President John Griffith called the meeting to order promptly at 12:25, with the ring of the bell and welcomed everyone to today’s meeting. 

Sabrina Foreman and Enoch Hart were our greeters today and Enoch introduced the members who brought guests:

Gary Pehrson led us in singing America, in honor of upcoming Veteran’s Day and Thanksgiving;

President John Griffith let us know that over the weekend Vicki Diamond fell and broke her hip, he then let Martha Rakestraw tell us more. She said that Vicki fell early in the morning Friday in front of her home. She will have surgery that is pretty extensive and she may be at Elk Horn for recovery. Her son Matt flew in to be with her.

Anne Ruble Gave us an update on our past Exchange Student Elise Verbooman, who will be back to see us for Christmas. She is studying Hospitality Management in the Netherlands, she is now proficient in English, French, Dutch and Spanish. She will be doing a 6-month internship in Barcelona at a 5-star Hotel. She just finished an internship in South Africa and one in Bali, she is on her way to a great career.

Kevin Murphy told us that Chloe went to the Broncos’ Game over the weekend and they won so now others are wanting her to go to their Teams’ games (Nebraska).

 

Chloe nominated Steve Loftin for taking her to the Bronco’s Game.

Jim Porter nominated Miamie Sleep and Chastidy Greenwood for doing a great job on TV last week.

President John reminded us that RLI is this coming Friday and Saturday and today is the last day to sign up.

Steve Loftin asked for volunteers for the Food Bank of the Rockies today after the meeting.

Pinky Ellis told us that he is a member of the Casper City Historic Commission and they are in need of more members; they have 2 vacancies. He said it is a great way to learn more about our city. If you would like to be a member contact Liz Becher’s office at the City.

Miamie Sleep put in another plug for volunteers for next year’s Duck Derby, sheets are on the tables.

Liz Becher announced the Rotary Foundation Paul Harris Dinner that will be on Thursday November 21^st, signups are on the table and Mike McIntosh set up online signup and sent out an email with the link and Lori sent out an email with the flier.

President John mentioned that there is a sheet on each table with the board members and an organizational chart of the club so that everyone is informed.

James Gleason gave his classification talk today. He started by telling us his Father’s story of going to war in Vietnam and how that has impacted his life. His father was KIA and then the men of his infantry division set up a college fund for James which gave him the funds to be the first of his family to go to college and have a better life. His father’s story had a huge impact on his life. His Mom remarried when he was nine years old which was not the best situation for him. He ended up moving away from home at the age of 17. He started college at Wayne State University in Detroit and found out that the $1500 scholarship that those men set up for him had grown to be big enough to pay for all of his college education. He received a Bachelor and a Master’s Degrees and went on to work for different Human Service agencies and has since moved into the Nonprofit field. His Dad and uncle would come to Wyoming to hunt and he heard those stories growing up so he is excited to now be living here. He has been married for 15 years and has two sons, a 10-year-old and a 12-year-old. He is dedicated to his Catholic Faith and to service. He has worked for many nonprofits and is currently with the WMC Foundation. He thanked Susie McMurry for being his sponsor and all of us for being committed to Rotary.

Our SOM this week is from NCHS, Jack Robitaille, a very talented young man.

President Elect Lisa Scroggins, introduced our speaker today, a long time Rotarian, Diane Kessel Knight. She is here to talk to us about her Rotary experiences and the role of women in Rotary. This is the 30^th anniversary of women in Rotary. She is a third generation Rotarian. In 1987 her father was interviewing for District Governor of his Rotary District and was asked what he thought of having women in Rotary. He answered that it would be wonderful and that he had a wife and three daughters all who were professionals and who would all make great Rotarians but it didn’t matter because they probably would never join. After he became District Governor, he handpicked a Rotary Club for her and also a Female mentor to help her in Rotary and she was off and running. Twelve years later she was in Boise ID for District Governor Nominee training. There was a banquet honoring the DG Elect and these people were escorted down the aisle by their spouses, dressed to the nines as their bio is read. As she was observing this, she thought that the following year she would be doing this and she was not yet married and so did not have a spouse to walk her down that aisle for this ceremony the following year. She quickly realized that her father would probably love to do that. So, the following year in Houston her father did walk her down the aisle and she saw that he had a tear in his eye as he was doing so. She thought of all of the women and their fathers who now could do these types of things.

