Women Make Good Managers For Mixed Clubs.

Radio Record, Volume VI, Issue 51, 30 June 1933, Page 48

Women Make Good Managers For Mixed Clubs.

Must Never Make Particular Friends, | However. — | WE have always had plenty of men’s and a few select women’s clubs in our midst, but of recent’ years mixed clubs are springing up all around us, particularly in the outskirts of London, writes Marguerite Latimer in the "Morning Post." I have used the term "mixed" to indicate that such clubs are for both men. women, but actually many of these clubs combine social life with sport of various kinds and also with the arts, thereby affording for one subscription facilities for every type of member. Tt is in this direction that I believe women make excellent managers or secretaries, for they have so many of the. qualities which. are essential in the organiser of a successful club.

I HAVHE in mind a club which is situated some twelve miles from Central London. It. offers tennis, dancing, bridge, billiards, and dramatics. The founder and manager is a woman, and that it is a great success is evidenced by the steady membership of some three hundred men and women, ranging in age from eighteen upwards. Now, the first. thing one expects of a woman manager of a club of this description is that she should be a good hostess. This, to a great extent, is right; but there are subtle differences between a club hostess and an ordinary hostess. : The club hostess must be a social inspiration, but she must never mingle or make particular friends. To set out to enjoy herself personally is to court disaster, for there must be no element of partisanship when it cames to the inevitable point of settling minor and major disputes. Nevertheless, the joy of running a club is sufficiently stimulating in itself to rule out the necessity for social intercourse in working hours. The founder of this club, in which I have been a frequent visitor, sits slightly apart from the members. She hears everything and says very little-but when she speaks she always says the right’ thing. ; . She knows all about everybody’s tennis and bridge, and, while not actively connected with the dramatic section, can always make a useful suggestion. She has safeguarded herself at every turn by putting the right people in charge of the various. activities of the @lub, so that when points arise they ean be referred to these people and no personal appeal is made to her to arbitrate. Thus she stands in glorious isolation giving the necessary tone to the elub. So much for the social side of her work. On the more practical side she

must be a woman of considerable achievements. To run a club properly it is necessary to know almost as much as a company secretary: how meetings should be conducted; various legal points, so that she may always keep on the right side of the law; and how

to budget for and order supplies. . Nobody need be deterred by this catalogue of qualifications, for they are within the power of any intelligent woman to master; but to plunge into the inauguration of a club, mixed or otherwise, with only a charming personality, energy, and the reputation of being "the life and soul of the party" is to risk wasting one’s time and money.