At Rotary's first convention and, again in 1912, official sanction was given to establish Women's Auxiliaries. However, there was little progress and in 1918 the Board of Directors decided that it would not recognize Auxiliary Groups. In Chicago, nothing happened until May 24th 1921 when 59 Rotarians wives met for lunch at the Sherman Hotel and created a new organization called the Women of Rotary. (Neither the men or women of Chicago favored the Rotary Ann nomenclature.) Mrs Alwilda F Harvey, wife of Club #1's President was leader of this new organization. She went on to say: "Women through the ages have always practiced Service Above Self now we have the opportunity to put the slogan into practice in serving our community. The new movement was chartered in Illinois state as a non-profit corporation on May 22nd 1923."
Rotary International's Board of Directors however refused to move from their 1918 position and objected, in addition, to the word Rotary being used…
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