72 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXII. No. 551. 



a month between it and the annual conven- 

 tion. With the growing importance of the 

 financial interests confided to the care of 

 the successive administrations the yearly 

 business meeting should have larger atten- 

 tion and participation from the member- 

 ship at large than is the case at present. 



The administration of the societies should 

 be in the hands of their board of directors 

 or councils, and similarly the important 

 standing committees in whose hands rests 

 the conduct of the routine in the several 

 branches of administration should be com- 

 mittees of the board or council. Such be- 

 ing the case, it is desirable that their ap- 

 pointment should in the beginning rest with 

 the board itself, one member of each stand- 

 ing committee retiring each year and the 

 new president filling the vacancies, a much 

 more satisfactory arrangement than the 

 plan followed by our institute at present, 

 under which the responsibility of the ap- 

 pointment of all the committees, standing 

 as well as special or temporary, rests alone 

 with the president. The suggested plan of 

 appointment of the administration com- 

 mittees primarily by the board or council, 

 the president filling the vacancies that oc- 

 cur each year, is not the one usually fol- 

 lowed by our national societies, but even 

 where all the appointments devolve on the 

 president alone, membership on the stand- 

 ing committees is, as a rule, limited to mem- 

 bers of the board. The advantage of se- 

 lecting the standing committees from the 

 members on the board is evident, as the 

 committees are then not apt to follow a 

 policy at variance with the wishes of the 

 executive body, disturbing harmonious re- 

 lations and continually raising questions of 

 jurisdiction. 



It is also desirable to avoid constant 

 changes in the personnel of such important 

 committees as the finance, library and mem- 

 bership committees; provision should be 



made for standing committees of three or 

 five, with one member retiring each year, 

 the new members to be appointed by the 

 incoming president. Such a plan secures 

 continuity of policy, gives the committees 

 the benefit of accumulated experience and 

 relieves the president of the responsibility 

 of making such a large number of new ap- 

 pointments on entering his term of office. 

 Such standing committees as finance, mem- 

 bership, library, publication and meetings, 

 or the last two consolidated into one, are 

 necessary for all societies, together with 

 such other committees as the particular 

 field covered by the work of the society may 

 require. Outside of the standing commit- 

 tees required by the regular routine, it is 

 desirable to avoid as far as practicable the 

 appointment of special or temporary com- 

 mittees, and these, when the special work 

 assigned to them has been performed, should 

 be discharged. There is nothing more sub- 

 versive of effective and energetic adminis- 

 tration than board meetings at which an 

 interminable series of committees make 'no 

 report' or the chronic 'report of progress.' 



In case it is considered advisable to ap- 

 point a separate 'committee on meetings' 

 or 'papers and meetings' and a 'committee 

 on publications' or 'editing committee'— a 

 division of work which becomes necessary 

 when monthly meetings are held with read- 

 ing of papers and discussions, as well as one 

 or more annual meetings — it becomes neces- 

 sary to define their respective responsibili- 

 ties very clearly, placing upon the commit- 

 tee on meetings or papers the responsibility 

 of the acceptance of the paper or communi- 

 cation for presentation at the meeting, and 

 upon the publication or editing committee 

 alone the responsibility for the publication 

 of the paper or discussion, as a whole or in 

 part, in the official transactions of the so- 

 ciety. 



It might be observed here that great care 



