A Work in Progress

From a cluster of seven Iowa Wesleyan co-eds intent on having their own society for general improvement and mutual support, P.E.O. has grown to a membership of 241,879 and nearly six thousand chapters in 2010. From its inception, P.E.O. has been evolving. Founder Mary Allen Stafford recalled that, as the seven formulated the procedures for P.E.O., “We talked, we thought, we planned, over and over, at different meetings, and not infrequently between meetings, with each other, to work out the problem of how to be.” When the Mount Pleasant P.E.O.s looked ahead, realizing that they wanted to continue their involvement after graduation, the transformation from campus to town chapter was a reasonable solution.

In the early years it sufficed to initiate a candidate and send the new P.E.O. off to her community or school to start a new “society,” as the first chapters were called. Laws were formulated solely by Chapter A until 1883 when authority for making changes to procedures and rituals was formally transferred to Grand Chapter, later called Supreme and since 1979 International Chapter. Conventions began in 1875 as yearly events and in 1893 became biennial. Conventions allowed members to be represented in the larger forum of P.E.O., reporting accomplishments, strategizing, expanding friendships, receiving inspiration and legislating policies and procedures.

P.E.O. is “a diverse sisterhood that welcomes women of all races, religions and backgrounds” and provides educational financial assistance for women worldwide. Those invited to membership are asked to affirm a belief in God. When an amendment to require an initiate to have a high school education or equivalent was proposed in 1921, it was defeated. There are no educational requirements for members. Today the unifying ties of faith, loyalty and friendship still prevail. Although the simple oath was expanded to a more elaborate ceremony of initiation in 1882 and has been revised multiple times, the Objects and Aims have seen little modification. These Objects and Aims are the P.E.O. mission statement encouraging “general improvement.”

P.E.O. practices were far from unique. In the post-Civil War era when membership in fraternal organizations was commonplace for men, the fathers of Suela Pearson, Alice Bird and Franc Roads were Masons. Such organizations meant for their rituals to remain private. P.E.O. ceremonies were to be also. Even though some P.E.O. laws were unwritten and in 1887 old papers were ordered destroyed in an effort toward uniformity, some changes in wording or practice can be traced.

The P.E.O. Order of Exercises of 1912 describes the local chapter meeting. The president has always had an order of meeting to follow. A modern President’s Book did not come on the scene until 1964, after extensive preparation under the supervision of three executive boards. Major revisions have occurred in 1979, 1990, 2003 and 2009, with the goal to consistently and efficiently conduct business.

The first members of Chapter A used a small notebook that contained all laws and special work. This notebook was copied by hand and provided to each new chapter. There was not only a password but also a special “grip” or handshake. Hand signals were used to identify another P.E.O. and to indicate a stressful situation.

The emblem has remained basically the same, a gold five-pointed star with black enamel letters P.E.O. across the center. However, its size,
placement and composition have changed. In 1869 the star was worn on the left shoulder but could also be used as a hair ornament or on a ribbon at the neck. The large star was considered too prominent by some; so at the 1915 Convention a smaller version was adopted and members were invited to trade in their emblems. Today the star is worn over the heart, and no emblematic insignia is worn above it. The emblem is the property of the Sisterhood and is to be returned by an inactive member and returned, buried or cremated when a member enters Chapter Eternal.

From the beginning there were four officers—president, vice president, secretary and treasurer—elected for six-month terms. There was a simple installation ceremony. P.E.O.s were businesslike and serious-minded, although they made time for fun and “sociality.” Following parliamentary procedure must have seemed a natural for the Founders, who knew the practices of debating societies. There was no chaplain until 1871 and no guard until 1881. In 1889, with the advent of The P.E.O. Record, each president was to appoint a “journalist” to contribute news of the chapter.

The P.E.O. meeting began with the call to order by the president and an opening ode, which until 1919 was the hymn “Blest Be the Tie.” In that year a revision was ordered, and the lyrics used today were adopted in 1921, although “Blest Be the Tie” is still an option. The Opening Ode has had three different tunes associated with it, the others dating from 1969 and 1989. The Objects and Aims have been part of procedures since the beginning. Taking the password today is done either at the door or during the opening.

Devotions included a prayer by the chaplain or, in the chaplain’s absence, the Lord’s Prayer recited by all present. In 1869, more than 95 percent of the U.S. population was Christian; so the choice of the Lord’s Prayer was not unexpected. It is said that the members knelt. Today members remain seated while hearing a Bible reading and the P.E.O. prayer, then join in reciting the Lord’s Prayer.

Reports of officers and committees were always a part of the meeting. In the 1912 agenda, roll call was done in the latter part of the meeting, assuring that members would stay until the end to be counted present. It is now positioned with the report of the treasurer. In 2009, reading the correspondence was moved to follow the report of the corresponding secretary, allowing for better flow of the meeting. Early programs were literary, social and/or philanthropic and limited to two hours. Ambitious topics were proposed for study, such as, in 1892-1893, the study of the “history of womankind.” The appointment of a “Programme Committee” in each chapter was advocated and is routine today. The closing ode was “God Be with You Till We Meet Again.” It has been replaced by today’s closing benediction.

