Indiana Tract and Missionary Society, District No. 2
By John W. Covert
INDIANA T. AND M. SOCIETY, DIST. NO. 2.
WHEN Bro. Haskell was with us at the dedication of the Alto church, four companies were represented, including those at La Fayette, who will soon be organized into a church. Bro. H. presented the plan of clubbing the Signs, and explained so clearly the work of distributing them, that each one saw he could do something. We voted to pay “the one-third,” and then agreed to take 52 copies of the Signs: for Alto, 20; Ervin, 12; Bunker Hill, 10; and La Fayette, 10. Three weeks have passed since Bro. H. was here, and our quarterly meeting has just closed, and we are now ready to begin the work of another quarter. Do not think you are excusable because you live so far away you cannot attend the167meetings. You can write us a letter, and send your report with it. We want to hear from you at least once a quarter. Now all you have to do to get to work is to let us know that you are willing to co-operate with us. Have as many Signs changed to your address as you can use. Then gather names of persons that you think would be interested in reading them, and send them the paper. When you have sent one, two, or three numbers, write them a letter. Do not get discouraged, but continue to work. “Cast thy bread upon the waters, for thou shalt find it after many days.” It is not always the crop that ripens first that is worth the most. Do something if it be ever so little. Report if you have sent only one number of the Signs. We want a separate report from each member at our next meeting. We received only 17 reports yesterday; yet these 17 reports showed that 16,315 pages had been distributed, an average of nearly a thousand to each report. But that report was not right. It represented more than 17 members. Our librarians should reject family reports. If there are five members in our family, we want five reports from that family. Do not add your report in with any body's. Procure a blank at the first of each quarter, and keep it where you can produce it in thirty seconds; then record your work when you do it. Sum it up at the end of the quarter, and make out your report, and give it to the librarian in time for him to get his church report made up before the meeting. When you make out your report, do not commence writing in the first blank place you come to, without knowing what it is for. But read the blank. Four-fifths of our brethren need to study the blank. If it says, “Money Received by Donations,” and you have received money from any one, or if you pay it from your own purse to the librarian, then put it down in that line, but be sure and place the cents in the cents column. If you have received money from book sales, put down the number of pages sold. When you add up the money column put the sum in the line for “Total Amount of Money Received.” If you pay for any of our papers for friends, do not report it as “New Paying Subscribers,” but as “Copies Sent to Friends on Trial.” Neither when you send a few numbers of Signs to a person is it “Copies Sent to Friends on Trial,” but “No. of Periodicals Distributed.” When your report is filled, sign your name to it, and send it in time. There is no need of your waiting till the Sunday morning of the meeting to hand in your report. We want earlier reporting. We want better reporting. We want more reporting. Do not do this because you are obliged to do it, but because you want to do it. The faults mentioned are not anticipated, but actually exist, and nearly all of them have been prominent at each of seven successive meetings. During this quarter be energetic, be punctual, be correct.