BUREAU OF WOMAN’S WORK.
APPOINTMENT OF SECRETARY.
It gives us pleasure to announce that in following out the arrangements fore-shadowed in the May “Missionary,” the Executive Committee of the A. M. A. has made choice of Miss D. E. Emerson as Secretary of its Bureau of Woman’s Work. Miss Emerson is well known in the mission fields of the Association, having been a teacher, a lady missionary and also at the New York Office doing service in connection with the correspondence for the Southern work. In the latter position, covering a period of several years, she has had occasion to visit localities occupied by our lady missionaries, and in these and many other ways has gained a very extensive knowledge of the wants and the methods of help needful for the elevation of the colored people. Her ability for her new position has already been tested, and the Association has great confidence in her capacity to meet the requirements of all interested in the great work that lies before her. Correspondence relating to the Bureau should be addressed to Miss D. E. Emerson, at the office of the A. M. A., 56 Reade St., New York.
METHODS OF WORK.
Our Bureau inaugurates no new woman’s missionary society. It is simply a plan for giving more efficiency to the work already in hand. We leave the mode of co-operation on the part of the ladies of the North entirely to themselves, and we can think of no better plan for such co-operation than that given on the next page in the letter of Miss M. E. Smith of Gorham, Me., which describes the methods in use the past year in that State.
Neither are the means for promoting the objects of our Bureau new; they are based on twenty years’ experience and extend to all the branches of home, school and church life. We can aid directly in the elevation of women and children through the varied work of the ladies engaged in our different mission fields. Our method of giving information to the Christian women of the North will be not only by correspondence through the Secretary of the Bureau, but also by direct information from the lady missionaries and teachers, who will attend the meetings of ladies at the conferences, associations, and, as far as practicable, local societies in connection with the churches.
METHOD OF CO-OPERATION.
FROM MISS MARY E. SMITH, MAINE.
In answer to your inquiry as to the mode of collecting, I would say that we have no organization. The ladies talked the matter over and decided that as there are so many organizations already as to be almost bewildering, we would carry on this work with as little “red tape” as possible. At each annual conference a meeting of all ladies interested is held, a report read of the amount collected the past year and a committee of three chosen to carry on the work for the following year. This committee appoints a collector for each conference, and each conference collector engages a collector in each church in her conference. The collectors of the several churches report progress and send money obtained to the conference collector, and she forwards it to the chairman of the State Committee, who keeps the bank account and forwards the money in due time to the A. M. A.
By so simple an arrangement we also save in expense. With the exception of a very slight amount for printing of circulars for distribution through the States, the only expense is that of postage, etc., which being divided among so many is borne by the several collectors and does not take from the sum collected. So far the working of our plan has been, I think, as successful as we could reasonably expect.