38 



TRAXSAeTloNS ()!• THE A.Ml-IRICAN SOCIETY 



upon the recommendations included in the re- 

 ports of certain important committees. 



The president then, as chairman of the 

 Committee to Cooperate with the Comitc 

 Neerlando-Belge d'Art Civique, briefly sum- 

 marized the annual report of the committee, 

 which will go out in full to the membership. 

 The president then read Mr. Vitale's report 

 as chairman of the Special Committee on 

 Competitions with accompanying letters from 

 Mr. F. L. Olmsted. Mr. Lay and Mr. Comey, 

 members of the committee. On motion of 

 Mr. Kcllaway it was voted to take up in their 

 order the recommendations contained in this 

 report. After discussion various slight changes 

 were made in the wording of the recommenda- 

 tions. It was then 



Voted: To approve the recommendation thus 

 modified, reading as follows: "Competitions 

 for the purpose of selecting a finished design 

 should be discouraged because of the difficulty 

 of representing the complex elements of land- 

 scape design in graphic form; also because the 

 designers do not have the opportunity to con- 

 fer with the owners in order to gain a clear 

 idea of the nature of the problem but must 

 rely upon the data of a program generally too 

 vague to allow unity of interpretation and ef- 

 forts on the part of the competitors." 



After slight revisions, it was 



Voted: To approve the second recommenda- 

 tion, which then read: "That competitions for 

 the selection of a designer through the pre- 

 sentation of designs for a specific problem 

 are preferable to the former, but that the 

 American Society of Landscape Architects, 

 Inc.. should not encourage them. Since com- 

 petitions of this sort are frequently unavoid- 

 able, cspcciallj' in the case of public under- 

 takings, the society should do what it can in 

 order to produce a better attitude on the part 

 of the public, and to offset the disposition of 

 laymen to ignore or greatly underrate the de- 

 gree of importance and the final results of all 

 the professional services which follow the first 

 expression of the main conception of a design 

 in the form of drawings. In other words, be- 

 fore a competitor is admitted to the competi- 

 tion, the promoters of the competition for the 

 selection of a designer should satisfy them- 

 selves as to the ability of each competitor to 

 execute the work successfully, as shown by 

 the previous work." 



The president then read the third recom- 

 mendation, and after discussion and slight al- 

 terations in the wording it was 



Voted: To approve the third recommenda- 



tion, which then read as follows: "Since com- 

 petitions must be held, the least objectionable 

 form of competition is for the sake of securing 

 ideas from one or more of the competitors, 

 provided such ideas are obtained through re- 

 ports and rough sketches and not through 

 elaborate drawings." 



Detailed recommendations regarding the rules 

 which should govern competitions were not 

 discussed at this meeting on account of the lack 

 of time. The matter was referred back to the 

 committee with the request that they give it 

 further consideration, and report. 



The report of the Committee on Policies, 

 Mr. Caparn, chairman, was discussed and the 

 wording of the Policy on National Forests was 

 taken up carefully and in detail but in view 

 of the shortness of time it was decided not to 

 discuss the other policies proposed in equal 

 detail but to approve the adoption of the vari- 

 ous policies as presented by this committee, 

 namely those on National Highways, Natural 

 Fertility of the Land, and Timely Acquisition 

 of Park Lands. 



The president then announced the well in- 

 tentioned move in the state of Nebraska to 

 enact a law which would require every land- 

 scape architect to have a state license in order 

 to practice, and that this had been checked by 

 the prompt action of the trustees in whose 

 judgment such a law would not be in the in- 

 terest of maintaining high professional stand- 

 ards. The president then read a list of stand- 

 ing committees and special committees for the 

 year and their membership. 



The report of the Committee on Publicity, 

 Phelps Wyman, chairman, w-as read by the 

 president and he urged a very careful con- 

 sideration of the various recommendations em- 

 bodied in this report. The report lead to a 

 good deal of discussion on the general ques- 

 tion of advertising and on motion of Mr. 

 Vitale, it was 



Voted: That although the American Society 

 of Landscape .Architects. Inc.. does not ap- 

 prove generally of the practice of paid ad- 

 vertising, the matter of paid advertising should 

 be left in the hands of the individual chapters 

 to establish the practice in the regions under 

 their immediate influence, the idea being that 

 any outlying member will, in the long run, so 

 far as his local circumstances permit, follow 

 the custom established by the chapter to 

 wliose headquarters he is nearest. 



The specific recommendations of the Com- 

 mittee on Publicity grouped under the two 

 heads. Individual Publicity and Society and 



