About RMB

There may have been business networking groups connected to Rotary prior to the formation of the first Rotary Means Business group, but this history will focus on the groups that eventually led to the formation of the Rotary Means Business Fellowship.

In 2004, The Rotary Club of San Francisco #2 (California USA) launched a business networking initiative. The intention was to provide a platform for club members to network with each other, and support each other’s businesses. The names of the original Rotary Means Business founders are no known. This idea caught the attention of the District 5150 Governors in 2004-2005 and 2005-2006, who encouraged other areas in the district to embrace the idea of Rotarians supporting each other’s businesses. By 2005, both the southern suburbs (known locally as the Peninsula) and the northern suburbs (Marin County) of San Francisco had their own RMB groups. Over the next few years, Rotarians in other areas of the USA heard about the concept, and founded their own RMB groups. Many of those groups, including the original San Francisco group, with no central organization to keep them connected, eventually fell into inactivity.

In 2008, Tony Benner, a Rotarian from Sydney, Australia, visited the San Francisco Bay Area, and discovered RMB. He brought that back to Sydney. Their first meeting was on April 23, 2008. As such, Sydney became the first international chapter of RMB, which, as of this writing, is still going strong.

In late 2009, Jock McNeill, a member of the Rotary Club of Santa Rosa (California USA), brought the idea back to his home club in District 5130. The idea was successful, and the Santa Rosa RMB group began meeting monthly. Within a few months, Mark Burchill was asked to chair the RMB group. A while later, another member of the group who was an accomplished web developer volunteered to create a website. Shortly after www.RotaryMeansBusiness.org was launched in 2011, Rotarians from far and wide began connecting with RMB.

At that point, the Chair of the Santa Rosa group realized that the RMB concept had the potential to be much bigger than a collection of random networking groups. He thought it might have the potential to qualify as a Rotary Fellowship. So he pulled together a steering committee and researched the requirements to become a Fellowship. The RMB Steering Committee crafted a set of governing documents, and worked to fulfill the other requirements to become an official Rotary Fellowship.

The application was submitted in summer 2013. In November 2013, the Rotary International Board of Directors approved the application, and Rotary Means Business became an official Rotary Fellowship.

Upon approval as an official Rotary International Fellowship, the first local chapter to join was, of course the “mother chapter” from District 5130. In short order, existing RMB groups in New York, Australia, and the San Francisco Bay Area joined. By the end of 2014, the RMB Fellowship had 8 chapters and more than 150 individual members.

In the time since its charter, the Rotary Means Business Fellowship has continued to grow, and to become a more integral part of the Rotary experience. In 2017, RMB partnered with Rotary Global Rewards to enhance the value of both organizations. RMB has truly shown the value of business networking among Rotarians as a benefit that aids both membership recruitment and retention.