Participant

“ Therefore it is not surprising that, at this the supreme moment of His life, He should bid the representative group who companied with Him, and through them all men, come in and participate in its power and joy ”

“ But in civilization generally when we part we either look forward to meeting again at some not remote period, or we have so many varied occupations, or so many friends around us, that if the partings are welded together, so also are the meetings. ”

“ How a group of men, through team work, acquires a group habit- action by which their product greatly exceeds the product of the same number of men working without cooperation.
How the individual ability and skill, as well as the group ability and skill is only to be acquired by repetition that establishes habit-action. ”

“ While it may take centuries of social experience to disclose to a group the conduct best for its ends, it is likely that, from the first, every effort on the part of the many to control the behavior of the individual will aim at some of the conditions here laid down. ”

“ During the recess numerous volunteers meet in various parts of the country, write in public journals, interchange their ideas, explode many crotchets, find some that will stand the wear and tear of discussion, prepare, on all tenable views of a question, that mysterious and spiritual, but very real, power called Public Opinion, and so clear the field for action. ”

“ Instituted with a rare combination of tact and enthusiasm, they have taken hold of the blood; they have got home at a certain point in boy and girl nature which has already made them become native. I find that these two organisations tend to develop among their members grace and vigour of movement, good manners, a cheerful spirit, a more alert interest in the things about them, a feeling of comradeship, and best of all, a certain sense of honour toward life. ”

“ Plan something to do, and your Chapter is likely to be interested in it. To find out what that something shall be, consult your members, and follow their wishes. Then get outside help from older persons, not to tell you what to do, but to aid you to do that which you yourselves have chosen to do. Such a course will make a strong and profitable Chapter. Thousands of men of affairs will tell you, if you ask them, that one of the greatest sources of help to them in their later years was the knowledge and enthusiasm that they acquired in these juvenile societies. ”

“ What belongs to the group at large is a vague desire to participate and excel in such competitions; but in realizing itself this desire seeks as its agents the best athletes or debaters that are to be found. ”

“ Groups gather, thrust hands and fingers upward, shout and counter-shout, as though bent on working up a fracas; then when they seem to have succeeded they make notes in small books and walk quietly away. ”

“ Associations like those which we have described, by the very process of their success, are a course of education in those moral and active qualities by which alone success can be either deserved or attained. ”

“ There are good and great words in a deed. One of them I brought away with me from the conference, a very fine, big one, which I love to have out now and again to remind me of the really serious things of life. ”

“ So far as discipline brings about regularity of life, of exercise, so long as it ministers to alertness, we can use it, but as between discipline on the one hand, and initiative and team play on the other, to meet our academic or our national needs, I am for initiative and team play. ”

“ Work out the plans with the boys from time to time, always reserving some things of interest for the next meeting. Your attempt to give them everything at one time will cause the whole proposition to assume the nature of a task instead of pleasurable education, as was originally intended. ”

“ We can look up almost any day and watch some goodness—now—at least one specimen or so, in every branch of business.
We watch daily the men who are ahead, pulling on the goodness of the world and the Crowds pushing on it. ”

“ In the following list of activities the group interests have not been separated as they intermingle with each other. If the class be allowed to choose and voice its sentiment, the right activity will always be selected. Besides, if the members make their own choice, there can be little complaint at results, and they will work harder for the success of their own plans. All this develops character, which is one of the real reasons for these through-the-week activities. ”

“ The effect of custom on habit, and of habit upon thought is enough to prove this statement. When we [pg 317] begin to forecast consequences, the consequences that most stand out are those which will proceed from other people. The resistance and the cooperation of others is the central fact in the furtherance or failure of our schemes. Connections with our fellows furnish both the opportunities for action and the instrumentalities by which we take advantage of opportunity. All of the actions of an individual bear the stamp of his community as assuredly as does the language he speaks. ”

“ The Evolutionary Processes of Society.—Social activity is primarily group activity. Consequently the kind and nature of the group, the methods which brought its members together, its organization and purpose, indicate the type of civilization and the possibility of achievement. As group activity means mutual aid of members, and involves processes of co-operation in achievement, the type of society is symbolic of the status of progress. ”

“ In 1759 we find that Friends are reminded by the monthly meeting of the “necessary duty” of making their wills in time of health, and that endeavors are used to apply public gifts to the uses intended. ”

“ The conference is divided into ten sections:
Children. Delinquents. Health. Public agencies and institutions. The family. Industrial and economic problems. The local community. Mental hygiene. Organization of social forces. Uniting of native and foreign-born.
At the annual convention each of these ten sections holds its own group meetings at which papers are presented and discussions conducted on the subjects appropriate to the section. It will be seen that the division into sections is on a basis of administrative fields rather than technique or function. ”

“ And perhaps you may be induced to believe that your attendance at the meetings for discipline, may not be without its use; that your presence may give additional strength and encouragement to the long tried standard bearers, and though you may not feel yourselves called upon to take a very active part in their deliberations, your example may be of use to some of those froward spirits, who, whatever may be their exterior appearance, are less qualified for the important business than many of yourselves. ”

“ We gather together a number of persons of like capacity with ourselves. A subject which we might grapple with and run down by a few hours of vigorous, absorbed attention in a library, gaining strength of mind by resolute encountering of difficulties, by personal effort, we sit around for a month or a season in a club, expecting somehow to take the information by effortless contiguity with it. ”

