The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-09
BUSINESS FEATURE '. W. |. A. EXAMPLE
 OF ITS EFFICIENCY
Association Calling Atten- tiOn to Various Depart ments on Its Fiftieth
 Anniversary

The Young Women's Christian as- sociation is this month celebrat- ing it's 50th anniversary. Special efforts are being made to acquaint the public with the associations work, and the following data on "A busi- ness-like social organization is sup piled by the Birmingham association:
 Any well organized firm doing a ma tonal business has branch offices in diff ferent parts of the country, not only for the purpose of distributing it's goods, of keeping it's finger on the pulse of the pub lies demand, and of reporting back to headquarters the introduction of any goods of similar nature, the knowledge of which may be a help in the firms busi ness.
 It is just as necessary that any na- tional organization promoting work in local sections should have similar branch offices.
 The Young Women's Christian associa- tion of the United States, back in 1906. recognized the need for a national organ ization which should act as an advisory committee on all local work, and called the national board into being. This board worked out an advisory plan whereby the country was divided into Il different dis tricts, or fields, each grouping a num- Der of states, with field committees made up of interested women residing in the states which comprise the field. The local associations approved the plan and since that time it has been successfully oper- ated.
 Miss Helen Alling Davis, a sister of Dr. Katherine Bement Davis, chairman of the parole commission of New York city, is the executive of the neld work depart ment of the national board of the Young Women's Christian associations, visiting all of the Il field committees and confer ring with them and advising on all prob lems in their field. She is responsible for helping the local branches to keep going; for getting the national goods on the mar ket and keeping them there. The field work department markets the goods that the department of methods, which is the headquarters demonstration laboratory, produces, while the field committees tell the headquarters organization what the local associations need. By this system the department of method always knows on what to experiment. The organization has expert workers, both on the field com. mittee and at headquarters. The head quarters experts produce ways of doing things; the field experts are the promo tive agents; the headquarters secretaries are intensive workers; the field people are general practitioners and can give the kind of help that no one at the main of flee can give. While it is true that by al ways doing things and never thinking. one loses ones perspective, theory must be based on knowledge of conditions, and plans adapted to those conditions.
 In every case the field tries to get ahead of the game-to get into a local situation before something is done wrong. It shows a community what is necessary before an association can be well organ ized, and it never organizes a local Young Women's Christian association unless the young women of the community them- selves take the initiative. Having organ ized them it aims to strengthen them in every way--in economic work, suggestions for making the cafeteria more attractive, educational subjects which will supple ment other educational activities in the city or town, in community work, the physical department, and in their building and budget campaigns. The local work, through the field committees, is always able to draw upon all the resources at headquarters. All the field work heads up in the department at headquarters. In reality there is no such thing as na- tional board or a field committee because the field committee is the national board in a given section of country at work. It is all national advisory work of the Young Women's Christian association