Don't join the Green Key Society if you're looking to relive the debaucheries of your Green Key experience during the school year.
Although Green Key Weekend is about all about hedonism, its namesake organization is rather tame.
The Green Key Society is primarily a service organization in its current inception, with a hands-on role in Orientation, Commencement, the Baker Bell Tower tours and various other events.
Green Key Society members are recognizable at these events as they don their trademark polo shirts.
The organization's constitution calls for 65 members, 20 of whom are selected by their classmates in elections during spring of sophomore year.
The rest of the members represent campus organizations that are at least two years old and have at least 20 members.
Green Key weekend's name ultimately proves to be borrowed from the society, not because it reflects the society's spirit but because the society has had a hands-on role in planning the weekend throughout much of its history.
The idea for the Green Key Society was a response to a welcome the Dartmouth football team had received when visiting the University of Washington in 1920.
The Knights of Hook, UW's service organization, met the Dartmouth team at the train station, provided transportation to the players' lodging, served as guides for the team and even introduced them to women in the area.
Orton Hicks '21, College Vice President at the time, helped to create a similar society after his experience in Washington.
Originally, Hicks wanted the society to be named the "Hospitality Society," but they chose the name "Green Key" because it reflected both the College with "green" and hospitality with "key," and the organization was born in 1921 following the merger of Sigma Pick and Shield and Sabre, two sophomore societies.
The Green Key Society's initial responsibilities included entertaining guests from other institutions, being a "vigilance committee" for freshmen and selecting ushers and cheerleaders. However, only two years after its inception, the society's role changed as its membership became restricted to juniors, and responsibilities became limited just to welcoming visiting athletic teams.
When it was formed in 1921, the Green Key Society began hosting an annual spring variety show as a fundraiser.
With the cancellation of the annual four day House-parties Weekend -- a weekend of constant fraternity parties, a prom, sporting events and, of course, women -- in 1924, the Society expanded its variety show to fill the social gap.
After eight years of success with the variety show, in 1929, the society was allowed to hold a Green Key Ball.
The purpose of the dance was clearly stated in the Green Key Handbook of 1939.
"Coming in the last month of the junior year of the Green Key men, the Prom provides a fitting climax to a year of College service and adds to an ever increasing number of happy memories," the handbook said.
The Green Key Ball lasted until 1967, when student rioting in reaction to a speech by former Alabama governor George Wallace caused the College to cancel the Ball. Students mocked the governor for his pro-segregation crusades in Alabama, during his speech in Webster Hall. Following the speech, many students surrounded his car for several hours, delaying the former governor's departure and damaging his car
The Green Key Society's involvement in the weekend steadily declined once the Green Key Ball went defunct.
"The function of the Green Key Society in Green Key Weekend has totally fizzled out," Pam Banholzer '81 told The Dartmouth in 1980.
In recent years, however, the Green Key Society has played an increased role in the weekend.
At present, the Green Key Society compiles and distributes a schedule of events for the weekend and addresses questions directed to them about the weekend.
"I think we are a liaison between the College and the weekend," Green Key member Matt Oppenheimer '05 said.
Although the Green Key Society is planning senior cocktails event at the Hanover Inn, Oppenheimer said that as a service organization, the Society generally does not have the funding to plan many events itself.
Most of that is left up to the Programming Board and the Greek houses, Oppenheimer said.
