Ransom County Garden Club

File — Box: 2, Folder: 26

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

From the Collection: The North Dakota State Federation of Garden Clubs records consist of nine series: Bylaws and Standing Rules, Meeting Minutes, Treasurer’s Reports, State Reports, Local Garden Clubs, Regional Meetings, Newsletters, Correspondence, and Subject Files. The Bylaws and Standing Rules Series contains a booklet of the bylaws of the North Dakota State Federation of Garden Clubs for 1966. Another booklet is included for bylaws amended in 1981. There are also documents of standing rules for the organization as well as bylaws for district organizations, the Rocky Mountain Regional organization, and the National Council of State Garden Clubs. Not all the material is dated, but most of it ranges from 1966 to 1977. The Meeting Minutes Series consists of a mixture of documents from 1968 to 1984. This includes minutes from the annual meetings, reports of annual meetings, and agendas and schedules for annual meetings. A second folder contains programs for the annual meetings from 1967 to 1989. The Treasurer’s Reports Series includes one ledger covering 1969-1971, and a file of loose documents for 1968-1986. Both the ledger and loose documents contain financial reports and lists of income and expenditures. The State Reports Series contain the reports made to the state organization by the state president, local club presidents, and the chairmen of the assorted committees. The earliest reports were presented as oral reports, which were read at the annual meetings. They consist mostly of brief notes made by the person giving the presentation, and the amount of detail varies. Later reports, beginning in 1976, were submitted as correspondence, or in report form to the president for inclusion in a compiled booklet of reports. These reports covered everything and anything the members deemed relevant to their cause. Chairmen were appointed to report on the Blue Star Highway project; annual histories of the various local clubs, and the state organization’s activities; birds, flowers, gardens, trees, scenic sites, legislation, environmental education, and so on. Most of the earlier reports are undated, and have thus been organized by subject, while the later reports were compiled into dated booklets and are organized chronologically. The Local Garden Club Series contains files for each garden club in North Dakota that was affiliated with, or corresponded with, the North Dakota State Federation of Garden Clubs. The clubs are organized alphabetically according to the town they originated in. The files each contain first the name of the town followed by the name of the club (as some are named after the town itself and some were designated separately from the name of the town). These files consist mostly of information that was voluntarily submitted by each club. Some clubs submitted a considerable amount of information, such as annual reports, member lists, newspaper clippings, flower show schedules, and meeting programs, while other clubs have only one or two documents in their files. Correspondence regarding local clubs can be found in the respective clubs’ files. Most of the annual reports submitted by the various clubs take the form of correspondence to the state president. The Regional Meetings Series includes documents from the district organizations in North Dakota (subdivisions of the state organization), documents from the Rocky Mountain Region (the subdivision of the national organization with which the state was affiliated), and documents from the National Council of State Garden Clubs. The file on district meetings includes meeting minutes and reports, meeting agendas and programs, correspondence, and newspaper clippings about district meetings. The first folder for the Rocky Mountain Region is comprised of information regarding historic preservation, miscellaneous documents about meeting procedure, a regional report for 1983-1985, annual convention programs, and directories of regional information. The second folder for the Rocky Mountain Region contains reports and correspondence about environmental education in schools. The file for the National Council of State Garden Clubs includes organizational information as well as meeting minutes and programs from the annual convention in Los Angeles, California in 1982, which was attended by Marcella Melsted, who was state president at that time. The Newsletters Series consists of two separate publications. The first publication was the official newsletter of the state federation, which went through a series of name and format changes over the years. The Peace Garden State, the North Dakota—The Peace Garden State, and the Peace Gardener are all different titles used by the federation for its newsletter. The Peace Gardener makes up the bulk of the collection, covering 1973-1995. The previous title, Peace Garden State, and North Dakota—The Peace Garden State, ran from 1963 to 1969 and 1969 to 1973 respectively. The second publication in the newsletters series is an issue of The National Gardener from 1982. This was the newsletter of the National Council of State Garden Clubs. The Correspondence Series contains most of the general correspondence for the organization for the years 1974-1977 and 1980-1989. Additional correspondence can be found in other files also, mainly in the State Reports Series and in the Local Garden Clubs Series. Miscellaneous and general correspondence, not having to do with information found in other series, is all included in the correspondence series. The Subject Files Series includes a file of directories that list officers and chairmen for the garden clubs, and their corresponding addresses. The Environmental Programs file contains a flyer advertising a poster Mss 271 North Dakota State Federation of Garden Clubs Records Page 4 of 6 contest for kids, papers pertaining to environmental legislation and program funding by state, and documents explaining an environmental improvement program sponsored in part by the Sears-Roebuck Foundation. Other information in this series includes schedules for flower shows and flower schools, newspaper clippings, organizational information, and press releases. Documents on the Runaway Water project (1981-1983) offer suggestions of projects for clubs to do locally and explain how clubs can win regional awards for their projects. The Vita for Marcella Melsted was written for the National Credentials Committee when Mrs. Melsted attended the annual convention of the National Council of State Garden Clubs, held in Los Angeles, California in 1982. Mrs. Melsted represented the North Dakota State Federation of Garden Clubs in her position as state president at the convention.