its membership, although all meetings and business will be conducted in English. The club is the 40th International Rotary Club in Europe. Rotary International is one of the world’s foremost fellowship and service organisations, with more than 1.2 million members in 32,000 clubs in 200 countries.

Each club is different but all adhere to core Rotary principles of service to others and the promotion of peace and goodwill through friendship and shared values. There are currently over 150 clubs in Portugal, with 12 in the Algarve. The formal application for membership of Rotary International by the new Algarve club was signed by the District Governor, Teresa Mayer, on August 5 and was approved on September 2, as club number 80155.

Inauguration is planned for late October and the club will celebrate this event with a lunch at Pousada Sao Bras de Alportel, at which time the Charter Certificate will be formally presented to the club.

The new club is open  to consider membership applications from those wishing to join the already substantial number of charter members. Rotarians visiting the area are also very welcome to join the meetings. Amongst the almost 100,000 foreign nationals resident in the Algarve, many have had years of Rotarian experience in their home countries. Some would very much like to continue their Rotarian engagement but, because of language barriers, feel uneasy in joining a local Portuguese club. To these can be added other expatriates without any Rotarian background but with a strong wish to be active in the community and contribute to good causes. The new Rotary Club Estoi Palace International represents an opportunity for both groups of people and will be the second such International Rotary Club in Portugal.

The Algarve is a tourism and residential area of great European and international prestige, and the Rotary Club Estoi Palace International aims to be a complementary element in the regional Rotarian family.

source: http://www.euroweeklynews.com