COMMUNITY INTERESTS 



1518 



COMMUNITY INTERESTS 



Jish as a foundation stone the community 

 forum, devoted to the presentation and open 

 discussion of public questions. First, applica- 

 tion for the use of the building should be made 

 to the school authorities by means of a written 

 petition, signed by a representative number of 

 adult persons residing in the district. The 

 school authorities, if they approve of the 

 plan, should then define and fix the territorial 

 limits within which members of the forum 

 must reside; until details of organization are 

 completed, the superintendent or principal of 

 the school in which the meetings are to be 

 held may act as clerk. The forum is organized 

 in the same manner as literary, debating or 

 similar societies; a constitution and by-laws 

 are adopted, officers elected, the number and 

 times of meetings mapped out, etc. 



A very successful community forum has been 

 established in Washington, D. C., in the Grover 

 Cleveland School. With this forum Miss Mar- 

 garet Wilson, daughter of President Wilson, 

 became officially connected. 



Some idea of the spirit which animated its 

 founders may be gained from the words of the 

 preamble to their constitution: 



Whereat, we, the men and women of the 

 neighborhood about the Grover Cleveland School, 

 have a common and absolute responsibility for 

 furnishing to the youth of this community a 

 worthy and living example of proper civic devo- 

 tion and a common opportunity to refine and 

 clarify the intellectual life of this community 

 to the benefit and enrichment of its every mem- 

 ber ; and 



Whereas, to fulfil this obligation and realize 

 this opportunity, it is necessary that there be 

 established In our midst a public or community 

 forum, which shall serve as the medium of our 

 community membership, the place where we 

 may go to school to one another in the under- 

 standing of the problems of our life together, 

 and the instrument of our effective coSperation 

 in the common interests ; and 



Whereas, the public schoolhouse furnishes the 

 ready and appropriate headquarters for this 

 genuinely public expression ; 



Therefore, we do organize and establish the 

 Grover Cleveland Community Forum, to be used 

 for the open presentation and all-sided discus- 

 sion of public questions In the hearing and with 

 the equal participation of the adult citizens of 

 this community. 



The Completed Community Center. The 

 founders of the Grover Cleveland Forum were 

 not content to have the movement stop with 

 the organization of an adult association, and 

 as a result of their efforts the Hollis-Johnson 

 Community Forum Bill was drafted and intro- 

 duced into Congress. This measure is recom- 

 mended by its sponsors to each local com- 



munity, to each state and to the nation as a 

 whole, as furnishing a simple and practical plan 

 for developing an ideal community center. It 

 prescribes the method of organizing the forum, 

 as suggested above, and then provides for the 

 completed community center, of which the 

 forum was the basis, as follows: 



That whenever a public school building shall 

 have been established as a community forum 

 under the provisions of this act, and upon re- 

 quest to the board of education so to do by a 

 majority of the adult persons present and quali- 

 fied to vote at any regular meeting, the said 

 board shall designate such building as a com- 

 munity center for the organized training and 

 recreation of the young people of the com- 

 munity, Including such activities as may be 

 requested by the said adult organization and 

 approved by the said board, and shall make all 

 necessary and appropriate arrangements for the 

 convenient and proper use of the building for 

 community center meetings and activities, at 

 such times as the said adult organization may 

 request and the said board approve. 



Those men and women who have given the 

 community-center movement the deepest study 

 believe that the proper official to hold the 

 office of community executive-secretary is the 

 principal of the school whose building is se- 

 lected for the meetings. He acts as the direc- 

 tor of the community center activities, and also 

 as administrative agent for the forum. Pro- 

 vision is made in the Hollis-Johnson measure 

 for this officer and two assistants, and a fixed 

 rate of compensation for services rendered is 

 also specified. Finally, there is a provision for 

 payment of expenses, as follows: 



It shall be the duty of the board of education 

 to provide out of appropriations of public funds 

 authorized for the public schools, light, heat, 

 janitor service and such other expenses as may 

 be necessary to enable the comfortable and 

 convenient use of public school buildings as 

 community forums and community centers un- 

 der the provisions of this act. 



General Suggestions. The only sure way to 

 make the community center a permanent in- 

 stitution is to have it authorized legally. Ex- 

 perience has shown that a carefully-planned 

 and well-advertised community demonstration 

 serves to give the matter the proper publicity 

 and emphasis, and the first step should always 

 be the organization of the adult community 

 forum. The forum programs will of course be 

 determined'by local conditions, but there is no 

 community to which President Wilson's words 

 do not apply: 



What I like about this social center idea of the 

 schoolhouse is that there is the place where the 

 ordinary fellow is going to get his innings, go- 

 ing to ask his questions, going to express his 



