The first day I spent most of my time transcribing the Constitution and By-Laws which focus on what the club is and how it is run. The main point that I found of intrigue was concerning who are considered residential, non-residential and honorary members.

In the article of the Constitution that addresses members and their responsibilities and functions there is a section that defines the different types of members that are in the Club: residential, non-residential and honorary. The ladies defined residential to be those who resided within a ten mile radius of Baltimore City. Those living outside of this ten mile radius were considered non-residential and then they did not define the stipulations for who was an honorary member.

The section of this article did not go into detail about why there was this distinction of why it was a ten miles compared to a different distance. They also did not determine where the ten mile radius started. Going along this point, when the Constitution got to the section about the dues that the members would have to pay, the residential members had to pay ten dollars per year, while the non-resident members and honorary members had to pay five dollars per year. Non-resident and honorary members also were not eligible to hold a leadership position or to vote in the Club. I am curious why there is such a distinction of the members of the Club.

My guess is that the founding members and all members of wealthy or powerful families lived within the ten miles of the City and wanted to keep the power of the Club within these confines. It will be interesting to be able to see the log of the members and their addresses and also if the ladies kept track of who was a residential, non-residential and honorary member of the Club.