The Birth of an Organization
June 1919. World War I is over. Industry is setting new production records to overcome wartime shortages. The drab war years are making way for a bright philosophy of having fun as fast and furiously as possible. The “Roaring Twenties” loom on the horizon. It is a time of great hope—a time of optimism.
June 19th began as so many summer days do in Louisville, Kentucky—with the promise of sunny skies and the certainty of heat and humidity. It was the date set three months earlier at an informal conference of 13 Optimist Clubs for the beginning of the “first annual convention of the International Optimist Club.” The purpose was to organize optimism, to make it a unified force able to spread across the globe.
In Louisville that morning were representatives of 11 clubs, many accompanied by their spouses. William Henry Harrison, a Louisville businessman and ancestor of the ninth President of the United States, called the meeting to order at 10 a.m. in a room on the second floor of the Tyler Hotel. He had been chosen president pro-tem at the March conference in Indianapolis because of the high regard everyone had for him.
“In those early days when faction was arrayed against faction on the floor,” one of the pioneering Optimists wrote, “Bill Harrison had the profound respect of everybody and his rulings were never appealed.”
That morning’s session got off to a rocky start. Many of the delegates were late for the opening gavel having been told the meeting was to be held on the ninth floor. Harrison apologized, saying the hotel had switched rooms at the last minute so they could prepare for the group’s banquet that evening.
Word then came that the Indianapolis contingent had not yet arrived. Harrison adjourned the session so that everyone could go down to the railroad station to greet the Indianapolis Optimists who were arriving in two special cars on the “Dixie Flyer,” accompanied by their own band.
By two o’clock that afternoon all 69 Optimists were finally gathered to take up the first major piece of business, the drawing up of a constitution. There were two club constitutions presented as models of what the international’s body should resemble. One was that of the Indianapolis club, the other of the Chicago group. In the end, the delegates arrived at a compromise and drew from the best features of each. This first constitution served the growing organization well as it operated under it without amendment for seven years.
International Dues
Among the items debated during that first convention was the amount of the annual dues. Originally, at the Indianapolis conference in March, four dollars had been proposed. Some, like E.L. Monser, one of the founders of the Optimist Club of Buffalo, New York, supported dues no higher than two dollars. “The Rotary Club has a per capita tax (dues) of 50 cents per head,” he told the assembled Optimists. “No club of a similar nature that I know of has a per capita tax as high as two dollars.”
Others, like J.M. Schmid of Indianapolis, questioned whether two dollars would be enough to maintain the secretary’s office and the expenses of the organization for the first year. “After this organization begins to grow and adds members and clubs,” he said, “perhaps two dollars or less will be sufficient, but I am inclined to think that the first year we ought to provide sufficient (dues) so we could see our way clear until the next convention.”
Monser countered. “We have got to have a national treasury and the quicker we can have the means of paying a man to attend to our national affairs, the better for the Optimists.”
After considerable debate the first international dues were set at two dollars per member, payable at one dollar semi-annually.
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