Woman's Club Work and Programs Part 1

Woman's Club Work and Programs.

by Caroline French Benton.

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

HOW TO BEGIN CLUB WORK

The time has long since pa.s.sed 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. Mult.i.tudes 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 circ.u.mstance; 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 Const.i.tution, 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 t.i.tles 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 const.i.tution 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 seem 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 pa.s.s 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 d.i.c.kens, 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, munic.i.p.al 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 seem 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.

As to writing club papers, there personality comes in, and education and training, and these give a certain individuality of method of treating a subject. But even here members can follow out certain definite directions.

Suppose, to make the matter concrete, that some one wishes to write a paper on Ruskin, and does not know exactly how to go to work; here is a general plan:

First, of course, she should read something on his life,--a book, an article in a magazine, or anything she can get, and the more she can read the better paper she will write. Next she should divide her subject into its parts; in this case there might be three: Ruskin's life; his work; his influence.

The first topic would cover his home, his early education, the influence of his mother, and his gradual growth into his place in the world.

The second would take up what he did; his travels, his interest in painting, architecture, economics and sociology; his friends, his controversy with Whistler and its outcome, his contact with Oxford, and the books he wrote.

The third would be a resume of what Ruskin actually accomplished; of the value of his work to society, and his influence on social problems; and the question would be raised, Are his views considered sound to-day?

Such a paper, ill.u.s.trated by brief readings, would be of a certain value, for it would be clear, concise, and full of matter which would probably be fresh to many club members; and any subject may be treated in the same general way; one has only to choose one on which plenty of material can be found, then read everything to be had on it, make out an outline of three or four topics covering the whole and take these up one by one, ill.u.s.trating with anecdotes, quotations and the estimates of others, and the paper is sure to be interesting. What should never be done is to write a paper without making an outline; the result of that is vagueness and repet.i.tion.

The value of a discussion after a paper cannot be over-estimated. One joins a club not so much to acquire information, because that can be done by reading books at home, but rather to learn to express oneself readily and intelligently. This is why in planning a club it is best to emphasize the two points; first, that members must talk over the subjects at the close of each meeting, speaking briefly and always to the point; and second, that papers should not be too long, or too heavy, but full of matter, interesting, and above all, suggestive.

Debates are always of value to club women, for as we know too well, they are not naturally logical; debating soon shows one how easy it is to think in a hazy, indefinite way, and how difficult to say clearly and concisely what is to be said.

It will be necessary, of course, to learn the accepted methods of debating, and know how to present the points of the argument progressively and with a climax, as well as to antic.i.p.ate the points likely to be made by the opponent. Each side must also be limited as to time.

As to the subject of a debate, it is a safe rule to choose the concrete rather than the abstract, a large subject rather than a limited one, and one of general interest. There should also be two well defined sides, rather than something accepted by everybody. Such things as the views of some writer on socialism, or the permanency of the work of a well-known novelist or poet, or political, but not partizan, questions are always acceptable.

To make club work successful year after year it should be remembered that a club is not a university; that it should not be scholastic, but full of human interests. Tastes of members vary, and so the subjects selected should be attractive, fresh, and stimulating. In a large club there may be committees on different subjects, art, civics, child study and the like, each one a little club in itself, meeting weekly, and the whole club can gather once a month and the committees in turn present a program on their special subjects, and so every member be satisfied. As years go by it will be found that members grow to like subjects other than those they began with, and more general work will be taken up.

Last of all, to have a successful club it is essential that there should be no members who are mere listeners. Each woman actually has something to contribute, if only in a very quiet way, and a good chairman of a program can find out what this is; the little talent may take shape in a paper, or a talk, or a part in a discussion, or some music, or only a quotation or a reading. But a club is worth just as much to a member as she puts into it, and no more. Any woman who is not willing to do something in the way of real work should drop out and give some one else the place which she occupies but does not fill.

Two methods are followed in the programs offered to clubs in this book.

First, a year's work is divided up into ten meetings with four or five papers suggested for each meeting with readings and bibliography.

Second, the year's work is again divided into ten meetings, but it is left to clubs to choose from the material furnished how many papers shall be written and what their t.i.tles shall be. The material offered in either case is sufficient for twenty meetings or more; indeed, in some cases, one theme might be expanded for the work of several years.

CHAPTER II

THE MODERN DRAMA

I--BEGINNING OF MODERN ENGLISH DRAMA--THE AGE OF ELIZABETH