388 The Canary Book. 



MEETINGS GENERAL BUSINESS. The first meeting should 

 be held six or eight weeks prior to the time fixed upon to 

 hold the show. Four or five, or six meetings at most, will 

 suffice to complete the arrangements. Sixteen or eighteen 

 days will probably elapse between the first and second meetings, 

 unless the secretary has received replies from all 'the ladies 

 and gentlemen he has written to on the subject. If he fails 

 to receive an answer from anyone within fourteen days, he may 

 safely conclude either that his communication has been over- 

 looked, forgotten, or ignored, or that the person written to is 

 absent from home. It will be advisable under these circum- 

 stances to write a polite note to the absentee, calling attention 

 to his former letter ; but this will seldom happen, for with one 

 or two exceptions I have always received a prompt, and, I am 

 happy to say, satisfactory reply to my applications in less than 

 ten days, and, in most cases, in less than a week. Until you 

 are in receipt of these replies, and can form some estimate of 

 the probable amount of aid that you are likely to derive from 

 this source, it will not be prudent to issue a programme, for the 

 arrangement of the latter must be governed in a great measure 

 by the result of your success in obtaining subscriptions. It 

 must not be forgotten, when a reply is received announcing 

 that the writer will be glad to become a patron of the 

 society, or a letter inclosing a subscription, to send a 

 suitable acknowledgment thanking the donor on behalf of the 

 association. 



Among other things, the secretary must supply himself with 

 a diary, in which he will note the day and hour of each meeting, 

 and record therein the names of all members present and absent 

 on each occasion ; he will likewise detail fully all the resolutions 

 and other matters of business transacted at each meeting. The 

 minutes of a former meeting must always be read over as a 

 preliminary proceeding at the one immediately subsequent 

 thereto. 



Although it is quite unnecessary to frame a code of rules 

 for conducting a society of this description, it should be tacitly 

 understood by every person holding office that, in the event 

 of a deficiency arising, each member is personally responsible 



