Ladies,
May I ask you all about JL membership procedure? My Great-Aunt was a JL member and then sustainer in New Orleans years ago. In her day one did not apply to join but was proposed by a member and went through a selection process that was much tougher than her experience as a Pi Phi, which she told us was really challenging and selective. On top of that, she told us that members were only allowed to propose one candidate per year, no exceptions.
The process sounded very much like proposal to a club like the Boston Club, Pickwick Club, Stratford Club, Bienville Club or Louisiana Club (to use New Orleans examples).
My Cousin, a Newcomb/Tulane Pi Phi of a few years back told us that the system described by my Great-Aunt was essentially unchanged in New Orleans, and I believe Baton Rouge also, at least when she went through.
Has all of this changed rasdically? What was described to us sounds very different from the process described in this thread. Would someone please bring us (my Sister is curious as well) up to date on how it works?
Many thanks.

I think the process is different depending upon where you live. Every league can choose their provisional process so there isn't a uniform answer.

dekeguy,

Good to see you again! Times have indeed changed since your relatives were involved. It is different from what it was 6 years ago. If you go to the JLNO web site, it lays things out pretty much like these ladies have explained. http://www.jlno.org/?nd=joinjlno Now, what they do in private maybe another story.

If you go to the letter from the Provisional Committee Co-Chairwomen, they actually state that a Sponsor Group (2 members now, it used to be 4) will be found for you if you don't know anyone in JLNO! An older neighbor, she's 80, about fell off her chair when I showed it to her. She said that she tried to get into the "right" circles so that she could join but an invitation never came.

Regarding the Boston Club, I was in the library the other day and came a across a BC membership book. It was published in 1950 and had the history constitution, by-laws, and the name of every member to date. I found a similar book for the Orleans Club too.

i believe that some leagues require the prospective new member to have a sponsor(s) while some accept applications from any interested women. the best answer would come from contacting the local league office.

FSUZeta is correct. In addition to contacting the league office you might want to check out a specific league's web site. Most will explain the requirements for joining that particular chapter. In my experience, the ones that do not list this information are the ones that are more selective!

Every Junior League group is different. The one in my area goes begging for members... literally. They sometimes park themselves in front of a food store and try to talk people into joining. If you are female, live in my county and are breathing in and out, you can become a provisional member. Then, all you have to do is complete a "class project" and you're in.

Others are very selective and require sponsorship. And still others have an age ceiling.

Another note: membership dues varies depending on where you join.

Wow.....beg for members? Maybe this is something we should do up here! Most of the ladies join through friends. We seem to get huge New Member (provisional) classes on years we have a Showhouse (every four years), but non-Showhouse years are significantly smaller.

The Junior League of Toronto is going to experiment with two classes this coming year. For those whose Leagues have a fall and spring class, do you find that there are more women joining?

when i joined, i believe that there were fall and spring classes-i do not know if more women joined then, or when there was just the one provisional class.

as to begging for members, when i transferred to the jl-ft. myers, they were hurting for members-i believe that they had around 113 total, as opposed to the league i transferred from, which had well over 300 active members.

Is anyone starting their Provisional Year this fall? I just got my invitation to our Provisional Picnic. I am very excited!

When I was in The Junior League of Calgary, we had a September and a January class (I was in the January class). It seemed to work though the January class was smaller (maybe 7 of us).

In Canada (alas, Vancouver and Montreal have folded), Junior Leagues don't require sponsors. This might make Junior Leaguers from Houston "bristle" that we let in "riff-raff" or whatever, but with all the volunteering requirements that we have, anyone who is not sincere soon fades away. The membership fees often put people off, because they don't want to have to "pay to volunteer".

I personally think that the Junior League should overhaul its name; most people think that it's to do with baseball, children or sports (or some variation of those 3 things).

dekeguy:
I think in general, the southern Junior Leagues are considered a prestigious thing to be involved in, and therefore, it is more selective and difficult to "get in". Other places, not so much.

I found out last night (at the JLA's Provisional Picnic) that the Junior League of Asheville used to do two classes per year but the feedback they got from the provisional members is that everything felt very rushed and they felt like they needed more time to learn about the organization. I'm excited to start my provisional year with the JLA! The picnic last night felt like Bid Day;)

Congrat's! How big is your provisional class?

JLA's active membership size is around 200 and this year's provisional class is 40. They had 17 last year so they are very happy to be increasing the class size. We are broken up into Provisional Mentor Groups (6-7 Provisionals with one Provisional Mentor(current active member) ) so we can get to know a core group of women within our class. However, the whole class meets at one meeting each month. We also have to attend the GMM (General Membership Meetings) each month and a variety of other assignments. I am very excited!

But it's also not like any woman joins. Most ladies join because they know someone who is in the League already. I only know of one or two who joined by finding the JLT on the web.

I think Montreal and Vancouver folded for cultural reasons. Montreal because it's seen as an "Anglo" thing and Vancouver because well....it's Vancouver (many of the "target group" of women....i.e. ladies who "have the time" to volunteer have homes abroad and frequently travel. The more local crowd are too busy with more "modern" type of volunteering.)

that is such a shame, since the league's projects directly impact(and improve) the local community.