“ Setting up conditions which stimulate certain visible and tangible ways of acting is the first step. Making the individual a sharer or partner in the associated activity so that he feels its success as his success, its failure as his failure, is the completing step. As soon as he is possessed by the emotional attitude of the group, he will be alert to recognize the special ends at which it aims and the means employed to secure success. His beliefs and ideas, in other words, will take a form similar to those of others in the group. ”

“ Within a twelvemonth after muster-in the alert, alive and agile volunteers will have become so facile in their exercise that every motion is pivotal and simultaneous—a thousand with a single joint who hear and move as one. ”

“ Such a small group—and I am now thinking of something quite practical, say to begin with a study-circle, or a company of like-minded friends with a definite rule of life—may not seem to the outward eye very impressive. ”

“ I see a solemn conference of deep import between a stroke and a coach. I see a neat, clean-limbed young man go airily up to a well-earned tea, without, I hope, a care, or an anxiety in his mind, expecting and intending to spend an agreeable evening. ”

“ The teacher should pass from group to group, ready to help where help is needed, but very cautious about interfering or dominating or overturning the delicate balance of enjoyment, responsibility, and coöperative endeavor in any social group of workers. ”

“ Start counting yourself in the group then we are all ten’.
This is what happens when we start any social activity, including organised work. We expect others to be punctual. They must come on time for the meeting. ”

“ There is music and a prayer at most of the meetings, illness of members is reported on, current events discussed, and a program usually provided. “The main purpose of the organization is to bring happiness to others.” ”

“ I suppose a group of a certain number of volunteers, combining in some enterprise, to secure the success of which all rival each other in zeal, with the exception of one associate, who frequently absents himself from his post. ”

“ Let us notice what happens in a public meeting as it develops into a crowd, and see if we can trace some of the steps of the process. Picture a large meeting-hall, fairly well filled with people. Notice first of all what sort of interest it is which as a rule will most easily bring an assemblage of people together. It need not necessarily be a matter of great importance, but it must be something which catches and challenges attention without great effort. ”

“ Engagements that must wait weeks or even months for fulfilment, engagements to gather shells in company, are formed between persons of all ages,—green lads and lasses, men and women in middle life, and old folks to whom the spring airs no longer bring more than a fitful suggestion of "light fancies." ”

“ A vast of talk there is of all the country round; every strange circumstance; every incident and change of condition, and new alliance amongst their mutual friends and acquaintances, pass under review. ”

“ And of all types and kinds, what can be more instructive than the leadership of a group within a group?—that curious double movement where real progress may be negative and actual advance be relative retrogression. ”

“ From the standpoint of psychology, the crowd, as the term is here defined, is not merely a group of people, it is the appearance within such a group of a special mental condition, or crowd-mind. (2) The sentiments and ideas of all the persons in the gathering take one and the same direction. (3) Conscious personality vanishes. (4) A collective mind is formed: This is Le Bons "Law of the mental unity of crowds." ”

“ In such a terrible ordeal the favoring presence of others, who through group action help to stimulate both the excitement and the activities, must be an important element in prolonging the efforts of the individual. ”

“ Here we have the basis for a true selective process. A study that indicates those characteristics of a group that favor victory and survival amid intergroup conflicts, marks the path of necessary social development. ”

“ This was simply a group of artistic persons, freed from the pressures of society, presented with an extraordinary opportunity in their chosen field. . .skating more for themselves than for each other. . .more as team than as in a competition. . .just them. . .mostly for themselves. . .and a few friends who might come to tend the lights and ice, bring food. ”

“ Manifestly group progress will be made possible in any such case by a mutual willingness to co-operate—a willingness to attend a discussion even though not particularly interested in it, but because it may be of concern to someone else whose interests I have undertaken to promote. ”

“ Frequently were they gathered together in groups, around some of the larger trees, or at the corners of the streets, or at the entrance of some conspicuous shop, to listen to the news which one had to tell, or to arguments upon the all-engrossing theme with which another sought to bring over those who would listen, to one or another side of the great question. ”

“ A just regard for these brave men, whom we have contributed to place in the field, and for the importance of the duties which may lawfully pertain to us hereafter, has called us into friendly conference. ”

“ Let us take a group of volunteers, combining for some particular enterprise. Having its success at heart, they all work with a will, save one of the associates, who is frequently absent from his post. ”

“ We shall all agree that this is the strong and hearty modern method of doing difficult things—the method of clubbing together to do something; it is self-reliant, social, cooperative, mutually, helpful, What the individual cannot do alone a club of individuals can do together. ”

“ It was the first group to develop, by virtue of its conscious relationship, the sense of trust and the habit of service of the stronger to the weaker, thus leading toward mutual aid within an area of affection and good-will. ”

“ As this process continues, one or two group members will begin to take an interest in the personal problems of some of the others and express a desire to help. They will ask questions for more information, express sympathy or empathy, and begin to offer suggestions. It is at this point that the process of group interaction begins to acquire a focus on healing and problem solving. ”

“ Her companion frankly weighed it. "Yes; it takes that to account for your position. I've always thought of you, nevertheless, as keeping, for their benefit, a regular working agency. They come to you, and you place them. ”

“ I’ve been speaking of the people that one meets socially, and these’re the smallest part of American life. The others—those one meets on a basis of mere convenience—are much more exciting; they keep one’s temper in healthy exercise. ”