Report The account of office activities prepared by the Executive Secre- 
OF THE tary was read by the Secretary, Mrs. Harold Irving Pratt: 
Executive During the past seven months, which comprise the period of 
Secretary service of the present Executive Secretary of the Garden Club of 
America, the growth of the organization has been manifested by 
the steadily increasing activities which have doubled in the central 
office since October. The daily routine consists of filing, keeping 
account of receipts and making necessary acknowledgment, noting 
changes of address and additions to the mailing list in the three card 
files, sending notices of all corrections, additions, resignations, etc., 
to the Office of the Editor, as well as attending to many minor re- 
sponsibilities. To these duties is added the regular correspondence 
with a conservative average of fifteen letters a day. 
As one phase of the necessary detail the Secretary states that each 
new name received at the central office requires six separate entries, 
three in the office, one for the Office of the Editor, one for the mailing 
list, and the sixth appears on a Bulletin envelope for a copy of the 
ensuing issue, while every change of address necessitates notation in 
five instances. 
The duties of the office secretary are not confined to routine alone, 
for there are frequent notices to be sent to the Presidents of Member 
Clubs, circular letters to be written and despatched, announcements 
of meetings for the Directors, reports to be copied and sometimes 
prepared, and the minutes of Directors' meetings to be written and 
kept in order, as well as occasional stenographic work which is done 
for the officers and chairmen of committees. Within six months 
there have been three complete circularizations of the membership; 
two from the office of the Secretary and the other under the direction 
of the Chairman of the Embargo Committee, in which case only fifteen 
hundred names (or half of the membership list) were referred to the 
Executive Secretary for addressing purposes. 
The Directors' meeting each month requires the preparation of 
an agenda and a report of finances for the Treasurer, the collection 
of necessary material and the copying of all reports submitted in 
longhand. The subsequent business includes the writing of minutes 
and letters, sending out notifications, etc. 
The central office has assisted the Slide Committee with its 
correspondence and has despatched boxes of slides, unpacked them 
upon their return, verified and filed the slides, replaced those broken 
in transit, and kept a schedule of dates when collections are to be 
sent to Member Clubs. The Chairmen of the Bill-Board, Embargo, 
Nominating, Hospitality, and Transportation Committees have also 
referred a portion of their committee work to the Executive Secretary. 
Preceding the present meeting the secretary has written sixty-five 
letters for the Hospitality Committee, and a portion of one day 
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