Glenda joined the Rotary Club of Morialta in 1994, at a time when female Rotarians were much fewer in number.

After being a full-time mother for eighteen years, she returned to the paid workforce, largely in the not-for-profit sector and for some time in Local Government.

In 1997 she moved to Melbourne, where she purchased a restaurant “definitely not for profit!”, joined the Rotary Club of Waverley and spent the next seventeen years enveloping herself in that club’s activities.

Glenda went on to became the Club’s first female President, followed by some years as Club Bulletin Editor, seven years as District Governors’ newsletter editor, two years on District Conference Committees, some years involved in the Model United Nations Assembly as well as learning how to work with websites and “revelling in all the opportunities that Rotary threw at me.”

This eventually led to four years as Rotarian Coordinator for Interplast Australia & New Zealand, a Rotary initiative to send volunteer plastic and reconstructive surgical teams throughout the Asia Pacific region. “Interplast’s patients were the beneficiary of the funds I helped to raise through Rotary. I was the beneficiary of the opportunity to experience first-hand the work carried out by the wonderful surgeons and to meet Rotarians in clubs and districts throughout Australia – to see the wider scope of Rotary. To see how tiny clubs of 6-8 could sometimes achieve as much as bigger clubs. Experiencing the international convention in Sydney brought home the global reach of Rotary.”

At the age of seventy something, Glenda retired from the workforce and returned to Adelaide where she joined the Rotary Club of Adelaide West, introducing her favourite literacy project “Books for Babies” – celebrating Rotary’s birthday each year with the gift of books to newborns at Adelaide's Women’s and Children’s Hospital. After stints as editor of the District Governor’s newsletter in parallel with several as the Club's Bulletin Editor and Secretary, in 2020 Glenda accepted the role of inaugural President of the newly formed Rotary Club of Adelaide Central – a position she held for 2 years and 4 months.

“In the past twenty-six years, I have seen a lot of changes in attitude to women in Rotary, but most importantly big changes in the types of projects being undertaken because of that influence – especially in the field of women’s health and girls’ safety and education. The only bar to joining Rotary is lack of integrity, lack of interest and lack of energy. Rotary really does open opportunities.”

Glenda has three daughters and six grandsons and when not involved in Rotary activities, teaches computing to students at the University of the Third Age (U3A) Campbelltown. She is President of U3A South Australia and the Campbelltown campus.

At our 2024 Presidential Changeover Dinner, Rotary Adelaide Central formally recognised Glenda's decades of service to Rotary at Club, District and National level by bestowing Honorary Membership on her.