The easiest way to search for history on Active 20-30 is to go through your club records. At least, I hope there are records being kept with your club reports. In my club, the club historian’s duty is to photograph members at different events and capture memorable moments at meetings. She collects all the fliers and newsletters and bind them all together into a scrapbook at the end of the term. This is a great way to keep a record of club’s doings each year. By doing this she continues to add to the history of the club. But what if you don’t have much in your club’s files and scrapbooks? What if you are a new club or re-chartering?
Hopefully you would like to find out about your club’s accomplishments in their service to their communities. The way I’ve been researching started with my club’s archives and sending out requests to past presidents for their scrapbooks. Slowly getting those scanned and digitized to be able to share with everyone.
The second step was to go to the library and start looking into newspapers. The key phrases I’ve been using so far:
- 20-30 Club
- Twenty Thirty Club
- Association of 20-30 Clubs
- 20-30 International
- (for those clubs that are in Oregon & Washington, try Active Club)
- Active 20-30
- (the name of your club)
- (the name of your club) plus –ettes at the end. These would be club auxiliaries (these were the married wives of members forming their own service group in connection to the husbands clubs)
- Then find names of your past presidents and start searching them
- Other notable members in your club
- (don’t forget lots of times they wrote 20/30 instead of 20-30)
- Specific events your club might have done through the years
- Dates you know events happened that they might have covered (example: Conventions)
You can also do this on the internet, but I mostly find information listed on our club websites. I am slowly finding other historical information though. Newspapers are adding their archives on the internet, sometimes you have to pay to search and print articles.
The third step is when you have specific information you can go back to your past actives and ask questions that might help trigger better memories of events. Example, asking a person what they can remember doing during their years in the club would probably result in them saying, “I can’t recall, lots of things”. But if you have a specific question, “Do you recall how Shopping Spree started?” you might get more information or at least more hints to narrow down when it started or who would be a better person to ask.
A fourth option for records is to go to your cities archives. Here in Sacramento there are a few places to try to find information.
The State Archives (mostly related to government type stuff like articles of incorporation)
Center for Sacramento History (collections of newspaper articles, original photos might by found, other documents related to the city only)
and the State Library (as well as the city library, which I touched on earlier)
Any more information on ways to research our organization’s history I would love to hear about.
If you find anything, please share it either by writing to me at mchlspil@gmail.com or posting on our Facebook page: Active 20-30 Club Historical Findings
Active 20-30 Club Historical Findings 