So you want to start your own local group or club?
I am by no means an expert but I can tell you how I went about starting the Michiana Chapter of the Red Hat Society back in 2001. These simple steps can be used to start any local club, group or chapter. You can glean what you like out of my experience and do what is most comfortable for you! The most important part is to enjoy & have fun!
Okay, first of all when I got this crazy idea into my head, I checked the official Red Hat Society website on the www and found the nearest chapters to be 30 miles north of me and 30 miles south of me. The one south of me had at least 50 members if not more. That’s a little too large in my opinion to really bond with new girlfriends.
So I spoke with my mom about the possibility of starting a chapter of our own and spoke with others who might be interested. So, what you need to do is find someone anyone who wants to have fun like you do! It doesn’t matter if you have 1 or 2 or 6 friends – anything is a start!
Second thing to do is to decide WHERE you will have your first organizational meeting. Do you or any of your friends have a home large enough to accommodate 12 or 20 should that many show up? If not, look for free rooms to use in your community. Many businesses have rooms they loan to non-profit organizations. We found a room at our local library. Other suggestions might be the local bank or church.
Now, pick a day and time and reserve the room. Allow 2 hours to have your 1st meeting. Make up flyers and post them where ladies will see them. Make sure all needed information is included along with your name and phone number and put R.S.V.P. so you can get an idea how many will be showing up! Suggestions for posting flyers are the bulletin boards at the local banks, library, grocery stores, consignment shop, laundry mat. Ask for permission before posting. And pass them out to your friends and other ladies you have contact with!
Now take that same flyer and maybe add more information about the Red Hat Society and type up several copies to hand to your area newspapers. Those are called Press Releases and include your name & phone number and email address, if you have one. Since I lived within 30 minutes of Indiana and I lived in southwest Michigan at the time, I decided to include all newspapers from the whole Michiana area. I emailed or snail mailed press releases to 7 different newspapers in Michigan and Indiana! Now….sit back & wait for the phone calls! YOU WILL GET THEM!
The First Organizational Meeting
What we did at the 1st meeting I included in my press releases and that is to choose a name for our chapter. After everyone showed up (and some showed up in their Red Hats!), we introduced ourselves. Several of us already knew one another. We had 12 ladies for our first meeting, a nice size group! I also handed a sheet around to gather everyone’s name, address, email and phone. Then I proceeded to tell everyone the history of the Red Hat Society from the official website along with statistics of how many chapters were in our area.
Now for the fun part, choosing our chapter name. First of all, I had copied several names of chapters from the official website to give the gals an idea of the sort of name chapters have chosen for themselves. I listed about 30 or more names. I then told them to put on their thinking caps and come up with something original! I passed papers out to everyone and had them write any suggestions down anonymously so as not to embarrass anyone. After the papers were passed to me, I wrote all the names on a dry erase board that was conveniently in the room. I listed about 20 names for everyone to see. The 2nd step was for everyone to chose their favorite and write that on a piece of paper. After I gathered those, I erased all except the 3 names with the highest votes. From that point, we voted one last time for our chapter name which ended up being PURPLE PEACOCKS! It was hard decision as we had many great & unique name suggestions.
Now I have heard of some chapters beginning with a name already in place. This is because the Queen who started the chapter chose to do it this way. She wanted a particular name. I chose the way I did it because I wanted everyone to feel a part as it is OUR chapter , not MY chapter. I am just the instigator and designated Founding & Queen Mum!
As Queen Mum, after your chapter has chosen a name, have an idea already in mind for the 1st official coming-out event. Tell everyone when & where and then ask them to tell their friends. After every meeting, I placed a announcement in the local papers about the details of the meeting and where we would be meeting the following month. At that point, I had gotten phone calls or emails almost every week asking me about the Red Hat Society. Some ladies were asking to start their own chapter and yet others wanted to join us!
Before our 1st coming-out, I had gotten a phone call from one of the newspapers asking if a reporter could come and do an article and take pictures! After that article was in the paper 3 days later – WOW! I got even more phone calls. Be prepared for things to snowball!
Don’t forget to register your chapter at the official website. There is a year ly fee which gets you listed on their website and also gives the members perks! It also allows you to use the name RED HAT SOCIETY and their logos and it gets you invited to any national or regional Red Hat Society events. Using the name or the logos without registering is stealing. You must register or you cannot affiliate your club with the Red Hat Society.
Whatever you decide, have fun, and if you have any questions, ask me in my comment box or email me. I am no longer active in the chapter I started but am always willing to help!
My Hind Sight – Your Foresight
At the first meeting, talk about how many you will limit your club membership to. The Exalted Queen Mum herself, Sue Ellen Cooper, the founder of Red Hat Society, suggests 20 as a good number to manage. Some chapters keep in down to 12. And then there are those who have 50 or more. Since there are NO RULES to the club, you can make them up yourself. You have to have some guidelines so it will not spin out of control. Do what feels comfortable for you.
Things to consider when deciding on your chapter limit is managing your announcement of events. Does everyone has internet access and email? Will you need to make a lot of long distance phone calls? A suggestion is that those who do not have internet access, assign them a buddy who has access to keep them abreast of events that are scheduled.
Think about making reservations at restaurants when deciding on your membership limit. Twelve or 20 might be easier to arrange at a restaurant rather than 40. Visitors have to be considered too. Also, how well will you really get to know those in the group if it gets too large? If it doesn’t matter to you, then size may not matter either. The purpose of the Red Hat Society is to have fun and make new friends. Can a group of 40 really bond? Remember you usually only sit next to 3 or 4 people at a table.
Guests – decide on limiting guests also. I have had members want to bring guests almost every month. That could grow into a bigger group than you’d like at some meetings. Also, I have had ladies want to visit to see what we are all about before starting their own chapter. That is a good thing to do, to encourage them to start their own new chapters. There are some months I will not accept guests so we can get to know one another better. It is easier to play games and find out personal tidbits about one another when it is “just us” members.
C.E. Brown, Founding Queen Mum of the Purple Peacocks, a Michiana Chapter of the Red Hat Society