The most important items on the agenda in the past remain essential today and make membership growth possible. Growth of the Sisterhood was a natural result of the desire of its members to include more friends and to share their goals. In the first years every member of the chapter had to be polled if not present at the meeting to cast a ballot. Balloting was done using buttons and later balls and cubes. In 2009 the number of members needed to sponsor a potential member was reduced from five to three, and since 1995, election has been by written ballot.

What has never changed is that the only way for P.E.O. membership to grow is through initiations. Personal connections are the conduit to new members. Effie Hoffman Rogers, first editor of The Record, wrote that members living the ideals of P.E.O. will make ours “the larger womanhood, the broader outlook, the fairer vision.” In her words, “P.E.O. has stood through all these years for progress, expansion and opportunity.” Still expanding the vision, P.E.O. continues to be a work in progress.

The Remarkable Year 1893

The year 1893 was remarkable on several fronts.  For P.E.O. it was the year when the Constitution was first printed professionally following the revisions in Convention of Supreme Grand Chapter. It was the year in which the P.E.O. Sisterhood was incorporated, and it also marked the addition of the organizer to the officers of Supreme Chapter in an effort to assure uniformity of procedures in local chapters.  In 1893 Iowa Grand Chapter was organized, the marguerite was made the official flower, and the re-lettering of local chapters – by state and then in order of their date of organization – took place.

On a broader horizon, 1893 was the year of the Columbian Exposition in Chicago, a “World’s Fair,” and the first to be illuminated by electricity. The Fair was a venue for women’s organizations and people of faith.  For the first time at a world exposition, there was a Woman’s Building planned and managed by women.  Women displayed their new inventions, ran a telegraph office, operated a printing press, and some advocated for women’s suffrage.  The Sisterhood arranged to have P.E.O. headquarters at the building, providing a meeting place for P.E.O.s visiting from across the country as well as a means for drawing the attention of many who had not previously known of P.E.O.  Jewish women participated in the expo, but they chose not to locate in the Woman’s Building in order not to have their message eclipsed by any women’s suffrage agenda.  Theirs was an awareness-raising exhibit under the auspices of the World’s Parliament of Religions and aimed at rekindling an interest in Jewish women for studying the tenets of their faith.  Their efforts resulted in the founding of the National Council of Jewish Women in that year.

Despite a severe depression marked by bank runs and business failures that hit the U.S. in mid-1893, the World Exposition was considered a success.  One outstanding feature of the World Exposition was the World’s Parliament of Religions.  For seventeen consecutive days in September representatives of the “ten great world religions” including Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism, were part of the largest congress at the exposition.  The formal inter-religious dialogue focused on sharing philosophical and traditional values. At the gathering the Lord’s Prayer became the “universal prayer” used at the beginning of each day and to officially close the parliament.

More on Membership

The first professionally printed Constitution of the P.E.O. Sisterhood was adopted on October 13, 1893, by Convention of The Supreme Grand Chapter in Waterloo, Iowa.  That document stated a single requirement for proposing a candidate for membership: that the candidate “must be a believer in the Supreme Being.”

Ola B. Miller, who would serve as President of Supreme Chapter in 1927, is quoted in her remarks to the Iowa Convention saying that P.E.O. is a unique and freestanding organization, not an auxiliary to any men’s fraternal organization and without any specific religious affiliation.  She stated that P.E.O. is conducted “along the lines of the Christian religion but peculiar” and that it is “founded on no religious creed so it is entirely non-sectarian.”  She said that a candidate’s husband “needs not be a Mason, Elk, or Knight of Pythias” and added that a P.E.O. is “chosen by qualities of mind and heart.”

The P.E.O. Record, November 1920, p. 5.

The P.E.O. Burial Ritual

At the end of the 19^th century, death was surrounded by elaborate mourning rituals, as exemplified by Queen Victoria, widowed in 1859.  A custom that lasted into the 1920s was for P.E.O.s to drape their pins in black when a sister died or to refrain from wearing the pin for a set amount of days.  With the average life expectancy of women at less than 50 years, and with the passing of Founders Hattie Briggs Bosquet in 1877 and Alice Coffin in 1888, it is not surprising that a Burial Ritual was commissioned in 1889.  Again, Alice Bird Babb’s writing ability was called upon.  The ceremony was revised in 1921 and in 1963 and is currently called the P.E.O. Memorial Service. In keeping with the prevailing beliefs of the time and the religious affiliations of its writers, the service contains mostly Christian imagery and references.

Some Early P.E.O. Customs

The grip (special handshake) is a slight pressure made by the thumb on the middle finger of the right hand.  There were four hand signs:

• Placing two fingers of the right hand on the right temple and the thumb on the cheek meant, “Are you a P.E.O.?”
• To respond, “I am,” the P.E.O. would touch the left shoulder with the middle finger of her left hand.
• “We are sisters” was signed by placing the forefinger of the right hand on the right temple.
• Touching the pin in its usual place on the left shoulder with the right hand was a sign of distress.

