Our meeting on April 2 nd was a celebration marking the 30 th anniversary of the first admission
of women to Rotary membership.
President-Elect Justine briefly outlined the history of female membership in Rotary and it is
a rather extraordinary tale. Way back in 1911 there were all women clubs. The Rotary
International Board of the time however disapproved of these “Women’s Auxiliaries”, and in
1918 refused to recognise them. In 1923 the first Inner Wheel Club was formed.
Then in 1977 a small California club (Duarte) elected two women to membership. Rotary
International promptly terminated the club’s charter. The club appealed RI’s decision to the
California Superior Court. It took 5 years before the case was heard. The club lost the case
but appealed to the California Court of Appeal which reversed the earlier decision and found
in favour of the club. RI appealed this decision to the California Supreme Court which
refused to hear the case. So RI took the case to the United States Supreme Court. In 1987
the US Supreme Court judges ruled by a 7-0 unanimous decision that there could be no
Rotary membership discrimination on the basis of gender. No wonder the US has so many
lawyers!
In January 1989 the Rotary Council on Legislation voted to change the Constitution and By-
laws to permit the admission of women to Rotary and as they say “the rest is history”.
Women have made a huge contribution to Rotary since then and after June this year the
Presidents of the Alexandra, Wanaka and Cromwell clubs will all be women.
We had a good night on the 2 nd April. The less said about the cross-dressing effort the better
I think, but well done to all who took part.
Lindsay Breen was our guest speaker for the night. His views on the construction industry
were well received.
Unfortunately I was absent in Dunedin for the April 9 th meeting. Our guest speakers were
Dunstan high students Rory Smith, Shaun and Emily Bennett.
And I am going to be AWOL again on April 16 th (Joyce’s birthday and guests from Wellington
staying). Jim Carroll has arranged for our meeting this night to be at the Fishtail restaurant.
Chris Pickering of Oranga Tamariki was to be our guest speaker but has re-scheduled.
There is no Rotary meeting on the 23 rd April and 30 th April we are at Roxburgh.
Finally, I’m pleased to advise that I became a grand-dad again with the arrival of Ella Sue
Rosenberg on April 9 th , 10 days earlier than expected. Very exciting!