Feel like joining a doll club, or maybe starting one yourself? Although it might seem counter-intuitive right now, there are still plenty of options. The Bold Doll gives you a basic starter kit.
As a male doll collector it was a revelation to find that there are others who share my interest. My club is not just a social group, it is also a repository for knowledge – with so many talented and inventive members. Through this group I have discovered all kinds of techniques and learned so many new things.
The current pandemic makes any sort of group activity a challenge, of course. However, many doll groups are thriving by means of virtual meetings. My gang is still meeting regularly via Zoom, and has found many creative ways to make our sessions as lively as ever. We have even found ways to have a virtual raffle! It’s not the same as meeting face-to-face, but it’s a great stop-gap until we can get together in person again.
If you are lucky enough to have a doll organization in your area I would urge you to check it out – you never know who you’ll meet or what you’ll find there. But if you don’t have a ready-made club nearby, why not set one up for yourself? You could do worse than using the structure of my club as a model – so at the risk of giving away trade secrets this is what we do and why it works…
It might seem a bit anarchic, but our first rule is that we have no rules. Or rather the one guiding principle of the club is to have fun. When the group first started, several founder members came from other clubs and had clear ideas of what they liked and what didn’t work. So the thought was to build on these experiences and to create a group without membership dues, to avoid difficult situations from the past and to make the club more inclusive. Aim to eliminate mindless regulations that take up way too much time and create disharmony. Having said that, there is still work to do – the combined efforts of many people working together make our club special. There are no formal officers, only steering committee members. There are no chiefs just because the club was started and formed by a small handful of collectors – the feeling is that the club belongs to all of its members.
Despite the altruistic policy of no fees, it’s not totally touchy-feely. A structure for the meetings is vital and it’s a good plan to have someone who is good at time-keeping to run the show. Our meetings are monthly Sunday afternoon affairs and they stick pretty astonishingly to the four hours allotted. A regular format is recommended because, although sitting around admiring each others dolls might be interesting for a while, the interest levels would soon pall.
Fund-raising is done mainly by raffles. Although many clubs have these, we are fortunate as our group is well-established so there are funds to buy some pretty stunning star prizes. But it is also down to the generosity of individual members who regularly donate an astonishing array of goodies. Some of the best are held back for a bumper seasonal spectacular raffle at the annual Holiday Dinner in December.
As well as sustaining the club without requiring membership fees, the raffle pays for expenses such as club gifts, door prizes, and a special raffle prizes each month. The aim is to build a philanthropic surplus each year which is donated to charity, something of which the club is very proud.
Choose your venue. For live meetings, it’s wonderful to meet at people’s homes rather than public spaces. This gives members the opportunity to see each other’s collections and it makes for a more personable and warm gathering. For variety we do meet occasionally at a clubhouse or restaurant. A drawback of the popularity of the club is that as we have grown in numbers, we have outgrown some of the members’ homes. The club makes a point of contributing towards the costs of members who host the meetings.
A potluck lunch is contributed by the members each month, not just the person hosting the meeting, although we are lucky enough to have a fantastic professional caterer in the group who supervises operations in a way that would make Gordon Ramsay proud.
Our meetings are always themed – at the time of writing it was ‘the movies’ – and members bring along dolls to tie in with the theme. In the past we’ve had colors, fabrics, and the letters of the alphabet. My personal favorite was the A-Z, although it seems a little prosaic at first, this one really gave everyone the chance to let their creativity rip, and you never knew what would turn up. Members also have the opportunity to bring along any new acquisitions or anything that might be interesting to share. This is the enabling part of the meeting – finding out about new dolls and adding them to your wish list.
Try to attract a wide array of doll collectors. This makes for livelier meetings and allows us to appreciate all types of dolls that we might otherwise have no knowledge of. Program talks are given each month and are always informative and give members the chance to show off their own particular branch of collecting. It might be someone in the club who creates the most amazing doll ensembles, or dioramas, or re-purposes dolls in some way. Some of our members are experts at restoration, re-paints, photography, or hair restyling and everyone is very generous with their advice and knowledge. We have also been lucky enough to have hosted talks by illustrious guest speakers.
Aim to create a newsletter to keep everyone informed, particularly when members are unable to attend meetings. Ours has become a pretty impressive electronic publication with comprehensive coverage of the meetings and topics of interest, but a simple single sheet as an initial point of contact would be perfect for a new club.
To keep the enthusiasm going outside of the meetings, we have an annual travel doll who goes on jaunts with members, and has been posed in front of many worldwide landmarks. A trousseau is assembled as a prize at the holiday banquet. A new doll is chosen annually and is renamed by the group.
The group has a by-invitation-only Facebook presence, which has become increasingly popular during the current period. Themes and topics from the meetings, as well as a plethora of doll-related stuff appear here.
Our club has over 60 members, about 50:50 men and women. Some are OOAK artists, some re-root, repaint, restore, sew, some are dealers, some belong to more than one club, some are members of the UFDC (United Federation of Doll Clubs).
It’s definitely worth putting plenty of thought, care, and effort into each meeting. We often have new guests and members who say that it’s like going to a special event each month. So go ahead and get clubbing – hope you enjoy it as much as we do!
A version of this story first appeared in Fashion Doll Quarterly magazine in 2012
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