There Are 128 Dartmouth Clubs

The number of Dartmouth alumni associations and clubs now stands at an all-time high of 128, a figure believed unequaled by any other college or university in the country.

The growth of Dartmouth clubs is remarkable when it is realized that only fourteen had been founded prior to 1900. Today approximately 95% of the alumni body is on the mailing list of a club.

The first Dartmouth alumni association was established in Boston and the first meeting was held on June 6, 1864. Two years later the New York Association of Alumni was founded, the first such collegiate organization in that city.

In the closing years of the nineteenth century twelve other cities or areas followed with clubs: Cincinnati (1875), Washington, D. C. (1876), Chicago (1876), St. Louis (1876), Minneapolis-St. Paul (1880), San Francisco (1881), Manchester (1881), Concord (1891), Vermont (1893), Denver (1895), Detroit (1895), Montana (1895) and Omaha (1895).

The emergence of Dartmouth as a truly national college, in the early 1900's, marked the rapid growth of clubs. By 1930 the number had grown to eighty, by 1950 to one hundred, and now, in 1961, to 128.

Today many states have more than one club, with Massachusetts setting the pace with seventeen. These seventeen clubs serve some 4,500 alumni. New York is second with ten clubs and in Connecticut there are nine.

It is interesting to note that the smallest club in number of alumni is located in Midland, Texas. The group, which numbers about a dozen men, is called the Permian Basin Dartmouth Club and encompasses some 45 Texas counties.

The growing international scope of the College has resulted in ten clubs in foreign countries. These include three founded last year, in Toronto, Mexico City, and Venezuela. Other clubs are in Montreal, London, Paris, Tokyo, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, and Bangkok.

Just as the number of clubs has grown so has the list of annual activities which each club undertakes. Nearly all the clubs assist in the work of the National Enrollment Program, with club-sponsored meetings for applicants or accepted candidates a common practice. Forty clubs are also engaged in the Club Scholarship Program, which has raised more than $370,000.

The Dartmouth Club of Hartford, which this June commemorated its 50th anniversary, serves as a good example of an active Dartmouth club. The events annually sponsored by the club include a luncheon for entering freshmen and their fathers, a sportsnight stag dinner on the eve of the Yale Dartmouth game, a formal dance in conjunction with other Ivy League alumni, a concert by the Glee Club (every other year), the Dartmouth-Yale rugby match for the Hartford Cup, and a luncheon for prospetive candidates. The glee club concert and the rugby match are money-raising events for the Hartford Club's Loan Fund.

Like many other clubs, Hartford also holds monthly luncheons with occasional speakers, and at least one big dinner meeting a year.

As the club program has grown, the College has attempted to keep pace with it through administrative assistance. Following the recommendation of the Alumni Council's Committee of Alumni Relations, clubsponsored regional conferences are now held on the average of twice a year. These consist of two- or three-day meetings at which a full team of College officers are present. The first such conference was held in Denver in November 1950.

The 1960-1961 college year also saw ninety clubs visited by speakers from the College. These included administrative officers, faculty members, coaches, and students. Some forty men represented the College at a total of 123 club meetings.

It is anticipated that the number of Dartmouth clubs will continue to grow with several more definitely to be added within the next year or two. There are, however, eleven states not yet represented: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Wyoming.