Rotary has grown into a global organization with thousands of clubs and more than one million members.
Clubs: Rotarians are members of a Rotary club, jointly included in the worldwide Rotary International (RI) association. Each club chooses its own board and has an important degree of autonomy. It is the clubs, not their members, who are members of Rotary International.
Districts: The clubs are grouped in 530 Rotary districts, each led by a governor (DG = District Governor), who is a board member of RI. A district administration, including assistant governors and various committees, leads and supports the clubs. On 25 June 2019, Belgium and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg had 281 clubs and 10,614 rotarians (*). Together they form the Rotary districts 1620, 1630 and 2170. Rotary Club Leuven is part of District 2170.
From 1 July 2020 the districts will be redesigned: 1620, 1630 and 2010 will disappear and make way for 2130 (East and West Flanders), 2140 (Antwerp, Limburg and Flemish Brabant including Brussels Nl.), 2150 (Brussels Fr., Walloon Brabant and Hainaut) and 2160 (Namur, Liège, Province of Luxembourg and Grand Duchy of Luxembourg).
Central Council: With 19 members, including the RI chairman and the incoming RI chairman, the Central Council meets once every quarter to outline the general RI policy. Traditionally, for his one-year mandate, the RI chairman chooses a theme and some areas of action that he wants to emphasize.
RI Secretariat: The daily management of the organization is entrusted to a Secretary General. He heads about 600 people at the RI headquarters in Evanston (a suburb of Chicago) and at the seven regional offices (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, India, Japan, Korea and Switzerland). The European office is located in Zurich (Switzerland). The RI office of Great Britain and Ireland (RIBI), which is based in England, serves the clubs and districts in that area.
