Woman's Club Work and Programs
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Woman's Club Work And Programs By Caroline French Benton Woman's Club Work And Programs CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION HOW TO BEGIN CLUB WORK The time has long since passed when a special plea is needed for the existence of women's clubs, for actual demonstration has proved their worth to the individual and to society. Multitudes of women on farms, on remote ranches, in little villages, in great cities, have felt their impetus to a broader and more useful life. They have instructed those of limited education; they have given a wider horizon to those hemmed in by circumstance; they have trained the timid to speak, and, of late years, they have prepared the way for women of leisure and influence to take up what is called "the larger housekeeping," the bettering of social and civic conditions. But many women to-day still feel a certain timidity about venturing to start a club, and an inability to make out a consistent line of study. They have a lingering idea that it is all difficult, and that only the expert may try to handle these things. So for these women here are the simple, fundamental things about club work, which any one can follow. If you would like to organize a club, begin by making out a list of ten or a dozen of your neighbors and friends, those whose interests are much like your own, and tell them that you think it would be pleasant to have some sort of a little circle for reading, or study, or social companionship. Probably they will all have something to say about this, and various ideas will be advanced as to the sort of club which is most desirable. Then, after it is talked over, you, as the one who suggested the meeting, will call the women to order and ask some one to nominate and second a temporary chairman, and, after she is elected, a temporary secretary. When these two have taken their seats and the secretary is ready to begin taking notes, the chairman will appoint several committees, with perhaps two members on each. The first will be the Nominating committee, to present to the club the names of candidates for the offices of president, vice-president, secretary and treasurer. The second will be on a Constitution, which is to draw up very simple rules to guide the club, telling of its aims, the number of officers and how they are to be elected, the dues, the time and place of meeting, and whatever else is thought necessary. The third committee will be on Name; it will prepare a list of titles to be chosen from. The fourth committee will be on Program. This will offer possible lines of work. These committees will be sufficient to begin with. The chairman can then tell when and where the next meeting will be held and declare this one adjourned. At the second meeting the same chairman as before will take her place and call for the reading of the minutes of the last meeting. When these are read and accepted, she will ask for the report of the Nominating committee, and when it is presented, the officers will be voted for, either viva voce, or by ballot, as the club prefers. The new president and secretary will then take their chairs, and the business of hearing the reports of the other committees will go on. When a name for the club has been chosen, the constitution read and voted upon article by article, and the program planned, the president will name different chairmen to take charge of several following meetings; then this first regular meeting may adjourn, feeling that the club is successfully launched. From this point the work should go on smoothly. The president will find her part of it much easier, however, if she will get a little book, called the Woman's Manual of Parliamentary Law, to which she can refer when any point of order comes up with which she is not familiar. Once a club is started, the great question is, What shall we study? And of course the field is limited only by the tastes, the education of the members, and the number of books to which the club can have access. If there is a good public library, they may choose almost any literary subject. If there is none, the next thing is to find out if a travelling library can be had from the state librarian, and whether enough books can be borrowed to cover the whole subject thoroughly. If members can have neither of these helps, then the contents of individual libraries must be discussed, and a subject must be selected which needs few books to work with. It is to be noted that a good general reference book will be found most useful, even if a practical subject is finally decided upon. One of the great dangers a new club has to face is the ambitious tendency to begin with some abstruse, difficult subject rather than with a simple one. The Literature of India, or the Philosophy of the Greeks may be tempting, but even with all the reference books in the world such subjects are a mistake for beginners. Something should be selected which is interesting to every one, not too far away from their every day reading, not too utterly unfamiliar. A country club may like a season on Bird Study. A village club may find Town Improvement full of suggestions. A city club can study some American Authors, or the Public Schools. If all these things still m too difficult to begin with, then at least an Embroidery Club may be founded as the very simplest foundation possible, the members to come each week with their fancy work and listen to one member who reads aloud something entertaining. This may do for a first season, and the second, a study subject may be taken up. Sometimes where there is no library at hand, a Magazine Club makes a good preliminary step to larger things. Members tell a chairman what magazines they take, and agree to have them at the home of the chairman one day each week or fortnight. She will look them over and divide the contents into several parts, travel, biography, essays, stories, poetry, and so on. Then she will portion out among the members parts of the programs; one meeting may be on travel only, a second on essays, a third on poetry, three or four members reading selections from articles on these. Or, the programs may be varied by combining two or more subjects. This, too, makes a good training for a serious study in a second year, especially if a discussion of the subjects becomes a regular part of each meeting. Clubs which have gone beyond these two early stages of development, or which have never been compelled to pass through them, may begin work with some literary topic. A Year of Biography, covering the lives of great men and women of America or England, is a good first subject, with plenty of material. The writings of Emerson, Hawthorne, Poe and others of the same period, is another. Or, the novels of one or two great writers, George Eliot, Thackeray and Dickens, are always delightful, especially with readings from their novels. Often clubs will find it a good plan to alternate some study subject one month with a miscellaneous topic the next, by way of variety. Current topics, too, are well worthy constant study, and these can be used as a sort of prelude to any regular program. Musical clubs are usually limited to a few members, except in cities, but this is by no means necessary, for numbers of women love to listen to good music who can neither play nor sing, and perhaps they can contribute their share of work by writing or speaking of the lives of the composers. Clubs interested in practical themes may take up civic questions, municipal reforms, or children's courts, or cleaning up their town, or studying factories, or labor laws. There is an excellent magazine called The Survey which deals with all these topics, and suggests many more on the same lines. Chairmen sometimes find real difficulty in making out club programs, puzzled how to divide a subject into its best points, and subdivide each of these general topics into others, for individual papers. One of the best plans is always to look up any subject in the encyclopedia, first of all. It is surprising how much help one can get there, for history, art, literature, politics and everything else can be found. Then next, the public library is to be consulted, its card catalogue looked over, and the books drawn out, or at least glanced through for suggestions. Magazines sooner or later m to have articles on everything, and the library will offer also books of reference to these. In case the subject is historical, a good high school history may be consulted, for in the table of contents the main divisions are all clearly given. A chairman can write down the outlines of all she gleans from these varied sources and then select from them the general lines of study and fill these in. Sometimes when there is no library at hand, a school teacher can help one out with suggestions, or perhaps a minister may have books on the subject selected. Or, by writing directly to the state librarian books may be borrowed of him. Clubs which have a small yearly fee sometimes buy a book or so a year and keep them as a nucleus of a library.