Report

( 1*T ) REPORT. Tour Committee beg to report as follows:— They have carefully considered the points laid before them, and they think it will be convenient to present the result of their deliberations in such a form as, if this Report be adopted by the Council, may constitute a permanent guide to the Honorary Local Secretaries. The Report is arranged under the headings of General Duties, Finance (and New Members), and Special Returns, with a Schedule of Forms appended. GENERAL DUTIES. Under the head of General Duties your Committee conceive that the main object of a Local Secretary should be an endeavour to increase the membership of the Society in his district, to encourage local research, and to keep the Council and its Officers informed of fresh discoveries made and of other matters of archseological interest arising therein from time to time. Notice of such discoveries, with as full a report as circumstances may allow, should be sent without delay to the Society's Curator (Mr. H. Elgar, at the Maidstone Museum), that he may report to the General Secretary, and record the same on the Society's sixinch Ordnance Survey Map, which is under his care. Any projected restoration of Churches or other ancient buildings should also be reported to the General Secretary; likewise any threatened demolition or possible sale (which may lead to alteration or demolition) of ancient monuments, whether buildings or earthworks. Tour Committee feel that the reporting of the foregoing is a matter of great importance, in view of the possibility that the Council, as occasion arises, may be able to use its influence in the direction of preserving monuments of historic interest in this county; and it is suggested that the information in every case should be given in the shape of a formal report that may be read at the next Council meeting, and that, for convenience of filing and ready reference in the future, such reports be written on foolscap paper and on one side only. Tour Committee also suggest that a note of new books YOJ/, xxx, e l x v i HONORARY LOCAL SECRETARIES. relating to local archseology, with names of author and publisher, should be sent to the Honorary Editor by Local Secretaries who may hear of their publication. Local Secretaries should also bring under the Council's notice 'individual members of the Society who may shew themselves interested in any particular branch of study or research, and encourage them to offer Papers to be read at the Society's meetings or published in Archceologia Cantiana. Local meetings might be arranged, in some cases by two or three neighbouring Local Secretaries acting together, for the purpose either of making excursions or of reading Papers and promoting discussion. Special attention, at this juncture, may be drawn to the facilities recently made for the registration of ancient deeds, particularly of those in private hands: members should be encouraged to undertake this work. The records lying in various parish chests throughout the county should also receive attention, and an effort should be made to unearth and make lists of court-rolls, extents, and other manorial records, which are of great value to the local historian, and of which large numbers exist both in private and public hands. Tour Committee realise that this brief resume of General Duties presents an ideal which many of our Local Secretaries, being busy men, will be unable to reach, but they feel that it may serve to suggest ways in which, in some cases, their efforts may be extended, to the advantage of the Society and the better promotion of its objects. In the " Reference " printed at the head of this Report your Commitiee are asked to consider " Certain Returns to be made by the Hon. Local Secretaries," and it is hoped to give definiteness to some of the above suggestions by adding two specific recommendations. It will be convenient, however, that these should be deferred to the end of this Report. FINANCE. As closely connected with Finance it is thought best to include under this head all matters that relate to the business duties of the Local Secretaries. In this section of the Report it is necessary, for sake of clearness, to set out the rates of subscription, and to distinguish between the duties of the Local Secretaries and those of the General Secretary and the Financial Secretary respectively. Attention must also be drawn to the fact that in Rule 4 it is laid HONORARY LOCAL SECRETARIES. Ix v i i down that "the Council shall appoint one of their members to be Hon Treasurer." The rule proceeds to define that officer's duties:— To keep an account of all Subscriptions and other Receipts and Payments for the Society, and on the 31st December in each year to prepare the Balance Sheet for the past year, and, after it has been approved by the Auditors, to lay it before the next Quarterly Meeting of the Council, accompanied by a statement of all Subscriptions, etc., in arrear and due to the Sooiety, and of all monies due from them." This rule was made in 1908. In the Report, dated 10th September 1908, of a Finance Committee appointed in June of that year, it is stated that "the new rule has not been acted upon, for, although an Hon. Treasurer has been appointed, it is believed that he has never been invited to act." Tour Committee find that all his duties are now, in fact, carried out by the Rev. W. Gardner- Waterman, who holds the office of Financial Secretary, newly created in 1910. It is possible that the Council may advise that Rule 4 be altered by the substitution of ihe words "Financial Secretary " for " Treasurer." The above-mentioned Finance Committee recommended that:— Each of the Local Hon. Secretaries when appointed should be furnished with a full list of the names and addresses of members resident in his district, and the names and addresses of members newly eleoted or coming to reside in his district should be oommunicated to him by the Hon. Secretary; and eaoh Loual Secretary should be furnished with a convenient form of schedule or list, to be sent by him to the Hon. Treasurer or the Hon. Secretary, shewing the amount of the subscriptions received and transmitted by him to the bankers. We are informed, however, that some of the Local Secretaries do not use this form, and thus confusion is caused, for it is very difficult in default of such a list to keep up the register of payments satisfactorily. Tour Committee unanimously endorse and emphasize these recommendations of the Finance Committee of 1908; and now proceed to set out in detail what they consider to be the business duties of a Local Secretary, and the relation of his duties to those of the General and Financial Secretaries. 