How to Start Your Own Red Hat Society

The red hat society started when a women (Sue Ellen Cooper) gave a simple gift of a poem, a red fedora and a hat hook to her friend and once realizing how much her friend enjoy it, started giving them to all whom she knew – eventually creating what is now know worldwide as the “Red Hat Society”!

The web site for the well-known club is www.redhatsociety.com. If there is a chapter near you, you will find it there and if there is not? Start one!

There are no solid “golden rules” set in stone. You create your own royal titles, the size of your group and your start your own traditions. It’s your way or no way. Think big or small. There is however guidelines that must be kept.

Ã?· You must be a woman at the age of 50 or over (women under 50 may be what is called a “Pink Hatter”).
�· You must attend functions in the all of the Red Hat Society ceremonial dress! That means red hat and purple outfits for 50 and older women and pink hats and lavender outfits for women under 50.
�· And yes, just to fall in with the rest of the world (unfortunately) there are some legal documents that do need to be dotted on the lineâ�¦but as mentioned on their web site, they try not to muse over and above what is necessary.

So�onward and upward Red Hatters!

First register your Chapter and set up a username/password for yourself as the chapter queen! (Queens are automatically Purple Perks members with their chapter registration / annual renewal fees). Materials will contain An Official Red Hat Society Chapter Charter officially signed by the Exalted Queen Mother herself, Sue Ellen Cooper and least we forget the original “1st friend to receive the gift, Esteemed Vice Mother, Linda Murphy. If you feel you need a bit of extra sparkle to help get you started, they have a “Queen’s Kit” which is a box of goodies for you and your chapter as well as an “All About Me” kit. Swell hun?

And what happens next you ask?

�· Dress up! Buy a red / pink hat for yourself and/or for someone else. Ladies are strongly encouraged to follow the age/color guidelines, and to not wear purple/red until they have reached THE BIRTHDAY.
�· Reach out. Invite other women into your chapter.
�· List your chapter as open to new members on the Red Hat Society website and meet new women from all walks of life right in your immediate neighborhood.
Ã?· Unit with fun events dressed in your ensembles (also known as “full regalia”). And watch the looks you’ll get!
Ã?· Create your chapter roster online and use the features of this website to send emails to your members. If you don’t want to do it yourself, have your members sign themselves up online, by phone or by mail, using the Chapter ID# that is on your chapter charter certificate.

Although the following site is not affiliated with the Red Hats Society they still have some great stuff to check out! So meander over to http://www.redhatsandmore.com from assorted hats to jewelry to home decorating!

So fellow Red Hatter wannabesâÂ?¦I leave you with this – the poem Sue Ellen gave as a gift with the first “Red Hat”.

Warning

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandles, and say we’ve no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I’m tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick flowers in other people’s gardens
And learn to spit.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

Jenny Joseph