Twenty years ago, Rotary hit a membership milestone: Women were allowed to join Rotary clubs. Of course, for 10 years before that, women had been functioning as members in one club in California, USA. It was a simply logical move for the Rotary Club of Duarte. In 1977, the club took a head count, decided it needed more members, then looked for local leaders to recruit. Those leaders in the solidly middle-class community about 20 miles northeast of Los Angeles happened to be female.

And so, the club members became unlikely radicals in a case that led to a 1987 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that eventually opened the Rotary door to women all over the globe.

This year marks another membership milestone, with the election of the first female RI director, Catherine Noyer-Riveau, a Parisian physician. Similar to the Duarte club members, she’s a somewhat reluctant radical, saying she doesn’t define herself as a “feminist.” In an interview on page 28, she explains how she sees herself as a Rotarian first, with a legacy of Rotarians in her family and common Rotarian concerns: polio, poverty, and illiteracy.

There are other similarities today to the situation that the Duarte Rotarians found themselves in. While membership is booming in some parts of the globe – notably Europe and parts of Asia, particularly Korea – in North America, the numbers tell another story.

Though North America is a leader of the pack in the number of female Rotarians – 22 percent, compared with 15 percent worldwide – its overall membership has been on the decline.

The Council on Legislation this year passed some measures to attract and keep quality club members and to better reflect the business and professional population of the community. These involved making it easier for alumni to become Rotarians and expanding the qualifications of potential members to include community leaders who may not be executives or business owners.

But now it’s your turn to go out and find those local leaders, professionals, and business owners who reflect the community’s diversity in gender, profession, and age. Consider that 89 percent of Rotary’s 1.2 million club members worldwide are over age 40. If Rotary is to stay vital, we need to do the logical thing and start recruiting. To help, during this August, Membership and Extension Month, you’ll find a list of tried-and-true tips on page 34. You might want to bring along a copy of this magazine as you round up recruits, as it contains Rotary Basics (595-EN), the annual primer on all things Rotarian. It’s an ideal gift for new and prospective club members – and a helpful refresher for more seasoned Rotarians. For US$0.75 apiece, you can order additional copies in nine languages at www.rotary.org.