If you Can't Join Them Then...

After their first week in the public eye, the Radcliffe students organizing a women's club are beginning to define their purpose more exactly and working to overcome their financial limitations.

The women say they are striving for an image lying somewhere between men's final clubs and women's clubs like the Radcliffe Women's Center.

Christine M. Landry '77, one of the organizers, said yesterday the proposed club "is not a final club" but she was unable to say how the club will differ from men's final clubs.

At a meeting called Thursday night by the organizers most of the 20 women attending said they felt the club should be more informal than men's final clubs--a place where women come to meet other women.

The organizers are negotiating with the Hasty Pudding Club to use their facilities as a temporary home.

Last Monday many of the 50 women receiving letters asking for their support of the club said they fear it would bar some women from membership.

After the meeting, Cathy M. Rasenburger '78 said members would be chosen solely on the basis of their interest in joining.

Interested women would have to make their feelings known by contacting club members, she said.

Women at the meeting were asked for donations, and it was agreed that members would have to pay dues.

"I'm sure that we'll leave some people out," Landry said.

But the women are making an effort to get a large cross section of the Radcliffe population into the club.

Everyone involved is drawing up a list of 20 candidates for this reason.

Administration officials discounted any threat of elitism the club poses. Dr. Chase N. Peterson '52, vice president of alumni affairs and development and a former Porcellian Club member, said yesterday too few people were involved in final clubs for anyone to feel excluded if they were unable to join.

Looking beyond the concern with elitism, the women are planning to overcome their financial problems with an alumna fundraising drive and a spring ball. Eliot House H-23   Harvard University

Dear Prospective Members:

We'are beginning to organize a woman's final club at Harvard. Our plans are indefinite in that we have no name, no clubhouse, and no rules as yet. They are extremely positive however as to intent. We wish to gather and organize about fifty Radcliffe women from different classes and different houses into a social club for the purpose of getting to know one another a little better. We feel the Harvard environment tends to fracture rather than unite women, and would like to establish a meeting place that would combat that trend. We visualise (eventually) a comfortable clubhouse, with kitchen, art facilities, a squash court, library, TV and stereo-a place to meet friends and spend time agreeably.

For the present however we must content ourselves with plans. We plan to have a benefit dance on April 10, 1976, the proceeds to go into a club fund. We hope to have many gatherings of prospective members this spring, and to install ourselves in an apartment (as a temporary clubhouse) next fall. We are open to all suggestions and support in forming and strengthening plans to raise money and get the club established.

We are planning an introductory meeting on March 18, 1976, and hope to see you on that date, at 9:30 in the Eliot House Junior Common Room.

Any questions, enthusiastic responses or helpful ideas will be appreciated. For information or anything else, call:   Sarah Bucknell   Christina Landry   or   Diana Rubin   at: 498-2408

P.S. We look forward to seeing all of you.

It will work.

Fifty Radcliffe women received these letters.