A Guide to the Bexar County Women's Bar Association Records, 1983-2001


Descriptive Summary
	Creator:	Bexar County Women's Bar Association
	Title:	Bexar County Women's Bar Association Records,
	Dates:	1983-2001
	Creator Abstract:	The Bexar County Women's Bar Association (BCWBA) began in 1982 with a mission to bring together women attorneys, legal assistants and law students in Bexar County and to provide a local forum for the exchange of dialogue and ideas relevant to women in the legal profession.
	Content Abstract:	The records of the Bexar County Women's Bar Association consist of founding and incorporation documents, bylaws, minutes, reports, correspondence, printed material, membership information, directories, newsletters, newspaper clippings, and ephemera documenting the inception, daily function, monthly meetings, and projects of this San Antonio women's organization.
	Identification:	MS 9
	Extent:	4 feet (about 3,000 items)
	Language:	Materials are in English
	Repository:	Archives and Special Collections Department, Library, The University of Texas at San Antonio

Historical Note

The Bexar County Women's Bar Association (BCWBA) was started in late 1982 and incorporated in 1988. The mission of the Association is to bring together women attorneys, legal assistants and law students in Bexar County and to provide a local forum for the exchange of dialogue and ideas relevant to women in the legal profession. The earliest motivations for organization were a desire to see a woman appointed to an open County Court judicial bench in Bexar County and to see more women gain leadership positions in the San Antonio Bar Association. Olga Brown organized the initial social in 1983 to gauge interest in forming an organization. Of the 77 original members of BCWBA, three were men. Membership is open to any women in the Bexar County area legal community, and by 1997 amounted to between 400 and 500 people. BCWBA published its first newsletter in 1984. In 1993, the name of the newsletter changed from Bexar County Women's Bar Association Newsletter to Equal Times®.

The association is governed by a board of directors comprised of officers elected from the general membership, committee chairs, an association historian and a community liaison. Regular committees of BCWBA include Membership, Newsletter, Newsletter Advertisement, Luncheons, Public Relations, Bench Brunch, Social and Roundtable. Officers and directors assemble monthly for board meetings, while the membership in general meets many times throughout the year for social, educational, and professional programs relating to the roles of women's in the legal profession. The programming includes luncheons, lectures by outside speakers, and retreats. Since its inception, BCWBA has implemented many important projects. In 1984, a BCWBA committee designed a child support formula for Bexar County, which the District Judges accepted. It served as a model for the child support formula eventually set by the Texas Supreme Court. In 1990, BCWBA saw the opening of the Teddy Bear Room in the Bexar County Justice Center, a special waiting room initiated by the association for children (trial witnesses and others) in the District Attorney's Office.

BCWBA also lobbied in 1990 for amendments to the San Antonio Bar Association (SABA) bylaws to allow presidents of all local minority bar associations as non-voting members of the SABA board. At the same time, BCWBA also worked for minority representation on the Texas Young Lawyers Association Board. In 1994, a BCWBA group joined other Texas women bar leaders to form the Texas Women's Bar Association. Also in 1994, for the first time five women were nominated to four director positions in the San Antonio Bar Association, thereby advancing one of the original goals of BCWBA.

The longest running and most successful of the projects undertaken by BCWBA is the Annual Bench Brunch. Starting in 1983 in an effort to keep the Women's Law Center from closing, the first Bench Brunch raised $5,000 and successfully met its goal. The Bench Brunch has two foci: to raise money for various charities and to honor women judges in Texas. The program of Bench Brunches includes the presentation of awards, the introduction of honorees, an auction, a raffle and a guest speaker. Past guest speakers include former Texas Governor Ann Richards, former Texas State Attorney General Dan Morales, and former Dean of the Law School at St. Mary's University Barbara Bader Aldave among others.

The BCWBA attributes it success to remaining non-partisan, while supporting the efforts of all its members to achieve leadership roles. As of 1997, the Bexar County Women's Bar Association continues to be an active and on-going presence in San Antonio.

New accessions will continue to be added to these records.

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Scope and Contents Note

The records of the Bexar County Women's Bar Association consist of founding and incorporation documents, bylaws, minutes, reports, correspondence, printed material, membership information, directories, newsletters, newspaper clippings, and ephemera documenting the inception, daily function, monthly meetings, and projects of this San Antonio women's organization. The collection is arranged into eight series reflecting the group's organizational structure and conforming as much as was possible to the original order in which it was accessioned.

The Founding/Incorporation Documents and Bylaws, describe the legal status and governing structure of the organization. The Board of Directors Minutes and Agendas as well as the Newsletters offer insight into the interests, concerns and activities of the organization, while the Treasurer's Reports document in detail the expenses of maintaining a medium sized civic and professional organization.

