Membership

“ Although it may not prevent advocacy of union membership, it can to some degree inquire into and define the qualifications of those who solicit funds from prospective members or who hold other positions of responsibility. ”

“ That the fee of annual membership be three dollars, and of life membership fifty dollars.
8. That the publication of the material collected be made either by means of a magazine, or by occasional volumes of transactions, as may be found most expedient.
9. That the society as soon as re-organized proceed to enroll members and to extend its membership.
10. That in all questions touching the organization of the society, when a division is called for, the vote shall be taken by States, and each State shall be entitled to two votes. ”

“ Membership in the Senior Societies—Skull and Bones, Scroll and Keys—Wolf’s Head—doesn’t count—though, as you will find, those exclusive organizations take their members because of what they have done—not of what they are. ”

“ You are uniting a company of people for a definite purpose of study, and no others should be admitted to membership. The second condition of membership should be, that each one joining shall take part as assigned in the meetings. If there is an implied distinction between members speaking and silent, between workers and listeners (who are apt to be critics) , your circle will fail to accomplish its highest mission, to develop the dormant abilities of its members. ”

“ Any ordinary society that meets as seldom as once each year, is apt to be composed of as different membership at its successive meetings as any two successive Congresses, and only trouble would result from allowing unfinished business to hold over to the next yearly meeting. ”

“ Article V.—Any lady or gentleman may become a member of this Society by the consent of the majority of the members present, the signing of the Constitution, and the payment of two dollars as membership fee. It shall be the privilege of the Society to elect any person whose presence may be advantageous to the Society, an honorary member who shall not be required to pay membership fees or dues. ”

“ The great mass of the membership are sluggish and unprogressive. In an average local union of 1,000 members, for example, not more than 100, or 10% of the whole, will display enough interest and intelligence even to attend the regular meetings. ”

“ All that we need at first is the skeleton of an organization, the most important feature of which would be the committee on membership. Much depends upon getting the right kind of men interested in the matter. Let the objects and work of this organization unfold and develop naturally and by degrees. It may take the form of a mechanics’ institute, a library, a gymnasium, a system of coffee-taverns, a lecture course With elevating popular exhibitions; and so I might go on, enumerating all the admirable things which similar bodies have inaugurated in other villages, both here and in Europe. ”

“ One hundred and seventy-five names of members have just been given me, fifty new names being added last evening. [She sends for three hundred membership cards.] I never saw such an interest created by anything in any country. Oh that God may bless it to the good of this people, and make it a permanent organization for all time! ”

“ Protection of the association's right to define its membership derives from the recognition that the formation of an expressive association is the creation of a voice, and the selection of members is the definition of that voice. ”

“ When a group of workers humbly petitioned for full membership in the party, the magnanimous but hardly satisfactory reply was vouchsafed that "all workers might consider honorary membership as their birthright". ”

“ We hope to make it felt in this great field of thought and action as a generator of wholesome intellectual and moral forces. When this meeting was called for permanent organization there were one hundred and fifteen signers of our Constitution. Under the direction of a [41] judicious Governing Committee, the number will doubtless be increased to several hundred. Our membership of non-residents will perhaps be equally large. We should make something more of such good and abundant material than a mere social club. ”

“ Active members who have completed thirty years of membership, or who have completed twenty years of membership and have reached seventy years of age, shall become life members upon giving written notice to the Recording Secretary, or by vote of the Council.
7. Bills for annual dues shall be sent to all members on or near January first, and those whose dues are unpaid on April first shall have notice of the fact sent them by the Treasurer. ”

“ This organization has ten degrees of membership and any one of good moral standing desiring to better his condition, can become a member of the first degree. A member of the second degree, however, must own a little property, at least three chickens, and a pig. ”

“ From the viewpoint of the ordinary citizen, membership in the organizations is attractive only because certain privileges can be obtained. Many persons wishing to rise economically or politically find that participation in one or more of the organizations is a prerequisite. ”

“ Besides the Committees (which meet almost daily, and which are open to every Member) the Society, for the most Part of the Year, assemble once a Week; at which Times so many useful and curious Matters are discuss’d as render them a most rational Entertainment. And, that no Partiality may be shewn, or Benefit lost, every Member has full Liberty to throw out his Thoughts, and to propose whatever, in his Opinion, may be of Utility, and advance the Intentions of the Society. ”

“ Here are associations whose ties go over and under and through it, a meeting of merchants, a military corps, a college class, a fire-club, a professional association, a political, a religious convention;—the persons seem to draw inseparably near; yet, that assembly once dispersed, its members will not in the year meet again. Each returns to his degree in the scale of good society, porcelain remains porcelain, and earthen earthen. The objects of fashion may be frivolous, or fashion may be objectless, but the nature of this union and selection can be neither frivolous nor accidental. ”

“ The members of the society shall consist of ordinary members; honorary members, elected from the distinguished savants of the world; and co-operative members, consisting of scientific bodies whom the committee shall decide to elect. ”

“ As an association we are confronted through the eternal law of progress by changes in our methods such as we have not met since the union of the two national societies in 1890. Our enlarged and expanding status as an association, the new and varied duties which devolve upon us and the innumerable demands increasing with the accumulation of means and workers call for a new kind of service in leadership. ”

