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Last week I partook in the national Inner Wheel (IW) Zoom meeting.

For those of you who don't know, Inner Wheel is a social club that was formed as a counterpart to Rotary International. Back in a day, when Rotary was a men-only thing, Rotarian wives and daughters decided that they also wanted to have something to look forward to and organized a friendship club, which would allow them to get together and learn something new, be it crafts or information, and just have fun in a safe and peaceful environment.

Husbands weren't allowed to come in during the meetings, and women just enjoyed their time with each other on a regular basis, being a part of this club.

The first Inner Wheel meeting was held in 1924 in Manchester, England. Since then many things have changed. For example, no connection to Rotary is required anymore to join the club, the club branches have also spread all over the world, engaging thousands of women speaking different languages and living on different continents.

I joined our local Weyburn-Estevan Inner Wheel club a few years ago, thanks to my neighbour and good friend, and it turned out to be one of the best decisions. We've done many cool crafts, played a bunch of games and are always having a great time together. Being a newcomer here, I've built new relations, thanks to IW, and started feeling like I have a support system here, where I didn't even hope to find it.

All it takes is one meeting a month, where we usually have a meal together and then host some kind of activity. Our club is really lucky to have a talented and crafty leader, who ensured that through the years all of our activities are top-notch. I don't know how things are in other clubs, but if judge by the national meeting, they all enjoy being a part of it, no matter what they get to do.

On top of the regular crafts or games, we also do a bit of fundraising. It's just a simple raffle, but it allows us to forward a few hundred dollars every year to a charity that we see as the most actual or needing at that point.

Unlike other big clubs, IW doesn't focus on serving the community and rather cares more about its members. It's not a big time commitment, but in my case, it turned to be a real social release – something in my life that was just for me, for fun, for a good time. A monthly meeting, after which I felt 10 times better. It's almost like a simple meeting with friends, but also enhanced by some useful activity, which makes it more satisfying. And unlike a simple meeting with friends, the club meetings are not that easy to reschedule, so unlike friendly get-togethers, which we tend to skip due to busy lives, these ones I attend way more regularly.

For me the fun and friendships I gained through the club, the personal satisfaction I felt from being a part of this group and the break I was getting every month were the best motivations to remain a member throughout the years. And a relatively low commitment was what made it possible, to begin with.

But at the national meeting, it turned out that we all have different reasons to be part of our clubs, and I was curious to see other sides.

It turned out that for some members fundraising was the main part of it. While we were pretty laid back on that in our local club, several other clubs took on some bigger projects and actually were making a real difference for others. Their clubs had some regular fundraising events in their communities, and they put a lot of time and effort into engaging people and helping others. And that's something that was the most important for them. 

Other members of the national team also voiced that for them, it was important to be a service club. They said they do some fundraising, but they don’t pay less attention to some projects in their communities, where they would help out dedicating their time to things that need to be done regularly.

All that was discussed because the clubs are growing. Not only are new members always welcome to the existing clubs, but the hope is to also have new clubs opening in the communities that currently don't have a club. And we, existing club members, were trying to understand what could drive people to Inner Wheel.

Friendship, fundraising activities, social release, community services – all of it to different levels are a part of the Inner Wheel Club, but it's up to each club to focus on what matters the most to them or just to maintain the balance.

We agreed that all of it is important, and while our motivation to be a part of the Inner Wheel may differ, we all value that small part of our life, which, unlike most of the rest, is for us only.

Listening to other members, I thought that while a lot has changed since the 1920s, that need for an escape from busy women's routine is still valid even in 2021, and Inner Wheel definitely meets that need for me.