The Correspondence series, consisting largely of facsimile memoranda, documents the favored style of communication employed by officers and committee chairs. Membership Information and Directories provide demographic information about individual members of the organization.

The bulk of the Projects series documents the annual Bench Brunch charity event, the most important activity in the organization's agenda. Files maintained by the Elder Law Committee make up the rest of this series. The remainder of the collection is comprised of Ephemera: photographs, fliers, brochures, invitations and other information of this nature.

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Organization

		Founding/Incorporation Documents and Bylaws, 1988-1990
		Board of Directors Minutes and Agendas, 1985-1996
		Treasurer's Reports, 1987-1996
		Correspondence, 1984-1997
		Membership Information and Directories, 1990-2001
		Newsletters, 1984-2001
		Projects, 1985-1996
		Ephemera, 1990-1996

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Restrictions

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions on these materials.

Permission to Publish

Permission to publish materials from the collection must be obtained from Archives and Special Collections, Library, University of Texas at San Antonio.

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Index Terms

	Organizations
		Bexar County Women's Bar Association
		Bexar County Women's Bar Association--Membership.
		Bexar County Women's Bar Association--Periodicals.
	Subjects
		Bar associations--Bexar County (Tex.)
		Bar associations--Texas--Bexar County--Periodicals.
		Bar associations--United States--Directories.
		Minority lawyers
		Women--Political activity--Bexar County (Tex.)
		Women--Texas--Societies and clubs--History--20th century.
		Women judges--Bexar County (Tex.)
		Women lawyers--Texas--Bexar County--Periodicals
	Locations
		Bexar County (Tex.)
		San Antonio (Tex.)--Politics and government--20th century.
	Genres/Formats
		Bylaws.
		Clippings.
		Correspondence.
		Ephemera.
		Minutes.
		Newsletters
		Photographs.
		Reports.
		Scrapbooks.

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Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Bexar County Women's Bar Association Records, 1983-2001, MS 9, Archives and Special Collections, Library, University of Texas at San Antonio.

Provenance

Records were donated in 1994 by the Bexar County Women's Bar Association.

Processing Information

Processed by Laura Micham, Processing Archivist, June 1997.

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Detailed Description of the Records

Founding/Incorporation Documents and Bylaws

Series Abstract

Legal and organizational documents of the Bexar County Women's Bar Association created when the organization was incorporated. Subseries include Incorporation Documents and Bylaws and contain the incorporation charter, certificate of incorporation, articles of incorporation, corporate resolutions, and restated bylaws, (1989 and 1990).

Box

Folder

Incorporation Documents, 1988-1990

Restated Bylaws, 1989-1990

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Board of Directors Minutes and Agendas
	Series Abstract
	This series consists of agendas and minutes of monthly meetings along with documents referred to during these meetings. The Board meets monthly.
Box	Folder
1	3	1985
	4	1986
	5	1987
	6	1988
	7	1989
	8	1990
	9	1991
	10	1992
	11	1993
	12	1994
	13	1995
	14	1996

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Treasurer's Reports
	Series Abstract
	The first treasurer's reports are simple statements listing monthly transactions, deposits, debits, and balance of the association's account. Later treasurer's reports include, in addition to the above, disbursements, income/expense reports, and proposed budget guidelines among other information.
Box	Folder
2	1	1987
	2	1988
	3	1989
	4	1991
	5	1992
	6	1993
	7	1994
	8	1995
	9	1996

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Correspondence
	Series Abstract
	The correspondence series is comprised of letters, memoranda, and circulating materials not included in other series. The bulk of the correspondence consists of facsimile memoranda, the favored method of communication among officers and directors of the association. This series is divided into two subseries: Presidential Correspondence, which includes correspondence to and from the current president (newly elected annually), and General Correspondence, which includes all other correspondence among members and to and from individuals and organizations outside of BCWBA.
Box	Folder
2		General Correspondence
	10		1984
	11		1986
	12		1988
	13		1989
	14		1990
	15		1991
	16		1992
	17		1993
	18		1994
	19		1995
Box	Folder
3	1		January-March, 1996
	2		April-December, 1996
	3		1997
		Presidential Correspondence
	4		1988
	5		1989
	6		1990
	7		1991
	8		1992
	9		1993
	10		1994
	11		1995
	12		1996

