The Apex Rotary Club was started in 1969 as a way for local businessmen to network and to help out the community. Back then, networking was done over the telephone and in person.

So it was a sure sign of how times have changed on Thursday when club members heard a presentation about how Facebook, Twitter and other Web sites can help their businesses.

“At my age, it’s too late to learn,” said Harvey Montague, referring to Facebook and Twitter. Montague, 73, has been there from the beginning; he was one of 19 charter members of the Apex Rotary Club.

But that does not mean the club has passed Montague by. The builder and real estate developer still attends meetings — and still gets a lot out of it.

“What keeps me coming back is the people,” Montague said. “We have some of the greatest people in the world.”

The Apex Rotary Club, which celebrated its 40th anniversary last week, has grown and changed with the town. It now has about 60 members, according to president Cat Kearns. She is, herself, a sign of the club’s evolution. It was an all-male group for its first 19 years. Now about a quarter of the members are women.

“The women add a great flavor to the club,” Montague said. “They’re more compassionate than men.”

Compassion is a useful quality for a Rotary Club member; helping others is one of the organization’s hallmarks. The Apex Rotary Club offers scholarships to college students, which it supports through three or four fund-raisers during the year, said Kearns. Other goals of the club include promoting patriotism and international understanding and developing character.

The Apex Rotary Club sponsors the Coach Pitch Baseball League, which teaches boys and girls, ages 7 and 8, baseball fundamentals along with good sportsmanship and teamwork. Over the years, the club has sent medical supplies to Cuba, placed American flags in classrooms, sent a dentist to Haiti and sent a group to Nicaragua to help build a school.

Rotary Club members from Apex and elsewhere have contributed to the campaign to eradicate polio. In October, the Apex Rotary Club, in partnership with the Apex United Methodist Church, will sponsor its annual “stop hunger now million meal event.” Club and church members expect to package 150,000 dehydrated meals to be shipped to Third World countries.

There is more of this kind of activity than there used to be. But the club has always engaged in charitable and civic-minded events, said Charlie Holland, who also is a charter member.

Holland, 82, recalls being approached in 1968 by Waldo Rood of the Cary Rotary Club — who helped establish the Apex club, along with Avery Upchurch of the Raleigh Rotary Club. Those clubs saw a need for a Rotary Club in growing Apex.

“It was a quiet town then,” Holland said. “There were only about 2,000 people. Now we have [35,000].”

The town’s growth has boosted annual sales at Holland’s store, Holland’s Jewelers, which opened in 1960, by a factor of 20. Growth also has boosted the number of people in the community who need help, but there are more club members to pitch in, Holland pointed out.

Like Montague, it’s the club’s members that keep Holland coming back.

“You have all your friends,” he said. “You have things in common. You come together with these projects. We’re doing much more now, with the size of the club, than we did 40 years ago.”

For more information about the Apex Rotary Club, visit apexrotary.org.