Woman's Club Work and Programs

French Benton Caroline

Description

Today, book clubs are all the rage, but in the early twentieth century, social groups called "women's clubs" were more popular. These small groups of friends, family and neighbors gathered to discuss topics like history, philosophy, and art. This primer from Caroline French Benton offers plenty of inspiration and practical guidelines.

Sujets

• Gender studies
• Sociologie, société et politique

Informations

• Publié par: The Floating Press
• Date de parution: 01 juin 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781776537518
• Langue: English

Extrait

WOMAN'S CLUB WORK AND PROGRAMS
FIRST AID TO CLUB WOMEN
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CAROLINE FRENCH BENTON
 
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Woman's Club Work and Programs First Aid to Club Women First published in 1913 Epub ISBN 978-1-77653-751-8 Also available: PDF ISBN 978-1-77653-752-5 © 2014 The Floating Press and its licensors. All rights reserved. While every effort has been used to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information contained in The Floating Press edition of this book, The Floating Press does not assume liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in this book. The Floating Press does not accept responsibility for loss suffered as a result of reliance upon the accuracy or currency of information contained in this book. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. Many suitcases look alike. Visit www.thefloatingpress.com
Contents
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Chapter I - Introduction Chapter II - The Modern Drama Chapter III - Our Own Country Chapter IV - The Home Chapter V - Myths and Folk-Lore Chapter VI - A Trip through the British Isles Chapter VII - The Opera Chapter VIII - The World's Great Painters Chapter IX - Ten American Women Writers Chapter X - Town Improvement Chapter XI - Holland Chapter XII - The Homelike House Chapter XIII - Nature Chapter XIV - The Great English Novelists Chapter XV - English Novelists of To-Day Chapter XVI - The Gilded Age of Louis XIV Chapter XVII - Forestry Chapter XVIII - Shakespeare Chapter XIX - The Employments of Women Chapter XX - Important Movements of Our Times Chapter XXI - The Study of Childhood Chapter XXII - Miscellaneous Programs
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Thanks are due the editors of the Woman's Home Companion for permission to use the articles in book form which first appeared in that magazine.
CAROLINE FRENCH BENTON.
Chapter I - Introduction
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HOW TO BEGIN CLUB WORK
The time has long since passed when a special plea is needed for theexistence of women's clubs, for actual demonstration has proved theirworth to the individual and to society. Multitudes of women on farms, onremote ranches, in little villages, in great cities, have felt theirimpetus to a broader and more useful life. They have instructed those oflimited education; they have given a wider horizon to those hemmed in bycircumstance; they have trained the timid to speak, and, of late years,they have prepared the way for women of leisure and influence to take upwhat is called "the larger housekeeping," the bettering of social andcivic conditions.
But many women to-day still feel a certain timidity about venturing tostart 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 theexpert may try to handle these things. So for these women here are thesimple, 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 tenor a dozen of your neighbors and friends, those whose interests are muchlike your own, and tell them that you think it would be pleasant to havesome sort of a little circle for reading, or study, or socialcompanionship. Probably they will all have something to say about this,and various ideas will be advanced as to the sort of club which is mostdesirable. Then, after it is talked over, you, as the one who suggestedthe meeting, will call the women to order and ask some one to nominateand second a temporary chairman, and, after she is elected, a temporarysecretary.
When these two have taken their seats and the secretary is ready tobegin taking notes, the chairman will appoint several committees, withperhaps two members on each.
The first will be the Nominating committee, to present to the club thenames 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 simplerules to guide the club, telling of its aims, the number of officers andhow they are to be elected, the dues, the time and place of meeting, andwhatever else is thought necessary.
The third committee will be on Name; it will prepare a list of titles tobe chosen from.
The fourth committee will be on Program. This will offer possible linesof work.
These committees will be sufficient to begin with. The chairman can thentell when and where the next meeting will be held and declare this oneadjourned.
At the second meeting the same chairman as before will take her placeand call for the reading of the minutes of the last meeting. When theseare read and accepted, she will ask for the report of the Nominatingcommittee, 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 thebusiness of hearing the reports of the other committees will go on. Whena name for the club has been chosen, the constitution read and votedupon article by article, and the program planned, the president willname different chairmen to take charge of several following meetings;then this first regular meeting may adjourn, feeling that the club issuccessfully launched.
From this point the work should go on smoothly. The president will findher 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 referwhen 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? Andof course the field is limited only by the tastes, the education of themembers, and the number of books to which the club can have access. Ifthere is a good public library, they may choose almost any literarysubject. If there is none, the next thing is to find out if a travellinglibrary can be had from the state librarian, and whether enough bookscan be borrowed to cover the whole subject thoroughly. If members canhave neither of these helps, then the contents of individual librariesmust be discussed, and a subject must be selected which needs few booksto work with. It is to be noted that a good general reference book willbe found most useful, even if a practical subject is finally decidedupon.
One of the great dangers a new club has to face is the ambitioustendency to begin with some abstruse, difficult subject rather than witha simple one. The Literature of India, or the Philosophy of the Greeksmay be tempting, but even with all the reference books in the world suchsubjects are a mistake for beginners. Something should be selected whichis interesting to every one, not too far away from their every dayreading, not too utterly unfamiliar. A country club may like a season onBird Study. A village club may find Town Improvement full ofsuggestions. A city club can study some American Authors, or the PublicSchools.
If all these things still seem too difficult to begin with, then atleast an Embroidery Club may be founded as the very simplest foundationpossible, the members to come each week with their fancy work and listento one member who reads aloud something entertaining. This may do for afirst season, and the second, a study subject may be taken up.
Sometimes where there is no library at hand, a Magazine Club makes agood preliminary step to larger things. Members tell a chairman whatmagazines they take, and agree to have them at the home of the chairmanone day each week or fortnight. She will look them over and divide thecontents into several parts, travel, biography, essays, stories, poetry,and so on. Then she will portion out among the members parts of theprograms; one meeting may be on travel only, a second on essays, a thirdon poetry, three or four members reading selections from articles onthese. 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 ofeach meeting.
Clubs which have gone beyond these two early stages of development, orwhich have never been compelled to pass through them, may begin workwith some literary topic. A Year of Biography, covering the lives ofgreat men and women of America or England, is a good first subject, withplenty of material. The writings of Emerson, Hawthorne, Poe and othersof the same period, is another. Or, the novels of one or two greatwriters, 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 onemonth with a miscellaneous topic the next, by way of variety. Currenttopics, too, are well worthy constant study, and these can be used as asort 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 listento good music who can neither play nor sing, and perhaps they cancontribute their share of work by writing or speaking of the lives ofthe composers.
Clubs interested in practical themes may take up civic questions,municipal reforms, or children's courts, or cleaning up their town, orstudying factories, or labor laws. There is an excellent magazine calledThe Survey which deals with all these topics, and suggests many more onthe same lines.
Chairmen sometimes find real difficulty in making out club programs,puzzled how to divide a subject into its best points, and subdivide eachof these general topics into others, for individual papers.
One of the best plans is always to look up any subject in theencyclopedia, first of all. It is surprising how much help one can getthere, for history, art, literature, politics and everything else can befound. Then next, the public library is to be consulted, its cardcatalogue looked over, and the books drawn out, or at least glancedthrough for suggestions. Magazines sooner or later seem to have articleson everything, and the library will offer also books of reference tothese. In case the subje