The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1912-05-17
J.M.IM'G0NN|ELtAGiA|h
HEADS LOCAL Y.M.C.A.
Annual Meeting Of Organization
Was Held Last Night.
From Wednesdays Daily.

From Wednesdays Daily.
j. M. Mcconnell was reelected
president of the Y. M. c. A. las
night. Other officers were reelected
as follows: j. S. Holbrook, vice
president: G. H. Nettleton, record
ing secretary; G. w. Sugden, treas
urer.
The annual meeting of the assu
citation was held last night. Follow
ing the formal opening of the meet
ing the address of General Secretary
Deerhake was read. 1t follows:
Report of General Secretary
General Secretary f. NJ. Deerhakt
submitted the following report tt
the directors:
To the Board of Directors. Gen
tlemen: In making this report, which
will be the last as your secretary,
make it with mixed feeling of pleas
ure and regret Pleasure, because OF
having had a part in the work done
and the things accomplished during
the past three years. Regret, be
cause can see SO many things
left undone and some things not cor
rectly done. / want to include here
with, not only review of the years
work but as well of the three years
with a suggestion, briefly, of the
things | have seen, but have not
been able to work out.
This institution is primarily a re-
ligious organization and naturally
this department of work should
first be mentioned. During the month
we have had no Sunday afternoon
meetings. The Bible class work has
been going on with a smaller at
tendance but possibly more thor
ough work, in the form of an Every
day Brotherhood. This organization
pledges its members to two things:
Read the Bible every day and do
good turn to someone every day
About eight men are attending reg
ularly but at recent meeting OF
ficers were elected and it is hoped
the attendance will be decidedly in
creased. ..
During the year twenty-five meet
ings for men held with total at
tendance of 1881, an average OF
II plus. A number of Out-of-town
speakers were used and the sub
lects were varied. Twenty five meet,
ings for boys totalled 1904 in at
tendance, averaging 1C4 plus. The
week of prayer was observed in Nov
ember, with noonhour prayer meet
ings. Fifty one men attended.
The Mems Big Bible class had
twenty-six sessions for study with
total attendance of 2,040, an av-
erage of 78 plus. Rev. G. B. Osgood
was the able teacher. Without him
the classes could never have been
the success it was. A wind-up dinner
on Friday evening, April 5, was at
tended by about eighty men. a.#
Two Boys Bible classes, one fol.
the juniors, taught by Mr.. Allison,
and one for the Midgets, taught by
myself, had a few sessions this spring.
About thirty-eight boys were en-
rolled and sixteen attended on the
average. So much for what has been
done.
q, What Ought to Be Done.
To a great extent, the Sunday
meetings for both men and boys
have been simply formal. 1t seems
the thing to do, therefore to do 1t a
committee ought to take hold of this
particular work and make the Sun
day meetings recruiting stations
for the Christian life and for the
churches. Funds are needed to bring
strong out of town speakers. Aside
from the fact that corps OF church
men, younger men, is needed to form
the nucleus of this working commit
tee, men who attend church services
regularly ought not TO be appealed to
strongly, to attend the Sunday meet
ings. The men, and there are III
orally hundreds of them, who do not
attend anywhere, ought to be got
ten in. ..... ..
Let me speak of just couple oil
things. When you have heard the
argument as often as | have, "Oh
we can hear him most any time, Sun
day morning or evening, etc., you
will realize that, no matter now
good the pastor or layman may be,
if a local man, he will not bring the
attendance that an out OF town
speaker will For expenses only, al
the good speakers one cares to use,
can be gotten. Some times, however, 1t
seems best to bring in strong, evan
eelistic speaker, who can bring men
to definite decision for the Chris
tan life.
This Sunday meeting should be fol
lowed by a social gathering, where
strangers in the city can become
acquainted. Particularly is this true-
in Mankato, where there are SO
many nonresident students. II pos
sible, a light luncheon, for which
the men pay, could be served. This
gives some of the younger men, a
pleasant place to spend part OF Sun
day afternoon, instead of their lone
some. if not dismal rooms, or walk
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