The history of women and Rotary goes back to 1911 when women formed the Minneapolis Women’s Rotary Club using the early classification rules of Rotary, one woman from each profession could join. Rotary allowed them to use the principles of Rotary but resisted anything with the name Rotary in it because they were afraid it would destroy the Rotary Brand. But the earliest Rotaryans, the wives of the Rotarians, were not easily dismissed and Rotary gave no resistance when a group of them in Manchester England in 1923 organized an organization known as the Inner Wheel just for wives of Rotary members. Other than in the U.S. this organization took off and is in 103 countries with over 103,000 members currently. Over the years Women persisted but requests were always denied. The men also persisted and every three years men from each district would meet as the Council of Legislation, which is the Rotary Legislative Body that voted on changing the Rotary Constitution. In 1949 a club in India voted to have the word “Male” removed from the standard Rotary Club Constitution, but the proposal was rejected. In 1964 an enactment allowing women to join Rotary was voted down by the convention delegates as were other enactments over the years. But with each Council in the 70’s and 80’s they got closer and closer to passing. In 1977 the Rotary Club of Duarte CA invited three women to join their club. When the president told the DG he asked that the paperwork to RI contain only their first initials in place of their full name. It was a hard secret to hide and when RI found out they pulled that club’s charter for being in violation of the RI Constitution. The Club renamed itself as X-Rotary Club of Duarte and continued to allow women to join and filed a lawsuit against RI in LA Superior Court. So, the long years of court cases began. She then sang us a song from a skit they did about this, what an awesome treat. The Supreme Court agreed with the Club and in 1987 they voted 7 to nothing that RI was not a private club as there was a business purpose and so they could no longer keep women out of RI clubs. RI Allowed the Duarte Club back in the fold and began admitting women in 1987 which set the stage for all other service clubs to begin to allow women to join. In 1989 the Council of Legislation voted to remove the qualification of Male from its membership requirements, which is why we get to celebrate 30 years of women in Rotary twice. Once for the 1987 court decision and then again for the 1989 change in the constitution. She acknowledged the President of the Denver Rotary Club from 2004-05, Judge Bob Kapelke, for writing the song she sang for a musical revue skit they did celebrating 100 years of Rotary. Sylvia Whitlock, one of the three first women to join the Duarte club went on to become the first female president of a club in 1987, she is quick to not take any credit for being a trail blazer but instead gives the credit to her sponsor. Deb Theriault was the first female president of our club in 200-01 followed by Robin Mundell in 2006-07 and Liz Becher in 2013-14. For the first time in our over 100 year history of our club we will have two female presidents back to back with Lisa Scroggins next year and then Lori Klatt after her. Since it is a Rotary requirement that you must be a Rotarian for 7 years before you can become DG, the first time a woman that could serve in that capacity was in 1995-96 and there were 8 women in that first class. Lynn Baker was the first to serve in our District as DG in 2001-02 and there have been many others since including Barb Redder. Sylvia Whitlock went on to become DG in her District as well. After being elected DG the next position to be elected to in RI is that of Director. Rotary Board Directors are elected by a nominating committee made up of a pool of past DG who have shown an interest in and been nominated to serve in that capacity. The first female to be elected to the Board was from the Rotary Club in Paris, Catherine Noyer Riveau, who was finally allowed to join what was her Father’s Rotary Club in Paris. Since 2008 we have had 11 female directors by the end of 2022, we will add about 6 more. It has been 30 years and we still have not had a female President of RI. The way the process works was outlined in the February Rotarian Magazine. The President is elected by representatives in a nominating committee made up of a pool of past directors who were nominated to serve. So since there is such a small pool of females compared to the number of past directors and with the Rotary experience needed to be nominated for that job then there is a small chance of a female making it to that position until we get more and more women into leadership roles in RI. We are seeing more and more so a female president should become a reality soon. Our current membership is 23% women in the world and 31.6% in North America. So we need to continue to bring in qualified female candidates and encourage everyone to get involved in leadership.

In 1988 her dad returned from an exchange trip in Australia and he made a trip to Brisbane and discovered a thing called RYLA which had begun there in 1959. He liked it so much that he decided he wanted to start RYLA camps with his club in Dallas. He sent two Rotarians to a RYLA camp in New Mexico and they came back equally excited to get one started in their club in 1991. She had just joined Rotary in 1990 and so her Dad asked if she would work on it with him and she said sure. He then told her that it was going to be an all-boys camp since that was the way the camps they learned from were set up and so that was the model of success for him. She worked on it that first year as one of two women and it was a huge success. Fortunately for all of them the next DG made it a co-ed camp and it is still very successful. She told this story to illustrate that the reason a lot of the men were against women entering RI was because that was just the way it had always been and they could not envision it any other way. Even the men who resisted probably will admit that it was a good change. Women have brought a lot to Rotary.

Rotary gave her the opportunity to bond with her father before he passed away in 2009. She let us in on a secret that the tear in his eye from when he walked her down the aisle as DG was because he thought that would be the only time he would have the opportunity to walk her down an aisle. She fooled him though as he walked her down the aisle when she married her husband Paul a few years later. She opened the floor for questions. She told a little more of the skit from the 100-year celebration.

Bill Schilling then asked her fondest memory as DG. She said there were many but told us about the president of the downtown Denver Rotary Club whom she was friends with. She was at his club doing her official visit and program on the day of his Birthday. She had a friend that had dressed up as Marilyn Monroe so she borrowed that costume and dressed up as Marilyn and came out and sang Happy Birthday Mr. President to him on stage. Nobody noticed that it was her so he had to tell them, including his wife who said it was too bad Diane missed that. Great story.

 

 

President John Griffith concluded the meeting at 1:23 letting us know that next week we will be back at the Ramkota and we will have David Pope speaking to us.

“Use Rotary to connect your world”