Service club "the services", a common expression for the military or uniformed forces. In the Americas, these types of clubs are commonly known as veterans' organizations or veterans' fraternal groups. The world's first service club, the Rotary Club of Chicago, was formed in 1905 by Paul P. Harris, an attorney who wanted to create in a professional club with the same friendly spirit he had felt in the small towns of his youth. The Rotary name derived from the early practice of rotating meetings among members' offices. Many of these service clubs were started early in the 20th century, such as Kiwanis,
Rotary International communist-regime nations were disbanded by 1945–46, but new Rotary clubs were organized in many other countries, and by the time of the national independence movements in Africa and Asia, the new nations already had Rotary clubs. After the relaxation of government control of community groups in Russia and former Soviet satellite nations, Rotarians were welcomed as club organizers, and clubs were formed in those countries, beginning with the Moscow club in 1990. In 1985, Rotary launched its PolioPlus program to immunize all of the world's children against polio. As of 2011, Rotary has contributed more than 900 million US dollars