Rotary Club of Manila Rotary Club of Manila The Rotary Club of Manila is the first and oldest Rotary Club in Asia. After its establishment, the Rotary Club of Manila would go on to sponsor other organizations, including the Rotary Club of Cebu (1932), the Rotary Club of Iloilo (1933), the Community Chest Foundation, the Philippine Band of Mercy (1937), the Philippine Safety Council, and the Boy Scouts of America Philippine Islands Council (1923). In 1919 Manila businessman Leon J. Lambert sent communication to Rotary in Chicago about the possibility of organizing Rotary in the Philippines. In response to Lambert's proposal, Rotary sent Roger
Rotary International speeches. The author of the biography of Dale Carnegie, Carlos Roberto Bacila, describes that in 1955 when women were not permitted to attend Rotary meetings, the Brooklyn Rotary Club made an exception and finally allowed Marilyn Burke, Carnegie's secretary, accompany him in a lecture inside the Rotary. In 1963, it was noted that the Rotary practice of involving wives in club activities had helped to break down female seclusion in some countries. Clubs such as Rotary had long been predated by women's voluntary organisations, which started in the United States as early as 1790. The first Irish clubs discussed admitting