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Membership Information and Directories
	Series Abstract
	Membership Information consists of application forms filled out by new and renewing members listing work and home addresses, type of practice, law school attended, membership status, committees of interest, and preferred delivery method of the newsletter (fax, email, or post). The remainder of the series consists of membership lists and directories.
Box	Folder
3	13	1990-1992
	14	1993
Box	Folder
4		1994
	1		Directories and Lists
	2		Information Sheets, A-J,
	3		Information Sheets, K-Z
		1995
	4		Directories and Lists
	5		Information Sheets, B-M
	6		Information Sheets, N-Z
Box	Folder
5		1996
	1		Directories and Lists
	2		Information Sheets, Legal Assistants
	3		Information Sheets, Law Students
			Information Sheets, Attorneys
	4			A-F
	5			G-M
	6			N-Z
	7	1998, 2001

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Newsletters
	Series Abstract
	Included in this series are newsletters from the first year they were being published, 1984. In 1993, the name of the newsletter changed from the Bexar County Women's Bar Association Newsletter to Equal Timesâ. BCWBA newsletters are published monthly, and include a calendar of events, the Letter from the President, articles, announcements, and a list of new members.
Box	Folder
5	8	March-November, 1984
	9	January-November, 1985
	10	January-April, 1986 and June-December, 1986
Box	Folder
6	1	January-December, 1987
	2	January-December, 1988
	3	(January-December, 1989)
	4	January-September, 1990 and November-December, 1990
	5	January-December, 1991
	6	January-December, 1992
	7	January-December, 1993
	8	January-December, 1994
	9	Proposed Items for May, 1995 Newsletter
	10	January-July, 1995, October and December, 1995
	11	January, March-December, 1996
	12	January-July, 1997, January, 2000
	13	December, 2001-

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Projects
	Series Abstract
	The largest of the group of records, this series is divided in two subseries: Bench Brunch and Elder Law. The longest running and most successful of the projects undertaken by BCWBA, the annual Bench Brunch started in 1883 and exists to raise money for various charities and to honor women judges in Texas. The materials in this subseries include correspondence, materials relating to the auctions, Belva Lockwood Awards materials, publicity information, reports, programs, tickets, and guest lists. The Elder Law project has as its goal to create a handbook on legal issues relevant to older and retired people in San Antonio. It was published in 1995 and 1996 in English as well as Spanish. Materials in this subseries include correspondence, agendas, lists, and drafts of the handbook.
Box	Folder
7		Bench Brunch
	1		1985
			1986
	2			Correspondence and Memoranda
	3			Belva Lockwood Awards
	4			Publicity
			1987
	5			Correspondence and Memoranda
	6			Auction Information
	7			Publicity
	8			Reports and Lists
			1988
	9			Correspondence and Memoranda
	10			Auctions
	11			Belva Lockwood Awards
	12			Publicity
	13			Programs, Tickets, and Guest Lists
			1989
	14			Correspondence and Memoranda
	15			Auctions
	16			Belva Lockwood Awards
	17			Publicity
	18			Reports and Lists
	19			Programs, Tickets, and Guest Lists
			1990
				Correspondence and Memoranda
	21			Auctions
	22			Publicity
	23			Reports and Lists
	24			Programs, Tickets, and Guest Lists
			1991
	25			Correspondence and Memoranda
	26			Auctions
Box	Folder
8	1			Belva Lockwood Awards
	2			Publicity
	3			Reports and Lists
	4			Programs, Tickets, and Guest Lists
			1992
	5			Correspondence and Memoranda
	6			Auctions
	7			Belva Lockwood Awards
	8			Publicity
	9			Reports and Lists
	10			Programs, Tickets, and Guest Lists
			1993
	11			Correspondence and Memoranda
	12			Auctions
	13			Belva Lockwood Awards
	14			Publicity
	15			Reports
	16			Programs, Tickets, and Guest Lists
			1994
	17			Correspondence and Memoranda
	18			Auctions
	19			Reports and Lists
	20			Programs, Tickets, and Guest Lists
Box	Folder
9			1995
	1			Correspondence and Memoranda
	2			Auctions
	3			Reports and Lists
	4			Programs, Tickets, and Guest Lists
			1996
	5			Correspondence and Memoranda
	6			Auctions
	7			Belva Lockwood Awards
	8			Publicity
	9			Reports and Lists
	10			Programs, Tickets, and Guest Lists
		Elder Law
			1995-1996
	11			Correspondence and Memoranda
	12			Agendas and Lists
	13			Drafts of Handbook

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Ephemera

Series Abstract

Included in this series are photographs, scattered materials relating to annual retreats of 1991, 1993, and 1995, invitations, fliers, brochures, information related to speakers hosted by the association, newsletter logos, and copies of the 1995-1996 State Board of Texas Certificate of Achievement.

Box

Folder

Photographs, 1992

Annual Retreats, 1991, 1993, 1995

Invitations, Fliers, and Brochures

Speakers, 1992 and 1993

BCWBA Newsletter Logo

State Bar of Texas Certificate of Achievement (copies), 1995-1996

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