“ Try to conceive the state of a member in social converse, when the subject of talk is the Government or the Society as rumour with its thousand tongues describes it. The man who speaks most loudly against the Government may be a brother member, may be a spy of the Government; the man who speaks most loudly against the Society may be a member in the confidence of some of the chiefs, if not of the Chief, and may be a genuine supporter of the Government. ”

“ I have thought of getting up an association, whose members should always hold by one another, be true to one another, and cry one another up. A friend to whom I mentioned my plan highly approved it, and suggested the happy name of the MUTUAL EXALTATION SOCIETY. The association would be limited in number: not more than fifty members could be admitted. It would include educated men in all walks of life; more particularly men whose success in life depends in any measure upon the estimation in which they are commonly held, as barristers, preachers, authors, and the like. ”

“ It will be seen that the idea I have in mind might be imagined as a kind of civic federation club, a super-consumers' league, and a super-advertising club rolled into one. Rolling these three ideas into one is a temperament, and the men who are full of the vision of what can be done with them rolled into one, and of what is the matter with them if they are not rolled into one, must be the controlling powers in the new organization. ”

“ Nearly every class of employers has its own special organization; the associated press, associated charities, local, state, and national educational associations, and associations of learned societies, show the influence of organization in other departments; nearly every class of employees also has its trade union or mutual benefit association; everywhere, except in the household, mutual interests are drawing together for protection, for consultation, for economy of forces and resources, for a score of reasons, those engaged in the same activities. ”

“ And there is the chosen head, commonly the man of greatest mark to be obtained, who exercises a recognized power over speakers and audience—the temporary king. Even an informally summoned assemblage soon resolves itself into these divisions more or less distinctly; and when the assemblage becomes a permanent body, as of the men composing a commercial company, or a philanthropic society, or a club, definiteness is quickly given to the three divisions—president or chairman, board or committee, proprietors or members. ”

“ No assembly of citizens can style itself a popular society.
362. No private society occupying itself with political questions can correspond with another, or affiliate with it, or hold public sittings composed of the members of the society and of associates distinguished from one another, or impose conditions of admission and eligibility, or arrogate to itself rights of exclusion, or cause its members to wear any external sign of their association. ”

“ To secure the continuance of the above undertaking, and in the hope of its becoming, under God's blessing, gradually enlarged, and eventually to a great extent a self-supporting National Institution, an Association is now formed under the above title, whose Committee, including the original promoter of the undertaking, earnestly solicit the active support of all who acknowledge its claims on the sympathy of the public. ”

“ The foundations of the organization being thus laid in religion, We next proceed to make clear the relations of the members one to another, in order that they may live together in concord and go forward prosperously and with good results. The offices and charges of the society should be apportioned for the good of the society itself, and in such mode that difference in degree or standing should not interfere with unanimity and good-will. Office bearers should be appointed with due prudence and discretion, and each one's charge should be carefully mapped out. ”

“ The more critical factors are that the society is a voluntary fraternal association 'organized and carried on solely for the mutual benefit of its members and their beneficiaries, and not for profit, and having a * * * representative form of government, and which shall make provision for the payment of benefits' in accordance with certain statutory requirements. ”

“ The Society Consists of a general Congress, which meets annually, a general Council, which forms "an international agency between the different national and local groups of the Association, so that the workingmen in one country can be constantly informed of the movements of their class in every other country." ”

“ Moreover, it is expressly provided that no friendly benefit shall be abrogated unless the decision of the delegate meeting to that effect is ratified by a majority of two-thirds on a vote of the members of the whole society. As a friendly society, therefore, the Association consists of a number of self-governing branches acting according to the provisions of a detailed code, and amenable, in respect of its interpretation, to a Central Executive. ”

“ In the same section he goes on to say that “every association, every organised group, may and does have rights and obligations which are not the rights and obligations of any or all of its members taken distributively but only of the association acting as an organised unity.... As a unity the association may become a ‘juristic person,’ a ‘corporation,’ and from the legal standpoint the character of unity so conceived is very important.... ”

“ It appears to me that the objects of this Society are so important and far-reaching that it ought to be a large national union, every one joining it as members and supporting it to the utmost of their power. ”

“ That we endeavour to find out proper persons to be brought into this Society; and that no member shall be proposed for a member but when four or more of the Society are present; and that none shall be admitted into this Society till he hath been proposed by three several meetings, and are thought to be men of piety and temper; and that after any person hath been proposed a second time for a member, two persons shall be appointed by the major part of the Society to make enquiry concerning his life and conversation. ”

“ Multitudinous objects are achieved by spontaneously-evolved combinations of citizens governed representatively. The tendency to this kind of organization is so ingrained that, for every proposed end, the proposed means is a society ruled by an elected committee headed by an elected chairman—philanthropic associations of multitudinous kinds, literary institutions, libraries, clubs, bodies for fostering the various sciences and arts, etc., etc. ”

“ If a private member in our society buy a slave or slaves, the preacher who has charge of the circuit shall summon a committee, of which he shall be president, or at least three disinterested male members from the class of which he or she is a member ”

“ That the members should engage to afford their advice, assistance, and support to each other in promoting one another's interest, business, and advancement in life: that, for distinction, we should be called The Society of the Free and Easy. ”