1 Village Inn Rd
Bar Harbor, ME 04609 United States of America
Join us on Wednesdays at Noon, except for the first Wednesday of the month when we meet at 5:00 pm (check Facebook or the speakers list on this page for the location)
Thank you to the Seal Cove Auto Museum for hosting our first in person meeting since March. It was wonderful to see those of you who attended last week! It was also a pleasure to honor Susy, and more formally mark her term as our club’s President.
At the club and district levels, woman like Susy have served in numerous leadership roles. This past week, Rotary International shared some exciting news. Jennifer E. Jones, a member of the Rotary Club of Windsor-Roseland, Ontario, Canada, has been nominated to become Rotary International’s President for 2022-23, a groundbreaking selection that will make her the first woman to hold that office in the organization’s 115-year history.
Jones will officially become president-nominee on 1 October if no other candidates challenge her. Jones says she sees Rotary’s Action Plan as a catalyst for increasing Rotary’s impact. “As we reflect upon our new strategic priorities, we could have never envisioned that our ability to adapt would become our North Star during what is inarguably the most profound time in recent history,” Jones said in her vision statement. “Silver linings rise out of the most challenging circumstances. Using metric-driven goals, I will harness this historic landscape to innovate, educate, and communicate opportunities that reflect today’s reality.”
This news, and our visit to the Seal Cove’s exhibit about women’s suffrage, sparked a curiosity about the history of women in Rotary, so I spent this weekend doing a little homework. Sylvia Whitlock, of the Rotary Club of Duarte, California, became the first female Rotary club president in 1987, following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that Rotary clubs may not exclude women from membership on the basis of gender. Rotary International issued a policy statement that any Rotary club in the United States can admit qualified women into membership. That was followed quickly by the 1989 Council on Legislation vote to admit women into Rotary clubs worldwide, and this remains a watershed moment in the history of Rotary. By June 1990, the number of female Rotarians had skyrocketed to over 20,000. By July 2016, the number of women worldwide had surpassed 250,000. Women also immediately embraced the leadership opportunities provided by their clubs and have been making an impact in communities around the world. We are fortunate to have some of the earliest trailblazers as members of our club! Want to learn more about women in Rotary? This is an excellent video: https://vimeo.com/87618518.
This Wednesday we have no meeting scheduled. We will gather next Wednesday, August 19th, when we will welcome Climate to Thrive to learn about efforts to move us towards a carbon free future.
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