SCHOOL DEPARTMENT 



Edited by ALICE HALL WALTER 



Address all communications relative to the work of this depart- 

 ment to the Editor, at S3 Arlington Avenue, Providence, R. I. 



HOW AUDUBON SOCIETIES MAY BECOME MORE 



EFFICIENT 



IN these times of reorganization, better organization and higher standards of 

 service, it may not be out of place to inquire whether our Audubon Socie- 

 ties are doing the most effective kinds of work in the most efficient manner. 



The Audubon Society of the District of Columbia is reported to be meeting 

 "a. situation in which most Audubon Societies fail, by giving its members some- 

 thing to do." At first thought, it would seem that the essential requisite for 

 membership in any society ought to be fitness and willingness to do something. 

 This is not the case, however, for numberless members of all sorts of societies 

 consider their duty done when they have paid the annual membership fee. 

 The payment of such a fee, it should be gratefully granted, is a great help, 

 still, dollars and cents can never represent the total efficiency or influence of 

 an organization. In the long run, it is the personal output of effort and interest 

 that counts most in building up public sentiment and establishing higher 

 standards of living. 



A small society, with an active membership, generally accomplishes more 

 in a community than a large one, whose membership is represented only by a 

 list of names with an accompanying list of yearly dues, receipts and a faithful 

 Secretary and Treasurer to record the same. 



The important question for our Audubon Societies, after all, is not what 

 shall be done with the money contributed in annual fees — -there are always 

 ways to use this to advantage — but what shall members be asked to do individ- 

 ually to help the work of bird-protection and of educating public sentiment. 



Above everything, let something practical be taken up that is within the 

 power of our members to do. It is the right time of year to begin work on 

 bird refuges in city or country. No more practical object-lesson could be f 

 offered the pubUc than to have in each community a protected plot where 

 food-houses, lunch-counters, drinking-fountains and nesting-boxes are kept 

 in actual operation for the purpose of attracting and increasing the bird-popu- 

 lation. This is a kind of work in which Audubon Societies and schools can 

 act together most advantageously, for while the former organize the project 

 and take the initial responsibihty, teachers and scholars can find in it the 

 opportunity for outdoor bird-study so often denied to both by reason of » 

 limited time and strength. 



^302) 



