RI President Akuji Tanaka Theme: Peace Through Service

Opening Remarks

I am Canadian!!

Happy belated Canada Day to all. I hope your long weekend has been wonderful.

I feel very fortunate and proud to call myself a Canadian Citizen. I consider it to be a privilege to live in this country and be granted the freedom and wealth we we all get to enjoy.

Some of this week’s program content is in honor of Canada Day.

While many of us are enjoying our summer vacation at the cottage, campground or in a hotel. It may happen that unfavorable weather conditions force you to stay indoors.  This would be a perfect opportunity, to invite family or friends to attend the weekly e-meeting together with you and find out what Rotary is and what Rotary does. What a great opportunity for the family to share.

This week’s message is very suitable to share with others, as RI President Tanaka presents the theme for this Rotary year; A topic that everyone worldwide could learn a lot from.

Next week’s program will also be very suitable to share with friends and family, who are not familiar with Rotary The video. “What in the world is Rotary” will be posted for our weekly meeting.
So get all your friends at the lake or campground together and share with them how we make the world a better place through Rotary Service.

Enjoy the meeting, share your comments and I hope to e you all next week.
Chair Elly Contreras

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The 1989 Council on Legislation vote to admit women into Rotary clubs worldwide remains a watershed moment in the Victory of Rotary.
"My fellow delegates, I would like to remind you that the world of 1989 is very different to the world of 1905. I sincerely believe that Rotary has to adapt itself to a changing world," said Frank J. Devlyn, who would go on to become RI president in 2000-01.

The vote followed the decades-long efforts of men and women from all over the Rotary world to allow for the admission of women into Rotary clubs, and several close votes at previous Council meetings.

The response to the decision was overwhelming: By 1990, the number of female Rotarians had skyrocketed to over 20,000.

Women have served in leadership positions as high as the RI Board of Directors and The Rotary Foundation Board of Trustees.

Timeline of women in Rotary
1950
An enactment to delete the word male from the Standard Rotary Club Constitution is proposed by a Rotary club in India for the Council on Legislation meeting at the 1950 RI Convention.

1964

The Council on Legislation agenda contains an enactment proposed by a Rotary club in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) to permit the admission of women into Rotary clubs. Delegates vote that it be withdrawn. Two other proposals to allow women to be eligible for honorary membership are also withdrawn.

1972

As more women begin reaching higher positions in their professions, more clubs begin lobbying for female members. A U.S. Rotary club proposes admitting women into Rotary at the 1972 Council on Legislation.

1977

Three separate proposals to admit women into membership are submitted to the Council on Legislation for consideration at the 1977 RI Convention. A Brazilian club makes a different proposal to admit women as honorary members.

The Rotary Club of Duarte, California, USA, admits women as members in violation of the RI Constitution and Standard Rotary Club Constitution. Because of this violation, the club's membership in Rotary International is terminated in March 1978, only to be reinstated in September 1986.

1980

The RI Board of Directors and Rotary clubs in India, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States propose an enactment to remove from the RI and club constitutions and bylaws all references to members as male persons .

1983-86

In a lawsuit filed by the Duarte club in 1983, the California Superior Court rules in favor of Rotary International, upholding gender-based qualification for membership in California Rotary clubs. In 1986, the California Court of Appeals reverses the lower court's decision, preventing the enforcement of the provision in California. The California Supreme Court refuses to hear the case, and it is appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

1987

On 4 May, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that Rotary clubs may not exclude women from membership on the basis of gender. Rotary issues a policy statement that any Rotary club in the United States can admit qualified women into membership. The Board "encourages all clubs in the U.S. to give fair and equal consideration to candidates for membership without regard to gender."

The Rotary Club of Marin Sunrise, California (formerly Larkspur Landing), is chartered on 28 May. It becomes the first club after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling to have women as charter members. Sylvia Whitlock, of the Rotary Club of Duarte, California, becomes the first female Rotary club president.

1988

In November, the RI Board of Directors issues a policy statement recognizing the right of Rotary clubs in Canada to admit female members based on a Canadian law similar to that upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

1989

At its first meeting after the 1987 U.S. Supreme Court decision, the Council on Legislation votes to eliminate the requirement in the RI Constitution that membership in Rotary clubs be limited to men. Women are welcomed into Rotary clubs around the world.

1990

As of June, there are about 20,200 female Rotarians worldwide. Read a feature on women in Rotary  from the June 1990 issue of The Rotarian.

1995

In July, eight women become district governors, the first elected to this role.

2005

Carolyn E. Jones begins her term as the first woman appointed as trustee of The Rotary Foundation, serving from 2005 to 2009.

2007

In July, 63 women begin terms as district governors. Women are members of 25,227 clubs around the world. There are 177,859 female Rotarians.

2008

Catherine Noyer-Riveau begins her term as the first woman elected to the RI Board of Directors, serving from July 2008 to June 2010.

2011

In June 2011, there are 197,044 female Rotarians worldwide, and 91 women are district governors.

 
Esther M. Johnson first female Rotarian

It Couldn’t Be Done

Somebody said that it couldn’t be done,
But, he with a chuckle replied
That "maybe it couldn’t," but he would be one
Who wouldn’t say so till he’d tried.
So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin
On his face. If he worried he hid it.
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn’t be done, and he did it.

Somebody scoffed: "Oh, you’ll never do that;
At least no one has done it";
But he took off his coat and he took off his hat,
And the first thing we knew he’d begun it.
With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,
Without any doubting or quiddit,
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn’t be done, and he did it.

There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,
There are thousands to prophesy failure;
There are thousands to point out to you one by one,
The dangers that wait to assail you.
But just buckle it in with a bit of a grin,
Just take off your coat and go to it;
Just start to sing as you tackle the thing
That "couldn’t be done," and you’ll do it.

- Edgar Albert Guest - 1881-1959

PEACE TROUGH SERVICE

RI President  Sakuji Tanaka Theme for the 2012-13 Rotary year is Peace Through Service.

"Peace, in all of the ways that we can understand it, is a real goal and a realistic goal for Rotary," Tanaka said during his speech at the Rotary International Assembly. "Peace is not something that can only be achieved through agreements, by governments, or through heroic struggles. It is something that we can find and that we can achieve, every day and in many simple ways."

Tanaka, is a businessman from the greater Tokyo metropolitan area. After joining the Rotary Club of Yashio, in 1975, he began to realize that his life's purpose was not to make more money, but to be useful to other people. 

"I realized that by helping others, even in the simplest of ways, I could help to build peace”. 

The Japanese tradition of putting the needs of society above the needs of the individual helped his country rebuild after the tsunami and earthquake in March. 

"This is a lesson that I think the whole world can learn from, in a positive way. When we see the needs of others as more important than our own needs -- when we focus our energies on a shared goal that is for the good of all -- this changes everything. It changes our priorities in a completely fundamental way. And it changes how we understand the idea of peace." 

Tanaka will ask Rotarians to focus their energy on supporting the three priorities of the RI Strategic Plan.

“In Rotary, our business is not profit. Our business is peace. Our reward is not financial, but the happiness and satisfaction of seeing a better, more peaceful world, one that we have achieved through our own efforts.”

Join us in watching RI President Tanaka’s Theme Video