Each and every Club belongs to a geographically defined District and this forms the next building block after clubs in the Rotary pyramid with 530 Districts around the world.

Once again a similar but necessarily enlarged structure is reflected at District level. In Great Britain and Ireland we have a slightly different structure to that in other parts of the world in that all our officers are democratically elected. This is due in part to the cultural and geographical difficulties experienced in other parts of the world where often senior positions are appointed rather than elected but we will consider the Great Britain and Ireland model.

Districts are generally made up of between 50 and 80 clubs in a given geographic area all of whom have the opportunity to vote and be involved in all District activities. The District is under the general leadership of the elected District Governor who acts as an officer of Rotary International and as the Chairman of the District Council. Every Club is a member of the District Council.

The day-to-day matters of the District are handled by an Executive Committee under the Chairmanship of the Governor, comprising of the immediate past District Governor, his or her successor and the elected Treasurer and Secretary. Members of the Executive committee are the Assistant Governors - who vary in number according to the size of the District, but who, it is recommended, have responsibility for no more than 15 Clubs.

All Assistant Governors are once again elected by the Clubs in the District. Each of the elected officers also has an individual vote at the District Council. The District Council takes all major decisions that affect the joint operations of Clubs in the District, budgets, policies and opinions that can be expressed to Rotary International etc. All clubs pay a subscription to the District and to RIBI.