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Geri Appel – A Personal History of Life in Rotary
 How
did I happen to become the first woman president of one of the
largest Rotary clubs in the world and 2 years later become the
first woman district governor of my district?
Here’s my story.
My husband, Ken Lerman, joined Rotary before women were
permitted to join.
He was a self-employed business consultant and he joined because
he thought it would be good for his business (it was).
At the time, I was a bank officer and knew about Rotary
and that our bank had 2 representatives as members.
No other banker could join our club, due to the
classification system at the time.
I thought it was a rich, influential men’s group that had
lunch every Monday.
From my husband’s perspective, that’s exactly what it was and he
would speak of the interesting program he had heard at Rotary
each week.
One of the benefits of Rotary membership is receiving
The Rotarian magazine
each month. An avid
reader, I would read the magazine from cover to cover every
month and tell Ken how proud I was that he belonged to such a
wonderful organization.
He shrugged and didn’t read the magazine.
When I joined Ken in his business in late 1989, he suggested
that I join Rotary since I was always talking about what I had
read in The Rotarian.
He proposed me for membership and often has regretted his
decision. He still
doesn’t read the magazine and I am the
very active Rotarian!
I will always be grateful that when our club executive asked me
what committee I wanted to serve on and I asked if there was a
committee that handled new member orientation (because I didn’t
like how I was introduced to Rotary and the “orientation” I
received), she immediately put me on the committee of all men –
older, seasoned and not interested in hearing what a
“young whipper-snapper” like me had to say.
Yes, one of them actually called me that!
I didn’t give up and 2 years later I was named as the committee
chair, I got to select the committee members, and we completely
changed the new member orientation program for our big club.
It was very successful and I was invited to present at
the District Conference just 2½
years after I joined Rotary.
I was hooked.
My big club was a check writing club.
We had only one community service project that got a few
members involved. I
was seeing Rotary in action at District Conference!
Many district conferences and district assemblies later (most
without my husband accompanying me), I was told that Rotary
International’s annual convention was in
Indianapolis,
Indiana USA.
I had never attended a RI convention but wanted to –
especially since my best friend lived in
Indianapolis!
So off I went – and it was a lost cause from thereon.
On my return from the Indianapolis
convention, I informed my husband that next year’s convention
was in
Singapore
and I was going. If
he wanted to join me that would be great, but I was going.
Reluctantly, he came with me.
And he got hooked!
Finally, Ken saw what Rotary really is!
I guess my club got the idea that I loved Rotary and the
nominating committee selected me to lead our 450 member club for
the 2000-01 Rotary year.
It was the best year of my Rotary life.
I’d do it again in a heartbeat, but with our big club,
you only get to do it once.
I’m so jealous of those who get to serve as club
president more than once!
It was a great year in
Wichita Rotary – we began an international service project
that was hands-on and involved not only every Rotarian in our
club, but their families and introduced new community service
projects that involved more members.
We chartered our first Interact Club.
We sent our first students to RYLA and hosted 2 separate
groups of Russians.
It was a great year!
I had been on the radar of our district leadership for many
years and they were thrilled that I would finally be able to
serve as district governor.
Having received permission to serve earlier than actually
permitted, I went from Club President to District Governor elect
to District Governor in just 3 years, serving in 2002-03 as the
first woman governor in my district.
Being president of my club was much, much easier than being DG.
There were a few PDGs that did their best to make my life
miserable, but thanks to support from the rest of the PDGs and
my own club which had 3 PDGs to help keep things in perspective,
I survived the year (and wouldn’t do it again).
Despite the turmoil, it was a great year in
D5690 and I’m so proud of the accomplishment of our team –
from club members to club officers and district leaders.
We chartered 6 new Interact clubs and achieved the
highest level of giving to The Rotary Foundation in our
district’s history as well as taking the
Haiti
project, which is still active, district-wide.
 It’s
now almost 10 years since I served as district governor and I
realize that Rotary is so much part of my life that I would not
be complete without it.
I have friends around the world thanks to attendance at
RI conventions, zone institute, international assembly as a
Training Leader, two times as Council on Legislation delegate,
representative of the RI President at many district conferences,
and most recently if not most important, my involvement with
Rotary Global History Fellowship of which I am
a proud
founding member.
And Ken and I do a presentation titled “Married . . . With
Rotary” for district meetings that tells our story in a fun,
humorous yet meaningful way.
What’s Rotary if it isn’t fun?
And it’s been good for business, too!
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