FOURTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART III 289 



Mr. Piekard : I Avoiild like to inquire of the secretary, that is 

 in regard to our finances, whether he thinks — the present dues 

 that are being paid are sufficient to meet the expenses. 



The Secretary : Of course I have been an active member in 

 getting up this program, and Mr. Mullen has given me rather a 

 free hand, and I feel personally responsible for the financial con- 

 ditions because I have gone ahead and spent the money, and if 

 there is any deficit I will make it up personally. I am under the 

 impression that it will just about pay out. I got just a little bit 

 enthusiastic about the thing in regard to our lantern slides, and 

 this movement to get the horsemen, and this meant a good deal 

 of postage to do a good deal of correspondence and all that, and 

 I do not propose to run the association in debt. "We will not have 

 much sui-plus. 



Here is another reason. I think we ought to add another reason 

 why the membership dues should be increased or else get a cheaper 

 secretary, and that is, we ought to have a permanent record of 

 what takes place at these meetings. Now, there are things said 

 that ought to be put in permanent shape and circulated amongst 

 our members anyhow. We have had this meeting reported, but 

 it is going to cost some money to transcribe the notes. And then, 

 after they are transcribed they should be edited. That is my 

 opinion about it, and I believe it is the opinion also of the executive 

 officers of this association. I talked with Mr. Mullen about it 

 and some of the other members, but we were very fortunate in 

 having Mr. Long, who is now dead, secretary, and he was a short- 

 hand reporter himself, and he made these notes and transcribed 

 them personally. But that was while Mr. Long was secretary. 

 W^ell, that is the situation. Of course, as I stated, I have taken 

 liberties in going ahead and pushing the thing, and I felt that the 

 association ought to be willing to pay the postage and the ex- 

 penses — actual expenses — if I was willing to put in the time and 

 do the work, and I do not propose, of course, to leave the associa- 

 tion in debt, but that is about the situation. I do think that 

 the membership fee ought to be increased to $5.00. I do not think 

 this will frighten out the various fairs of Iowa. It ought to be a 

 little more, $6.00 or $7.00. There are lots of things that could be 

 done if we had a little money, and things that ought to be done. 

 I don't think that any fair association would stop on this member- 

 ship fee at $5.00; that gives us a little more money, and besides 

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