Tama County Federated Women’s Club records

Collection

Identifier: IWA1290

Staff Only
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Scope and Contents

The Tama County Federated Women’s Club records date from 1929 to 2006 and measure 10 linear inches (2 boxes). The records are arranged in three series: Club Activities, County Convention, and Financial.

The Club Activities series consists of the secretarial records for the club, including meeting attendance and meeting minutes. It also houses awards given to the club, executive letters about the yearly goals of the club, the laws and rules of the area clubs and their revisions, as well as a form for promoting a club member into a leadership role, a call and response about the club’s values, an obituary for club member Ethel S. Taylor, and directions to the State Bank of Toledo which acted as the club’s meeting place for many years.

The County Convention series contains information specific to the yearly convention of clubs within Tama county. These include the sign in sheets for each club, the yearly club reports that cover the major moments of each group since the last convention, programs, secretary records of the convention minutes, as well as photographs from the 2001, 2002, and 2006 conventions at the State Bank of Toledo.

The Financial series holds the treasurer’s reports, account books, and fundraising record for the club.

Dates

Creation: 1929-2006

Creator

Tama County Federated Women's Club (1929-2006) (Organization)

Conditions Governing Access

The records are open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright held by the donor has been transferred to the University of Iowa/has been retained by the donor.

“However, copyright status for some collection materials may be unknown. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.) beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owner. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owners. Responsibility and potential liability based on copyright infringement for any use rests exclusively and solely with the user. Users must properly acknowledge the Iowa Women’s Archives, The University of Iowa Libraries, as the source of the material. For further information, visit https://www.lib.uiowa.edu/sc/services/rights/

Biographical / Historical

The Tama County Women’s Club joined the General Federation of Women’s Clubs (GFWC) in 1929 and added Federated to their name. As a county club it served as an organizing body for the various women’s clubs in the county, leading them towards a unified annual goal. These clubs included the Garwin Jr. Women’s Club, the Octagon Club, the Garwin Women’s Club, the Toledo Women’s Club, the Tama Federated Club, the Traer Women’s Club, the Alpha Club, the Gladbrook Community Women’s Club, and the Dysart Women’s Club. The mission of the Tama County Federated Women’s Club was to improve Tama County communities through volunteer service. Many of these services included working at public parks as volunteer gardeners, staffing soup kitchens, donating to the red cross, and bringing in speaking programs for various topics. There was a volunteer program that the club won an award for, the “adoption” of a camper with a disibility at Camp Sunnyside. The Tama County Federated Women’s Club as a whole won several awards from the General Federation of Women’s Clubs as well for their participation in the Adventures in Reading program which encouraged club members to explore books outside of their comfort zone.

Each year the Tama County Federated Women’s Club would meet two or three times a year to discuss business. They also hosted an Annual County Convention where members from across the county were invited to spend a day giving reports about their local club’s activities. During the 1980s and 1990s most of the women’s clubs that were part of the Tama County Federated Women’s Club left the GFWC or were disbanded entirely. In 1998 the Traer Women’s Club and Traer Alpha Club announced that they would no longer be part of the GFWC or the Iowa Federation of Women’s Clubs, leaving the Toledo Women’s Club as the only member of the Tama Clounty Federated Women’s Club. By 2006 the club decided to stop holding the Annual County Convention and reduce its meetings.