Women In Rotary

It happened quietly, with little publicity or fanfare.

Warsaw's Rotary Club, one of the few remaining all-male bastions in the county, inducted its first female members in January. There was no fuss, no publicity - and no vocal opposition.

In fact, say the four women who broke the club's gender barrier, the male Rotarians have been professional, friendly and welcoming.

"It's wonderful. It's a wonderful group of people," said Sandy Carbone, executive director of the Cardinal Center Foundation Inc. "It's just been real open-door ever since we've been inducted."

The three other new female members are Trish Brown, executive director of the Warsaw Community Development Corp.; Cindy Jones, manager of Apollo One-Hour Photo Center, a division of Cox Studios; and Charlee Hakes, team leader of personnel services at Kosciusko Community Hospital.

The process was initiated by Terry Klondaris, who is Jones' father, owner of Apollo and a member of Rotary. Klondaris said the federal government several years ago decided Rotary is a business organization and women have a right to join.

Other service clubs like Kiwanis have admitted women, he said, and Rotary has been missing "a lot of good women who could add a lot to the club."

"I think it's going to make for a better club and it's going to add another dimension," he said.

Klondaris' daughter, Cindy Jones, said she is the third generation of her family to be a member of Rotary. "It's an honor to even be considered, especially as one of the first women," she said.

All of the women said they were interested in Rotary as a way of giving something back to the community.

"Rotary offered me an opportunity for community involvement, and that was important to me," Carbone said.

Brown said she especially likes the club's motto, "Service above self."

Club president Randy Stouder said including women in the club was "a difficult change" for some of the older members.

"I think it was a challenge to get accomplished and keep everybody happy," he said.

However, no members have left the club since the women were inducted, he said, "so I would say possibly it was more talk than anything else."

Stouder said he supported including women in Rotary because "I just felt as president this year that we were missing out on a lot of valuable input. ... It just was time."

The women said they have felt welcome ever since they first joined in January. The male Rotarians, Hakes said, "accept the women fully as far as the potential that we have in our businesses."

They have been so integrated into the club, Stouder said, that he has made Carbone a sergeant-at-arms, an unusual honor for a new member. A sergeant-at-arms, Stouder said, fines members at meetings for humorous reasons, and keeps the mood light.

All of the women involved said they are not actively seeking other women to join Rotary but are keeping their eyes open for professional women in the area who might be interested.

"Once we've started that," Jones said, "it's hopefully going to develop into something more."