Barb the Evil Genius asked about starting a doll club. When I spoke to the librarian where we - me, Ms. Leo, Miya, and Kev - met last week, I used the words, "doll club," but here I wonder if I can call our get togethers club meetings? I like the sense of unity, but I don't know about charters and rules and fees. Anyway, I found some relevant links online:
About.com offers a doll organization guide with a link to The United Federation of Doll Club or UFDC. Unfortunately, the UFDC website is not working now. I do not know when that site will be available again, but if you are on Facebook, you can get updates about it there. Note: About.com has supplied helpful doll collecting information from Denise Van Patten, the former Doll Collecting Guide, and the current Doll Collecting Guide, Ellen Tsagaris.
Angelfire has advice that remains relevant although some of the links lead to empty pages. Remember Angelfire doll websites?
Mimidolls article that can be downloaded from her Classics articles. Six pages detailing steps to take. I learned about this source from Lillian Alberti's doll magazine, The Doll Club.
Does anyone else have suggestions or favorite relevant links to share? Leave the url in your comment, and I'll add them to this post along with your doll/action figure website. Thanks in advance.
More notes: Lisa of The One Sixth Scaled Dollhouse shares her doll club experience in the comments below and in her Flickr page.
10 comments:
No, I have nothing relevant to share as usual, but just wanted to comment. After reading the article in the doll magazine on starting a club - that's actually something I would be opposed to. I love the idea of get together's and sharing info and showing your dolls, but when you start talking club positions, taking notes and memberships - yeah, that's a bit much for me. Of course you need an organizer, someone to facilitate everything coming together, but a code of conduct?! Please, I'd be thrown out after the 1st meeting.
In Melbourne, some of the BJD collectors get together every so often for what they call 'dolly meet-ups'. It sounds very similar to what you have been doing as everyone brings a doll or dolls and they meet somewhere nice. It's not very formal but has been going for quite some time and seems to work fairly well.
There are severael pros and cons to making your meetings into an 'official' type of club. Sometimes official codes of conduct are necessary if people get out of hand. I used to belong to Va. Miniature Enthusiasts that was chartered under NAME(National Association of Miniature Enthusiasts) and it was pretty formal but had got to the point where after the program they just wanted to eat cookies and show off their miniature swag from shows they traveled to. Fun but not something I was able to put aside sunday afternoons for. I belong to a doll club - the Va. Fashion Doll club and though we have a President, Vice President, and treasurer, and a newsletter- it is not what I would call 'formal' with rules, minutes, etc. One thing is because when we do get together- we usually have a program- but- the ladies go all out- food to go with the theme, bring your dolls dressed to the theme-there is usually a prize at each club meeting, and also trading/swaps. I guess because all of us have so much fun together there has never been any need to 'police' people because we all mind our manners and enjoy each other's company. I would say what you are having is very much like the dolly meetups mentioned above. Why not just stay as you are now- meet at the library, bring some goodies, and if you wish it to be more 'formal' or such, plan a theme- for instance- maybe only bring similar like dolls from say- a movie, such as Hunger games. Set up the dolls replicating scenes from the movie. Our club president always throws in a bit of trivia- we did a whole club meeting on downtown abbey with the dolls dressed in those costumes and backdrops pictures from the movie. You can see this album in my flicker albums-
https://www.flickr.com/photos/pumpkinhillstudios/sets/72157640214365655/
Hope these ideas helps. My club also has a facebook page, but it is private for members only and that is where we get the latest news on the next upcoming meetings, what to bring, etc.I will include the link here, you may be able to see the link for our newsletter in a pdf - our current club meeting is coming up this sunday
https://www.facebook.com/groups/129370967118019/
@Muff - I always enjoy your comments and your posts. The club that throws you out would not be worth attending.
In the 1970s, the Girls Scouts had these "Be a Girl" tv ads. Catchy song, Gee, that looks fun. I thought I wanted to be a girl scout. Then I found out I had to join a group and follow rules. Bye bye girl scout fantasy, lol.
We'll need to take turns setting up the place so that that duty doesn't always fall on Ms. Leo. Just meet, nibble, and share doll stuff.
@Carrickters - I like the idea of "dolly meet-ups" - casual style and emphasis on having fun. It's exciting to see what other collectors have.
@Lisa - Thanks for sharing your doll club experiences and that link to your Downtown Abbey photos I'll add that link to the main body of this post to illustrate some of the points mentioned.
Thank you for all the information! I've have to go through it and see what I can make work. I guess "doll club" might be a bit formal -- but the only doll activity I've seen here is done by two clubs. One is the Cleveland Doll Club, which has been around since 1938. Another is a doll club on the other side of town, that is so organized that they've even had Tonner attend their luncheons and gotten their own exclusive Tonner doll for the event!
You're welcome, Barb! Glad to share the information - gave me a chance to think about my doll-ing activities.
Hi,
The one thing about making it a club, is only just for paperwork! A lot of times when you request a space to meet, they want to know what the organization is call. If you say a group of us just want to meet, they say what group, what is the purpose of the group, who is the contact person and who is responcible? So you kinda have to call it something that fits into the boxes that they use! Club!
I kinda based what we did on the gardenig groups/clubs I belong to. Some are formal but most are not. The real rules are respect, information, and fun! Once you get past 15-20 people then you might need some real rules or/and an agenda. It can get a little loud at that point and people miss out on things if more that one person is talking at a time. ( you see I didn't get the name of the jean set and the doll.) I find the only reason for a fee is if you pay for meeting space( we aren't trying to do that) or you mail a newsletter out. If the answer to both of them are no, then no real need for a fee!
I think being on the net where many things are free, we all need more free in our live!
Hi Ms. Leo and thanks for sharing this information. Thanks for that reminder about the club format being helpful when using a public place. When I went, I said "doll club" because I thought that would define the group and give the librarian some idea of what we'd be doing. I appreciate the experience that you bring and have brought to "our club." ;-D
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