Records of the Women's Economic Round Table, 1976-2005 (inclusive), 1978-2004 (bulk)

The records of the Women's Economic Round Table®, Inc. (WERT) document more than 25 years of public programs featuring speakers prominent in the business, financial, economic, and journalism professions. Material includes correspondence, clippings, printed programs, audiotapes, videotapes, photographs, board minutes, biographies of program participants, background material on program topics, and background information on prizes and awards given by WERT.

Folder titles are the donor's; additional descriptions and information added by the processor are in square brackets. Faxes on fragile paper have been photocopied for preservation purposes, and cover sheets without substantive information discarded. Some folders contain clippings or other material written in Greek, as noted.

Series I, ADMINISTRATIVE, 1978-2005 (#1.1-5.1), is arranged alphabetically, as received from the donor. Twenty-eight folders of board minutes include program ideas, correspondence, lists of new members, biographies of directors, and financial information. The 1989 minutes (#2.12) are slim. For general press coverage about the founding of WERT and also about women's networking in general, see #4.6. "Trademark registration of WERT" (#5.1) contains official documents. A complete printout of the WERT website from ca. 2005 is in #4.15.

Series II, PROGRAM, 1979-2004 (#5.2-14.6), is arranged by the donor's filing schema, using donor's folder titles. Programs were identified by the capitalized name of a prominent participant (or sometimes the most prominent woman), and are filed alphabetically by surname. Folder titles include names and identifications of all participants, as well as the program name and date; material in each file may pre-and post-date the program by several months. In most cases, other participants listed with names in capital letters are considered to be "key" participants, and panelists and moderators considered to be "second-tier" participants are not capitalized. Those instances of a moderator being the lead name on the file are noted. Many participants appear in several programs.

Program files contain all or some of the following: flyers advertising programs to members, lists of registered attendees, biographical information on presenters, written summaries of programs, press releases, transcripts of programs, photographs, clippings, correspondence (including email) with participants before and after programs, transcripts of radio and television coverage relating to programs, seating assignments (for larger programs), event programs, website printouts with program information, background research and/or printed material on program topics, administrative and logistical notes, and other details about programs. Those programs with more prominent participants, or those which were also a WERT annual meeting or an awards dinner, tend to include more material.

Most correspondence is to or from Amelia Augustus. Correspondence with frequent panelists and advisors, including John Brademas, Constance Ford, Louis Rukeyser, and Paul Volcker, can be found throughout the program files, even in those in which the correspondent was not a named participant. Several programs occurred in a different form than the listing in the inventory.

Following the alphabetical run of program files is material relating to a 1980 "Presidential dialogue" between candidates Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter that was planned by Ladies' Home Journal and WERT. Due to candidates' time constraints, the actual debate did not take place, but all the organizational files and press coverage are included here. Ladies' Home Journal and WERT appealed to the leaders of many women's organizations to submit their questions or key issues to be addressed by the candidates; for responses, see #14.1.

Manuals for the prize board for the 2003 and 2004 journalism prizes can also be found in this series. Files include lists of prize board members, guidelines for nominating and voting on finalists, and biographies and writing samples of nominees. Similar information for earlier journalism prizes can be found with the award program information.

Some program files are accompanied by large numbers of photographs of the event. Photographs that show the key participants or prominent WERT members or attendees will be cataloged in VIA, Harvard University's Visual Information Access database.

Series III, PHOTOGRAPHS AND AUDIO-VISUAL, 1976-2004 (PD.1-PD.8, PhotoCD-1 - PhotoCD-4, T-337.1 - T-337.46, Vt-144.1 - Vt-144.24), contains audio- and videotapes of WERT programs, and photographs of programs and participants.

Subseries A, Photographs, 1979-2003 (PD.1-PD.8, PhotoCD-1 - PhotoCD-4), includes portraits of program participants and documentation of programs. Formal headshots of participants were generally sent to WERT to be used for publicity.

Subseries B, Audio-visual, 1976-2004 (T-337.1 - T-337.43, Vt-144.1 - Vt-144.24), is organized with tapes pertaining to the adminstrative files first, followed by video- and audiotapes filed in the same alphabetical run as the program files. Tapes are listed by the main program name; for more information, see Series II (above). Where a transcription is available, it has been noted. Many WERT programs were taped for broadcast on National Public Radio or C-Span.