Rotary Year 1987 — 1988

Charlie faced two of the greatest problems in Rotary history as he started his year in office. The first problem was the announcement by Rotary International that Rotary would attempt to raise 120 million dollars in order to eradicate Polio throughout the world by 2005, the 100th anniversary of the founding of Rotary. PDG Frank Bentley and PDG Hal Barton undertook the task of serving as District Chairmen for the Polio-Plus campaign. The objective was to get a pledge from every club. At the District Conference, Charlie proudly announced that the District pledged a total of $1,357,000.00 or 197% of the assigned goal. All 54 clubs made a pledge.

Charlie’s second problem came with the news that the Supreme Court of the United States had ruled that a new Rotary Club in Duarte, California, could not bar women from membership in the club under the “Open Accommodation” law in California. The ruling had no effect on clubs outside of California, but it was obvious that legal challenges would follow in other states. Rotary International accepted the ruling and informed all local clubs to remove the term “Male” from all club constitutions. The Atlanta Club admitted three women and in six months time there were thirteen women members in the district.

The year started with a membership of 4107 and increased to 4245, a gain of 3.3%. Walter Allen, of the Buckhead Club, led a Group Study Exchange to District 315 in India and both the team from India and the team from our district attended the District Conference at Jekyll Island. The conference had 933 in attendance with only three clubs not represented. Past RI President Bill Robbins was the official representative of RI President “Chuck” Keller, and Herb Brown, chairman of Polio Plus, reported on the progress of the campaign. Charlie’s year came to a happy conclusion at the RI convention in Philadelphia with the announcement that Rotary had raised 250 million dollars for Polio Plus, more than 100 million over the goal.