Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1914-02-14
STATISTICS ON WORK Of Y,M.C.A.
FOR YEAR BY OFFICE SECRETARY
BY WALDO HEINRIcHs.
Office Secretary Of the Honolulu
Youno Mems Christian Association.

Young Mems Christian Association.
The old saying that "cOmpa risOHs
are cdious does not apply to the city
association secretary who has the best
interests Of his work at heart. for il is
by comparison with the work that
other MEN are carrying on in other
fields that he finds some Of the most
constructive criticisms Of his own
work. Upon the appearance Of the
1913 assOciat ton year book with its
wealth of data. the general secretary
OF the Honolulu Young Mems Chris
tian Association decided that he would
like to see how the work carried on
in this field would compare with that
membership. SO as a thesis for the
spcretarial training class the above
study was assigned to the author.
The first step taken was to choose
some - statistics that seemed to best
represent each of the II ASSOCIATE tons
Of this group Il. e. the associations of
| 1900 members). A table was arranged
so that a preliminary average of each
item recorded might be struck. These
items were. in general. classified in
four main groups namely-general.
physical educational and religious,
and the preliminary calculations were
made 1t was then found that the sta
tistics varied so greatly in number
Of cases that it would be manifestly
unfair to include them all in the sums
that went to make IN the averages, If
ia standard of excellence was to be
reached Therefore we decided to find
out from each of the general secre-
taries Of these associations what the
cause was for those statistics that
seemed to be extraordinary when com.
pared with the averages first attain
ed. Certain economic conditions might
prevail that would make conditions re-
spOnsibfe for many of the cases where
items seemed extraordinarily large or
small
Letters to the Secretaries.
Letters were written, therefore. TO-
each Of the 16 secretaries Of the other
associations for information as to the
peculiar" items With three excep-
tiOns, most favorable answers were
received and an encouraging spirit of
cooperation and interest shown. The
three exceptions were associations
from which BO answer had been re.
ceiVed at the time when it was deem.
ed inadvisable to wait any longer for
the answers, before the final tables
were made up. AS a result of these
letters several mistakes in the year
books figures were found and correct
ed. 1t further developed that the Spo.
kane associations membership secre.
tary had included in his report OF
number of members" only the paid
uD members which figure would place
that association in the class consid-
cred. but far cut of it when the 1000
or more DELINQUENT members were in.
cluded in the. figures. However, it
was thought that the figures of the
Spokane association would be inter.
esting by way of comparison on the
basis of 100 members or percentage,
and so the same calculations were
made for this association although it's
statistics were net included in the
sums that went toward the calcula.
lions of the averages or of the modes.
The cooperation, and the trouble to
which these secretaries have gone to
write so fully. and the printed matter
that frequently accompanied the let
tiers, has made the study a very exact
one. The study was interesting and
valuable not only for the purposes of
this theoretical thesis, but also in
helping to locate weaknesses in our
own work
Method of Calculation.
% The Percentages. The columns
of totals at the head of which the |
letter IT" appears. are the figures |
which were furnished by the year
book or the revised figures sent in |
by the general secretaries The next |
column, denoted by the letter "P" are |
these same figures reduced to the ba- |
sis of number per 100 members" or
better the percentage of rating Of |
the association, as one prefers.
1t is from this column that score
taries may take their figures and null |
tiply by their own membership Tex
pressed in number of hundreds) to
find if their work is up to, above or
below the standard or typical associa-
ton Of 1900 members
GU The Average All the figures
were added into grand totals and di-
vided by the number of associations
from which statistics were available
and the result placed in the line noted
averages"
CO The Modes. When these aver
ages were all calculated, it was found
that there were still many figures that
ran away above or away below the
averages and so it was determined to
make another summation or average,
all the extremes and divid-
ing again by only the number Of asso-
Citations considered in the second
trial and to denote this second line of /
averages by the technical term of the
modes.
1t will be interesting to note that in
the calculation of the averages and |
the modes. the results arrived at were
very nearly the same. which would |
seem to indicate that the variations
we're compromising to a very large eX-
tent. In other words that there were
about as many Of the associations
above tho average as there were be-