The Phoenix Society

[Ophelia Dippet]

The Premise

The Phoenix Society is half ladies' club, half structured social events. It is designed to supplement the social calendars of wives and widows outside of and around the normal social season, and to do so by inviting them to interesting events, not just more tea parties and garden parties.

Events will run the gamut from weekend house parties, physical activities (horseback riding, roller skating, bicycling, etc), intellectual outings (dinners with female authors or activists, book clubs, learning new skills, art/history tours of various cities, evenings at the opera/theatre, etc), and the more typical craft parties and charity runs and things. Members are not obliged to participate in all of the different types of events, but membership means that all events are open to your characters.

IC there will be 2-3 events per month; we'll try to get at least one or two formally planned out via the event thread to give your ladies something to do! Any member can invite a non-member to participate in an event, but non-members may attend no more than one event per month.

There will also be a tea room, located in London and accessible via floo. It will be open at all respectable hours for the general use of the members (and to fulfill the function of a 'normal' ladies' club). They still have to find and set up the physical location for the tea room, so this will be open and available in January or February.

Membership

On Class: There are annual dues, which go to the maintenance of the tea room and to a general events fund which members planning things can pull from. This money is designed to be used to cover things like the cost of procuring a speaker for a dinner or arranging travel to a certain event; if the event itself costs money, like an opera, members are still expected to pay their way there. For this reason, although middle class women are not barred from membership, they'd have to actively want to be investing a good deal of their allowances in membership; for UC ladies this can be more of a casual thing like most ladies' clubs are presently.

On Society: In order to become a member, everyone must be invited by a founding member. This might change when the society has been established long enough to stand on its own two feet, but right now you've gotta know a guy. If your character knows any member, though, you can come to one event in the span of a month - and if you meet one of the founding members there and she thinks you're good enough to merit an invitation, then you're in.

On Reputation: 4+ on the current system, 7+ on the new system. This isn't a hard and fast rule -- if your character has a rep 4 but it's for something the founding members think is awful, they might refuse membership.

On Employment: No women with masculine employment (Ministry workers, healers, Quidditch players, retail-related employment) will be considered. It's generally preferred that members not work except from home (charity work, craft work, writing, etc) but other 'feminine' positions are acceptable if they have someone vouching for them.

Although it's geared towards the married / soon to be so, debutantes may also participate if they're so inclined.

Founding Members: @'Ophelia Dippet' @'Eva Sleptova' @'Lucinda Cavanaugh' @'Calliope Riley'

Upcoming Event Ideas

I was thinking we could have NPC Yente Ventus come meet with the girls over lunch and give out really terrible Cosmo-style advice about marriage/men/etc - maybe in January? I'd love to have some threads where they all share awful advice (and then the hilarious threads following where they try and act on said advice).

Ophelia wants to put together a Quidditch team for the event in February, if any of the ladies are athletically inclined~

Also in February, Ophelia wants to get @'Quincey Honeyduke' to run a workshop and teach them how to make simple chocolate :D It's fun, festive, and tasty. Hopefully he's down for that. She'll invite pretty MC ladies to hurl at him *cough*Ismene*cough*

Give me your ideas as well!

Current Membership:

Ophelia Dippet	Lucinda Cavanaugh	Calliope Riley	Eva Sleptova
Gwenda Cadwallader	Virginia Carmichael	Aurelia Wallingford	--
--	--	--	--

The following 2 users Like Ophelia Dippet's post:2 users Like Ophelia Dippet's post
   Elsie Beauregard, Souri Avninder

[Ophelia Dippet]

Ophelia would like to extend an invitation for membership to:

@'November Malfoy'
@'Porphyria Dempsey'
@'Gwenda Cadwallader' (they were in the same year at Hogwarts and I thought might be acquainted!)
@'Andromeda Parkinson' (as a current/former R&T member)
@'Aurelia Wallingford' (as a current/former R&T member)
@'Virginia Carmichael' (as a current/former R&T member)
@'Minnie Pendergast' (they were at PSYR together)


And I'm open to her offering the invitation to others as well, but hit me up to discuss when they would have become acquainted!

(Like this post or shout at me here/on skype to accept the invite and get added to the roster)

The following 2 users Like Ophelia Dippet's post:2 users Like Ophelia Dippet's post
   Aldous Crouch, Aurelia Wallingford

[Ophelia Dippet]

For the cocktail party, Ophelia is inviting any of ^those folks who aren't already members, plus:

@'Zelda Fisk' @'Katia Meadowes' @'Xena Fisk' @'Roslyn Ross'
@'Ismene Swift' (who can extend the invitation to Dot/Loretta if she wants!)
@'Adelia Lovegood' (not because she likes you and wants your company but rather because she's afraid you'll never leave the house again and she'll not get a chance to feel superior to you in public which is sad for her)
@'Prunella Vaisey' (for similar reasons as above except she kind of feels bad for Prunella)
@'Gwendolyn Vane-Tempest'
@'Natsuko Mountbatton'
@'Una Walsh'
@'Fortuna Lockhart'
@'Octavia Lytton'
@'Vera Podmore'

+ Current PSYR students and reputable alums! (and Evelyn if she's interested but Ophelia doesn't want to seem presumptuous by inviting her)

The following 1 user Likes Ophelia Dippet's post:1 user Likes Ophelia Dippet's post
   Adelia Lovegood

[Quincey Honeyduke]

I am SO down for this, because yes.

The following 1 user Likes Quincey Honeyduke's post:1 user Likes Quincey Honeyduke's post
   Ophelia Dippet

[Cassius Lestrange]

Let's objectify some Quidditch players.

The following 1 user Likes Cassius Lestrange's post:1 user Likes Cassius Lestrange's post
   Ophelia Dippet