Who We Are

Rotary
Rotary International is the world’s oldest and most international service organization, with over 1.2 million members in 32,000 clubs, in almost 200 countries. The official Rotary motto is, “Service Above Self”, and Rotarians live their lives in accordance with the Four Way Test. You can find out more about our wonderful organization and its many programs and projects by visiting the Rotary International website.

There are 59 Rotary clubs with a total of about 3,000 members in Rotary District 6690. The district covers central and south east Ohio.

Rotary Youth Exchange

Each year, over 8,000 high school students participate in the Rotary Youth Exchange program worldwide, learning a new language and experiencing a new culture, through the efforts of Rotary volunteers around the globe. The program began in the 1920s, but took off after World War II.

The program’s primary mission: “To work towards peace and understanding in the world.”

O-E (formerly Ohio-Erie) Rotary Youth Exchange multi-district:
From Lakes to Oceans
District 6690 RYE is a member of O-E, a multi-district including 11 Rotary districts from parts of Canada in the north down to Florida in the south. O-E provides scale of economy to handle regulatory issues, larger number of exchange countries, training and best practices.

District 6690 RYE (Rotary Youth Exchange)

The Youth Exchange (YE) program in D6690 is growing through the efforts of the YE committee, the district leadership, and individual clubs. In 2014, D6690 RYE  received, for the second time, the Gold District Achievement Award at the annual conference of the North American Youth Exchange Network (NAYEN).

Only US State Department-designated sponsors are authorized to issue the Certificate of Eligibility for Exchange Visitor (J-1 Visa) Status (Form DS-2019), which is the basic document to support an application for an exchange visitor visa (J-1 Visa).  Sponsors screen and select prospective exchange visitors based on the criteria set forth in the governing regulations (22 CFR Part 62).

The State Department regulations were amended on October 27, 2010 and control the J-1 program sponsor and participants, including stipulations about mandatory health and accident insurance and maintenance of accurate records for each participant.  The responsibilities of sponsors of Teenage Exchange Visitor programs include the following:

• to be a not-for-profit organization exempt from federal income tax;

• to limit their programs to participants between ages 15 and 18-1/2 (as of the beginning of the program) or who have not completed more than 11 years of primary and secondary education (exclusive of kindergarten);

• to ensure adequate orientation to participants and their host families;

• to ensure that participants from one program are not clustered together in one school; the limit is five per school unless a school requests more (an earlier requirement that no more than two from the same country has been dropped from the regulations);

• to ensure that no J-1 student is placed more than 120 miles from an authorized program representative;

• to maintain regular contact with student, host family, and host school; and

• to secure written permission from school officials before placing a student at the school.