Sertoma Club of Dayton Records

Series I, Local Papers, consists primarily of documents of the Dayton Sertoma Club from 1925 (when it was known as the Dayton Cooperative Club) through June 1994. The material in the files largely covers traditional events, inaugural ceremonies for the installation of new officers, board meetings and minutes, financial statements, programs and their implementation, and a wide range of other activities tied to the club's motto "Service to Mankind."

The documents take the form of memos, form letters, photographs partly of the 60th anniversary celebration, news clippings of various Sertomans (William Owen of Dayton City Transit and President of the Dayton Sertoma Club in 1955 is prominent in these, as is Harvey Hahn, pastor of the East Dayton Evangelical United Brethren Church and a President in 1954), brochures, convention schedules, photos of prominent club events, and local club bulletins. The files contain a fair amount of correspondence between Rev. Hahn, William Owen and past Sertoma members, and a number of folders are designated as being material chiefly relating to activities of various individuals. There are folders, for instance, containing correspondence to Paul J. Price, former Chief of Dayton Police, Robert Makarius, a 50 year member of the local club, Ed Kester, a member who later became a regional governor, etc.

The preponderance of local material presents a fairly accurate view of the day to day life of the club, and the attitude of club officers to questions of morale, structural and organizational problems, etc. A weakness of the local records is their paucity after 1975. Local club bulletins are the only source of information concerning Dayton Sertoma from 1976-1986. These newsletters lack the intimacy provided by the other documents, and tend to present a sterile, skeletal view of the local club in the last decade. Rosters from various years serve as a good means to trace membership and changes.

When additions were processed in July 2014, local bulletins were added for the years 1994-1997. However, there was not a complete run provided for these years. In July 2014, the bulk of local bulletins in the accession (covering the years 1988-1993) were already in the collection. In general, one duplicate copy was retained and filed, but any additional duplicate issues beyond two were returned to the donor or discarded in accordance with the donor's wishes. If the duplicate copy or the existing copy filed in the collection was in very poor condition (e.g. torn in multiple places), a single copy (the one in the best condition) was retained for the collection and the other copies were returned to the donor or discarded.

In some respect, Series II and Series III, the regional and international records, are distracting to the flow of local activities found in the collection. These documents include issues of the Sertoman, programs and brochures of international and regional conventions, regional bulletins which occasionally appear to have little relevance to the local material, campaign buttons, and brochures and other memorabilia culled from past elections for international officers. The regional and international files are nonetheless useful in providing an overall context in which to interpret the local records.

The bulk of the records, local as well as regional and international, cover the period 1925-1994. An interesting aspect of the Sertoma Papers is the political and ideological frame of mind found in the records of William Owen and Harvey Hahn. Both have several copies of International President James R. Burchfield's talk to the Memphis regional convention of March 1968. This address, endorsed by an overwhelming vote of Sertomans at the mid-year convention in 1968, presents a very right wing view on a wide series of issues confronting society, i.e., welfare, crime, war in Vietnam, racial disorders, etc. The impression given in the files is that the local and international bodies were comprised of men very conservative in their outlook, believers of the free enterprise work ethic as opposed to the liberalism of the day.

Other records, both local and international, attest to Sertoma's dedication to charity programs, scholarships for needy students, an efficient Youth Employment Service run by Sertomas, and a host of other worthy volunteer endeavors.