THE TRANSFER OF AGENTS by E. R. Palmer

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 28, 1902

THE TRANSFER OF AGENTS.

By E. R. Palmer

(State papers please copy.)

WE greatly desire that a uniform system be established immediately with reference to the transfer of canvassing agents, (1) from one State to another within any Union Conference, (2) from one Union Conference to another, and (3) from one country to another.

We invite your attention to the following suggestions:—

1. In transferring agents from one State to another within a Union Conference, application for help should be made by a properly authorized officer in the conference to the president and general agent of the Union Conference. These Union Conference officers will confer with the officers of the State or States from which the help is wanted, and if the transfer is considered desirable, the agents asked for will be communicated with by the officers under whom they have been working.

2. When a Union Conference desires agents from any other Union Conference, application for the same should be made by the proper officers to the General Conference president and the secretary of the publishing department, and these general officers will take steps to secure the needed help by applying to the officials of those parts of the field which are best able to furnish it.

3. Distant fields outside of the United States should make application for agents to the general officers as directed under number two.

4. Agents who have a burden for another field, or who for any reason wish to be transferred, should present their desires to the proper officers in their own State conference, Union Conference, or to the secretary of the publishing department of the General Conference, as the circumstances may demand. In the event of publishing houses, or local conferences receiving applications for employment from agents outside their territory, such applications should be referred to the State conference or Union Conference in which the agents reside, or to the secretary of the General Conference publishing department.

This system may seem slow, and liable to cause delay; yet while this may be the result in some instances, it will not require one tenth of the loss of time and energy caused by the confusion and disaster resulting from a disregard of the authority and rights of local organizations. The same careful consideration should be given to the transfer of agents as to the transfer of other conference workers.

The policy of the General Conference will be to search out good, reliable agents to supply the wants of needy fields as far as possible; but vigorous efforts will be made to prevent all secret pulling of agents from one field to another; for such irregular practices can bring only evil to all concerned.

We earnestly invite the hearty co-operation of all our fellow-workers in this important matter, and we desire correspondence with all who may now be in trouble along this line. E. R. PALMER, Secretary Gen'l Conf. Pub. Dep't.