EXECUTIVE SESSIONS

TUESDAY AFTERNOON, JUNE 7

THE PRESIDENT: Our real object in having an executive session is to discuss confidentially the subject presented by Mr. Dow and the gentlemen following him. Before that subject is taken up, however, there are one or two matters that ought to be considered.

MR. AYER: I desire to offer an amendment to the constitution. The present article regarding the holding of the meetings reads as follows:

66 ARTICLE V. MEETINGS

"The annual meeting of this association shall be held in May or June in each year, at such places as the association shall determine, and on such dates as may be determined by the executive committee."

Having had much to do with the selection of the locations for the meetings during a number of years. past, I realize, as many of the members do, how difficult it is to harmonize the location with the wishes. of the membership. It is very natural that we should have a large number of members wanting the location east of the Alleghenies, because we have more members in that section. As a national association, it was felt to be desirable that we should come west as often as

possible; but we cannot stay west. When we come west, we get a good attendance from a district within a radius of a few hundred miles; but the next year we must, naturally, go back to the East, and these men do not come, so they lose their interest by failing to

keep up their attendance; they do not care to go to a distance of 500 or 1,000 miles. The suggestion

that we now have to offer is to fix two definite places of meeting, which would harmonize the meetings and overcome the difficulty we have in getting permanent membership in the West as well as in the East; in other words, sticking to the character of the association and maintaining it as national. New York is very central for the coast cities and the territory east of Allegheny mountains; Chicago is very central for the West. There are many of us in Massachusetts and other eastern states who will come to Chicago, and many western men who will go east; but the people that we are most desirous of benefiting-that is, the small central stations-can not send their men these long distances, and it is suggested that we hold the meetings in Chicago and New York alternately, making these cities the permanent location, one year in one place, and the next year in the other. A man can then go every other year if he cannot attend every year, and in this way he will keep up his interest. Most managers can go three or four hundred miles and get away for three or four days; if he is a western man, he will come here, if he does not attend the eastern meetings. I do not think we should scatter about as we have been doing; we should settle upon some cities like Chicago, Cleveland and New York. Cleveland is convenient for many, but it did not answer the purpose so well as Chicago. I therefore move an amendment to the constitution to the effect that the meetings be held alternately in Chicago and New York.

THE PRESIDENT: The motion is open for discussion and vote, unless five members object to it.

MR. ARMSTRONG: I do not want to object, but why do we want to bind ourselves to that in the constitution? I probably like the idea, but why not leave it all to the executive committee, just as it has been left? If it is our sense that we meet in that way, there is no trouble. If it were hard and fast, and there should be some special circumstances and the executive committee should think we ought to have a meeting elsewhere, we should be limiting them in their action. There is nothing to prevent our deciding that we will go to New York next year and the year after that to Chicago. We have discussed this matter a good many times, and while I am entirely willing that the executive committee shall fix the month and the time in the month, I am also entirely willing that they shall also fix the place.

MR. AYER: That is the old story. The object in fixing the place is not to take it out of the hands of the executive committee, but more to fix in the minds of the members the fact that every second year the meeting will be held in New York or Chicago. It is to make it a permanent part of the institution that the organization has its dual home in Chicago and in New York. It will result in time in producing a much stronger organization. Left to the executive committee as in the past-this thing has been discussed in this way-local interests and personal appeals, and sometimes conditions arising where men do not care to oppose the interests of others, would result in the meeting being held at some odd point, which would prove to be undesirable. For instance, we elect a president, and he would like to have the convention in his town. That is a proper

desire on his part, and there are times when the executive committee does not want to take issue with

the president. If he thinks we ought to do it, the committee gives way, sometimes very much to the detriment of the association. These are the main reasons why we want to make this a fixed thing. If the argument for the amendment is not good, it is proper to vote down the motion; if it is good, I see no objection to having it hard and fast. We can take it out of the constitution if it proves to be a bad move; it can be rescinded or changed, as we propose to change the by-law that now exists. I believe that the association would derive a great deal of benefit from the adoption of the amendment.

MR. KECK: The time of the meetings would be important to members from the South; we could not come in the winter time. I come from Savannah, Georgia, and should not like to come in the winter.

MR. CARNES: Would there be any objection to leaving the limit to May or June, in the discretion. of the executive committee.

MR. ARMSTRONG: I would make a suggestion to the chair. I am willing to compromise, I am sure; and I would move an amendment that the meetings be held in the month of May, June or July, alternately in Chicago and New York, unless otherwise ordered by the executive committee. That will leave open the possibility of making a change if it is necessary; and it may be very necessary. The executive committee is not usually influenced by the president to do this thing. I tried to influence them once, but there is a difference in presidents, of course. I once

endeavored to have them meet at a place of ny choosing, but did not succeed. The present president did succeed, but the executive committee was not pulled around at all; it was fair and square, and decided by a tie vote; the president settled it by voting for Chicago.

MR. COGGSHALL: The month of July would be a bad month for Massachusetts men. We make up our reports at that time, and are under a penalty of many hundred dollars.

MR. KECK: Make it May or June.

MR. WEEKS: Circumstances might arise under which we should desire to go south. I think that I would place no restrictions on the executive committee, but leave it with the committee to determine the place. I think the sense of the resolution is very good, that the meetings shall be held in one or two great centres.

THE PRESIDENT: Are you supporting Judge Armstrong's amendment?

MR. WEEKS: I am not supporting anything in particular.

MR. DE CAMP: I think Mr. Armstrong's amendment renders it unnecessary to take any action. It is already in the hands of the executive committee. Put it in the shape of a resolution, to get the sense of this present meeting as to the policy of establishing the two permanent places for a meeting.

THE PRESIDENT: I have been trying during the past year to get western members into this association, and have failed absolutely, and the reason is that the western people have an idea that the National Electric Light Association is purely an eastern body, and that its meetings, as a rule, are held in the East, and the exception is to come to Chicago, or, rather, to the West. If we want to be a national association and get full membership, we ought to take some action on the subject. As Mr. Ayer has said, the small companies cannot afford to send their men away east. They do not see any object in the West in belonging to an association whose meetings they can