Browsing by Author "Nathan, Sarah Katheryn"

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    Making "We Serve" an Inclusive Mission: How the Fargo Lions Club Integrated Women into Full Membership
    (2009-09-30T18:56:45Z) Nathan, Sarah Katheryn; Huehls, Frances A; Burlingame, Dwight F.; Littlefield, Robert S.
    In May 1987 the United States Supreme Court ruled in Board of Directors, Rotary International v. Rotary Club of Duarte that exclusion of women in large clubs such as Rotary was not protected under their Constitutional right to freedom of expression. The ruling ultimately opened the doors of traditionally-male service clubs to women. Through a case study of the Fargo Lions Club (Fargo, North Dakota), I sought to understand what happened in the first years of women’s membership in the association. These women are almost totally overlooked in the small body of literature that currently exists on service clubs and understanding this redefinition of associational freedom within the nonprofit sector is a unique contribution to philanthropic studies. A retrospective tracer methodology reconstructs the sequence of events and decisions made by the Fargo Lions Club in response to the Supreme Court ruling. How the club accepted and included women is traced through personal interviews with key members, contemporary news reports and archival records.
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    Women in voluntary service associations : values and meanings
    (2014-03-12) Nathan, Sarah Katheryn; White, Robert W. (Robert William), 1958-; Burlingame, Dwight; Huehls, Frances A.; Robertson, Nancy Marie, 1956-
    This study examines the essential features of women’s experiences as members of a service association. It uses a qualitative method to understand how women make meaning from their membership in an all-female association and a mixed-gender association. The experiences were examined in comparative contexts. The study finds three common features in each association: joining, volunteering, and leading. In the mixed-gender association, women also experienced a process of assimilating into membership activities. The study provides scholars and association practitioners insights into the complex blend of members’ personal and professional interests with implications for membership recruitment and retention.