Dear Miss Addams:
As chairman of the Board of Survey Associates, Judge Mack has called for a meeting for 12:45 on Friday, June 18, at the Town Hall Club, 123 West 43rd Street. The date was arranged after I had canvassed possibilities on the phone, with such members as were within reach.
As there will not be another meeting till fall; and as there are two or three matters of prime importance, I hope very much that we can count on your being there.
Yesterday, Dr. and Mrs William Palmer Lucas of San Francisco were here, and told of the “hit” which Mrs. Brenner had made in California. Following the meeting of the Survey Associates in San Francisco at which she spoke, she was fairly overwhelmed with invitations from other groups to meet and talk with them. They feel we have never had such a commissioner in the West, and that her trip will make for the enduring growth of The Survey on the coast. At the same time, she is not at all well and much fatigued; she is taking a week’s rest at Carmel; and I have wired her suggesting that she lay off for the balance of the summer, until she is refreshed. She is paying, I fear, for the years of strain during Mr. Brenner’s illness, when she overtaxed her reserves.
In these circumstances, I want to relieve her of concern for the balance of this year’s budget. Outside of renewals, we have at least $3000 to raise between now and September 30 of “new money.” The Board collaborated spiritedly in our campaign to raise the Founders Fund of Survey Graphic, on which so went over the top January 1. But we have done little concertedly with respect to our General Fund. I feel, therefore, that in this situation I can turn to members of this Board to help me in covering the above sum -- not out of their [page 2] pockets (for that gets us nowhere), but by enlisting $10, $25, $100 or larger contributors, convincing them in a way which will engage them as permanent backers of our mutual work. Will you let me know how much I can count on through you? I am making this identical request of all members. Surely you will be running across someone between now and September 30 who would respond to your invitation to join our fellowship.
I am enclosing the form letter and memorandum which we are sending out to our June people, and which will give you the general lay of the land.
And I am putting this up to you by letter so that we can center at our Board meeting, not on finances, but on two or three matters of first importance which lead into the future. The meeting, however, wil be brief -- over by 2:30 if possible.
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