Inner Wheel District 26

		Inner Wheel District 26 Covering three counties in the UK - Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire
		*History:* 1905…Chicago A young American businessman called Paul Harris formed a group of friends and acquaintances who met in rotation in each other’s houses. This was to be the beginning of the Rotary movement. Paul Harris Margarette Owen / Golding At this time there was a young girl growing up in Hay-on-Wye (England), called Margarette Owen. She trained as a nurse and served in the First World War, and when it was over she joined a firm of which she eventually became managing director. She had also married a Manchester businessman, Oliver Golding, who was a Rotarian, and was more than happy to support him in his work for Rotary. She was not alone in this, and in some places the wives had formed committees which met regularly, and some even turned into Rotary Clubs of wives.
*Theme for 2011-12* 'Think Ahead- Aim High'
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For queries concerning this website, please contact: Judy Dick or the website manager Howard Dick Updated 20/07/2011

At this time in Britain there was still a marked divide between the comfortably off and the downright poor, and virtually no welfare or social services at all, so there was plenty of scope for voluntary work.

And so it was that, on November 15^th, 1923 a group of ladies, much encouraged by their Rotarian husbands, called a meeting for the purpose of setting up a club on Rotary lines, and 27 ladies attended.

It was explained that the object of the club was twofold; firstly to foster friendship between the wives of Rotarians and, secondly, it was thought that to be organised into a club would increase the opportunities for service. A committee was set up to contact the wives who had not attended, and the chairman of this committee was Mrs. Margarette Golding.

By the time of the next meeting on January 10^th 1924, funds had been raised and woollen garments knitted and sent to local hospitals. It was at this meeting that the name “The Inner Wheel Club of Manchester” was adopted, thus cleverly indicating the Rotary connection.

Within less than a year the membership had doubled and many successful projects had been undertaken, and news of this club’s achievements had spread, so that by 1927 five more clubs had been formed, one of which had previously been a ladies’ Rotary Club. The badge which was adopted is the Rotary wheel with a smaller cog inside it – the inner wheel which helps the big wheel turn. January 10^th is now celebrated as Inner Wheel Day around the world.

Unification

A feeling gradually arose that there ought to be some sort of unification for existing clubs. The Rotary District 5 conference was about to be held in Llandudno, and its Executive Committee were sympathetic to the request that a ladies’ meeting be conducted during the conference, to consider the possibility of forming a corresponding Inner Wheel district. Mrs. Margarette Golding was the speaker, and the first Inner Wheel District, which corresponded with Rotary’s, was formed.

It was then the turn of Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland (RIBI) to permit a ladies’ meeting during their Harrogate conference, and it was from this point that Inner Wheel became a national organisation, called the Association of Inner Wheel Clubs, with a similar structure to Rotary’s, the main difference being that you had to be the wife of a Rotarian to qualify for membership. Today, regular meetings are held between the Inner Wheel Association President and the RIBI President.

As Rotary’s bounds had become international, so did Inner Wheel’s, and in many countries it was almost the only way in which a woman’s voice could be heard at all. International Inner Wheel (IIW) was formed in 1967, and today there are over 103,000 members worldwide, in 100 different countries, including 1031 clubs in Great Britain, with 29 districts and 28,000 members, from Norway to Nigeria, and from Uganda to the Ukraine. It is now the largest women’s organisation in the world, and is represented at the United Nations.

Membership rules have changed, firstly extending to other female relatives of Rotary and then to other women, through the route of honorary members. Inner Wheel remains a female-only organisation. In many male-dominated countries Inner Wheel and similar women’s organisations are the only way a woman can make her voice heard; and these women use their votes to keep it that way.

There is an International Convention every three years: in 2000 it was in Stockholm, 2003 in Florence, 2006 in New Zealand and 2009 in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia.