Club Gives World Service

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31057, 12 May 1966, Page 2

Club Gives World Service

Women with talent and administrative ability existed in sufficient numbers in most cities to warrant the establishment of further service clubs, said Miss Helen Lindsey, international representative of Altrusa.

Miss Lindsey Is to New Zealand to establish Altrusa dubs. Clubs have started in Auckland and Wellington, and will soon start in Christchurch.

“We work cordially and cooperatively with other service dubs, and we don’t duplicate In membership or work,” Miss Lindsey said to Christchurch yesterday. Altrusa, the pioneer of service dubs, is an international service organisation drawing its members from the professions and the business world. “UNIQUE GROUP”

"Our members qualify by the amount of responsibility they cany. Limiting our membership to professional people and those holding administrative positions does not mean we are being exdusive, but with such a unique group of women there is every opportunity and Hke-

lihood of giving unique service,” she said. “These women are very fine by-products of understanding across occupational and professional lines, and they are used to organising and using their time to the best advantage.” Although this did limit the membership of young, up-and-coming women in business, a younger group in the technical training field did join. "It is true that by the time a woman has reached an administrative position she is in the older bracket, but we do try to keep it an inter-age membership,” she said. Some members, perhaps recently graduated doctors and lawyers, or women owning their own business, were in their early 20s. RESPONDED WELL New Zealand women have responded well to her appeal for members and she finds they measure up to any group she has met while organising and working with clubs in the United States, Canada and England. “The quality of the women, the amount of responsibility they carry, and their interest in giving of themselves is equal to any,” Miss Lindsey said.

“I have met, too, with friendliness everywhere, and I have been amazed at the travelling outside your country by women. Some I met have been around the world several times.” In 1961, Miss Lindsey, whose home is in Evanstown, near Chicago, retired as an executive director for the Young Women’s Christian Assodation. Her work took her throughout the United States, to Chile and England. Now she is giving a year to establishing Altrusa in New Zealand and Australia. Altrusa was established in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1917, and it now has more than 17,000 members to over 500 dubs in 11 countries, and the organisation is continually spreading.

Although clubs are affiliated with the international organisation, they are independent units, non-partisan and non-sectarian. NEEDS STUDIED Each dub selects service projects after studying the particular needs of their own community. Service varies from dty to city, but the aged, crippled, the physically and mentally ill, the needy student, or the young orphan, are some who benefit from Altrusa programmes. "We have two international projects supported by voluntary contributions from dubs and interested members of the public—the grants in aid project and the founders’ fund vocational aid. The former gives grants ranging from £9O to £350 to women graduate students to enable them to complete their training at an accredited school in a country other than their own in which there is an Altrusa club. This is intended as supplementary aid, and is given on condition that the student returns to live and work in his own country on completion of training. VOCATIONAL AID The founders’ fund vocational aid scheme was begun in 1952, and it enables women who receive grants from £2O to £9O to become self-support-

ing. Local clubs seek applicants who need training to qualify for employment, or additional training for skilled occupations, equipment to start a business, or personal rehabilitation.