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Democratic Women's Club of Florida, Inc. Collection, 1945-2023

 

Summary

Creator:
Democratic Women's Club of Florida
Abstract:
The Democratic Women's Club of Florida, Inc. campaigns for Democratic representatives at all levels of government and encourages voter registration and qualified Democratic women to run for public office. This collection of bylaws, campaign items, correspondence, meeting minutes, newsletters, newspaper clippings, photographs, and scrapbooks documents the organization's activities, policies, and procedures.
Extent:
45.48 Linear Feet 48 Boxes, 38 Scrapbooks, 1 Flat File
776 Megabytes 2 flash drives
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Democratic Women's Club of Florida, Inc. collection, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida.

Background

Scope and content:

Series I: State, 1957-2006 contains materials on the operations of the Democratic Women's Club of Florida, Inc. The materials include quarterly reports, annual convention information, chronological files detailing the procedures of the club, meeting minutes, club handbooks, photographs, and scrapbooks.

Series II: Region IV, 1983-1985 contains one scrapbook documenting two years of this region's activities.

Series III: Region V, 1974-2002 contains correspondence, bylaws, files of the regional chair, quarterly reports from each individual club in the region, regional reports, "The Democratic Woman" newsletter, meeting minutes, newspaper clippings, and treasury reports.

Series IV: Region VI, 1971-1995 contains club and region quarterly reports, meeting minutes, membership lists, newsletters, correspondence, one president's files, and treasury and secretary files and reports.

Series V: Region VII, 1977-1994 contains materials on the administration of the DWCF, such as the function of its special committees, guidelines for creating budgets and new clubs, and the importance of membership. This series also contains meeting minutes, correspondence, and treasurer's information.

Series VI: Boca-Delray-Boynton Club, 1996-2000 contains convention planning information, a grievance folder, meeting minutes, and the treasurer's report.

Series VII: Charlotte County Club, includes chronological files, minutes and meeting information, photographs, scrapbooks and information on Florida House in Washington D.C., which provides hospitality to Floridians visiting the capital.

Series VIII: Santa Rosa County Club, 1976 holds the club charter from 1976.

Series IX: St. Lucie County Club, 1997-2001 contains meeting minutes and supplemental materials.

Series X: Collection Additions, 1945-2023 contains additional materials received from Democratic Women's Club of Florida Inc. in 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2022, and 2023. The addition received in 2023 primarily consists of quarterly reports from state officers, committee chairs, and club presidents from all thirteen regions. Additional materials also include programs for state conferences and county club events, state president reports as well as state budgets, plans, and proposals, documents and newspaper clippings collected by multiple county clubs, memorabilia relating to the 2020 presidential campaign and the Democratic Party collected by clubs, and a club scrapbook for the St. John's County club.

Biographical / historical:

The Democratic Women's Club of Florida, Inc., (DWCF) began in 1956 as an organization for women to cooperate together in electing Democrats to local, state, and federal offices. The DWCF started as a small organization with a handful of members, but experienced large growth in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1972, the DWCF received its charter, qualifying it as a corporation. Today, the organization supports almost forty clubs throughout Florida and has been affiliated with the National Federation of Democratic Women (NFDW) since 1980. Florida is recognized as a Full Member State under the NFDW because it has a statewide Democratic Women's club organization; however, the NFDW does not directly influence the DWCF in its operations.

The DWCF has a Board of Directors consisting of a president, secretary, treasurer, and supporting officers overseeing nine regions. These regions have changed in number and composition over time, but they are led by Councils consisting of a Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary/Treasurer and Immediate Past Chair. These regional councils support the local clubs who campaign for Democratic representatives at all levels of government and encourage voter registration and qualified Democratic women to run for public office. The Clubs elect their own president, secretary, treasurer, and supporting officers.

Acquisition information:
The Democratic Women's Club of Florida, Inc., donated these materials to the University of Central Florida Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives in 2008 (CFM2008_05). Additional materials were donated in 2012 (CFM2012_05), 2014 (CFM2014_06, CFM2014_10), 2015 (CFM2015_07), 2016 (CFM2016_08), 2017 (CFM2017_03), 2017 (CFM2017_14), 2018 (CFM2018_17), 2020 (CFM2020_04), 2022 (CFM2022_10), and 2023 (CFM2023_03).
Processing information:

Collecton processed by Heather K. Black, Suphi Burak Ogreten, and John Settle; finding aid prepared by Heather K. Black, Suphi Burak Ogreten, and John Settle.

Documents were removed from original folders and placed in acid-free folders. Photographs were placed in polyester sleeves. Four large scrapbooks were wrapped and tied in acid-free paper.

2022 addition processed by Adam Hunt.

2023 addition processed by Asmara Cortes-Caba.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged in ten series by administrative unit, from state level, to region level, down to club level. The files are arranged alphabetically within each series. Additions to the collection are processed with same arrangement starting over. beginning with the next consecutive box.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

The entire collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

Unpublished manuscripts are protected by copyright. Permission to publish, quote or reproduce must be secured from the repository and the copyright holder.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Democratic Women's Club of Florida, Inc. collection, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida.

Location of this collection:
John C. Hitt Library
12701 Pegasus Drive, Building 2
Orlando
FL
32816-8030
USA