Parliamentary Procedure

In 1893, the P.E.O. meeting was governed by The Woman’s Manual of Parliamentary Law, which recommended, “In societies or clubs whose object is chiefly mutual improvement rather than systematic outside work, this object is best attained by having all the important business presented, discussed, and finally decided in open business meetings of the whole society, leaving necessary details to be carried out afterward by special or standing committees, when ordered so to do by the whole body.”  Another piece of advice:  “Rotation in office is one of the best helps.”  In 1903, Robert’s Rules of Order became the standard used.

Shattuck, Harriette R. The Woman’s Manual of Parliamentary Law, p. 17

Another contemporary etiquette book advises that the presiding officer “should be possessed of good eyesight, so as to perceive a member as soon as she rises” and “ever on the alert, with all  her faculties about her...always willing to grant the full liberty of debate to all; for out of the widest differences will come the very best conclusions after full and fair discussion. 

Cooke, Maud C. Social Etiquette, p. 357.

P.E.O. Order of Exercises (1912)

1. Calling to Order
2. Opening Ode
3. Devotional Exercises
4. Formal Opening of Meeting
5. Reading of Minutes
6. Report of Corresponding Secretary, first meeting each month
7. Report of Treasurer, first meeting each month
8. Reports of Committees
9. Correspondence
10. Miscellaneous Business
11. Presentation of Names for Vouchers
12. Proposals for Membership
13. Balloting
14. Initiation
15. Election and Installation
16. Remarks by Visitors
17. Roll Call
18. Closing Ode

I.C. Sorosis Order of Exercise (circa 1870)

1. Calling the House to Order
2. Devotional Exercises
3. Calling the Roll
4. Reading the Minutes
5. Installation of Officers
6. Excuses from Absentees
7. Reports for Memberships
8. Initiation of Members
9. Election of Officers
10. Reports of Committees
11. General Reports
12. Miscellaneous Business
13. Literary Performance
14. Program for next meeting
15. Adjournment
16. General Pow Wow

BIBLIOGRAPHY

for

“P.E.O. Customs and Procedures: A Work in Progress”

January/February 2011, The P.E.O. Record

Adams, Erma I. Letter on early customs. Mount Pleasant, IA: [n.d.].

Clapp, Stella.  Out Of The Heart: A Century of P.E.O. 1869-1969.
        Lincoln, NE: The P.E.O. Sisterhood, 1968.

Cooke, Maud C. Social Etiquette.  Boston, MA: Geo. M. Smith & Co., 1896.
        http://www.archive.org/stream/socialetiquette00cookgoog#page
        /n10/mode/2up

Dewey, Sarah R. et al., ed., The History of the P.E.O. Sisterhood,
        Davenport, IA, Egberts, Fidler and Chambers, 1903.

Donaldson, Jean Orr, A Century of Friendship: The History of Pi Beta
        Phi 1867-1967, [s.l.], Pi Beta Phi Fraternity, 1967. 

Constitution of the P.E.O. Sisterhood and Bylaws, 1869, 1893, 1903,
        1919, 1937and amendments through 2009.

“Non-Christian Religious Adherents in the United States”. Information Please
       [on-line],10/11/2010.
       http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0193644.html

P.E.O. Counsel for Membership Booklet. Des Moines, IA: P.E.O.
        International, 2010.
        http://members.peointernational.org/node/485

The P.E.O. Record, 1889-2010

Reeves, Winona Evans. The Story of P.E.O. 1869-1923, Vol I,Third
        Edition, [s.l.],[publisher unknown],1947.

---, The Story of P.E.O., 1924-1936, Vol II, [s.l.],The Conco Press,1936.

Reeves, Winona Evans, ed., The Blue Book of Iowa Women, A History
        of Contemporary Women, Mexico, MO, Press of the Missouri
        Printing and Publishing Company, 1914.

Rogow, Faith, Gone to Another Meeting, National Council of Jewish
        Women, 1893-1993. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama
        Press, 1993.

Schlereth, Thomas J. Victorian America: Transformations in Everyday
        Life, 1876-1915. New York, NY: Harper Collins, 1991.

Shattuck, Harriette R. The Woman’s Manual of Parliamentary Law,
        Fourth Edition, Boston, MA: Lee and Shepard, 1894.
        http://books.google.com/books?id=ZUg-AAAAIAAJ

“A Star in the Window”, a report on a skit presented at Convention of
        International Chapter, 1981 and 1997.

 “World Parliament of Religions (1893)”, The Boston Collaborative
        Encyclopedia of Western Theology,[on-line], Derek Michaud, ed.,
        10/11/2010.  Original source: Joas Adiprasetya, 2004.

Worldwide Masonic Directory, 1860, [database on-line], Armstrong,
        Amy, comp. Provo, UT: The Generations Network, Inc., 2001.
        Original data: Universal Masonic Lodge Directory, 1860.
        Leon Hyneman Publisher, 1860.
        http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=4960