1. To keep a register of members in his district, and of members who, while resident in some other district, are accustomed to pay thejr subscriptions through him and not through the Local Secretary of their own district: such register to shew each member's name and address, the year of the first e % l x v i i i HONORARY LOCAL SECRETARIES. entry of his name, his annual payments, and other particulars, as shewn in the following form:— Form A. K.A.S. DISTRICT NO. 23. Year. 1914 1915 Name and Address. A.B.ofL.M. C.D.ofN. 0. E.F.ofP. q. &. H. ofR. S. District. 23 23 23 IG Personal Notes. Elected 1890. Collector of Kentish Books and MSS. Elected, 1901 Elected, 1915 Ecolesiologist Elected, 1915 Life Member. Yes Annual 1913. 1914. 10/- Pays 10\- lOjby Ba 10\- Pay ments. 1915. | 1916. Transfe District April 1 ulcer's 0 10\- rred ta No. 5, st, 1915. rder. Volume XXX. of Archceologia Cantiana contains a list of Local Districts as recently re-arranged, a number being assigned to each District in which the member resides. From that list each Local Secretary may easily extract the names and addresses of the members to be entered in the -first instance upon his register. 2. To receive from the General Secretary the names and addresses of newly-elected members (see below), and to enter them on his register. 3. To inform the Financial Secretary of the death of a member on his list, or the removal of a member from his district to another, with a note of such member's new postal address, and as to whether such member wishes to make a corresponding change in the payment of his annual subscription. The Financial Secretary thereupon will inform the General Secretary and the Local Secretary of the District into which the member has removed. For this purpose a new form (Form B) is recommended. 4. To collect subsci'iptions, transmit them to the bankers, and inform the Financial Secretary. Subscriptions are due in advance on the 1st January in each year. It is important that each Local Secretary should endeavour to collect all subscriptions that are payable "through him before Ladyday (March 25tb), and should transmit his list to the Financial Secretary before the end of March. Thereafter any Local Secretary HONORARY LOCAL SECRETARIES. lx i x may apply to the Financial Secretary for assistance in dealing with defaulters; and the Financial Secretary will thereupon take any step that may be necessary to enable him to submit his Report to the Council at its June Meeting. To facilitate the collection of annual subscriptions the following forms, already in use, are recommended:— Form C.—Letter of request, to be circulated by Local Secretaries early in January. Form D.—Letter of reminder, to be circulated, if necessary, early in March. Form Fi.—Double-counterfoil Receipt Book: 1. Form of Receipt (to be sent to members). 2. Certificate of Receipt (to be sent to publishers). 3. Counterfoil (to be retained). Form F.—Double-counterfoil Transmission Book : 1. Paying-in slip, for transmission of subscriptions to bankers. 2. Slip, notifying such transmission, to be sent to Financial Secretary. 3. Counterfoil for Local Secretary's own use and reference. I t is not thought necessary to print these forms in the Schedule appended to this Report, but it may be noted that Form F makes provision whereby the Local Secretary, in transmitting to the bankers and notifying the Financial Secretary, may deduct from the sum total of the subscriptions received by him the amount of any expenses incurred by him in collection. It is recommended that each Local Secretary should open a special account at his own bank, but this would not come under the cognizance of the Council. On the approach of a new issue of Archceologia Cantiana, the Editor will send notice of the fact to the General Secretary, and the General Secretary will in turn notify the Local Secretaries— the appended Form G is recommended for this purpose. Thereupon it will lie with every Local Secretary :— 5. To send to the publishers (Messrs. Mitchell Hughes and Clarke, 140 Wardour Street, London, W.) the slip certificates, torn from his Receipt Book (Form F 2), requesting delivery of the volume to the members whose subscriptions he has received. If considered more convenient, a Local Secretary may send, instead of the slips, a list compiled from them, written on foolscap, one side only. "ixx 'HONORARY LOCAL SECRETARIES. The Financial Secretary will send to the publishers a list of members who shall have made their payments direct to the Society's bankers. 6. To notify any defaulting member that the new volume is ready, and will be forwarded on receipt of his subscription or subscriptions due (the appended Form If is recommended) ; and on receipt thereof to send slip certificate as above (Form F 2) to the publishers. New Members. I t will be convenient here to set out the subscription rates and the procedure followed in the case of new members. New members are elected by the Council at the Annual Summer Meeting and in quarterly meeting (the second Thursday in March, June, and September, and the second Wednesday in December). Nominations (in which title, degrees or other distinctions, and postal address, with names of proposer and seconder, should be clearly stated) may be sent direct to the General Secretary, but it is recommended that they should be sent to him through the Local Secretary of the district. A form of nomination is in use (Form J). The General Secretary sends to each member notice of his election. For this purpose adoption of the appended Form K is recommended. The subscription rates therein set out are:— Entrance fee, 10s. 1 „ .. . „. . , , . .. n. > Due on election, * 1 Os. Od. Annual subscription, 10s. J Life membership, includ-1 D u e o n d e c £ m 1Qg ^ ing Entrance tee. J Large paper copies of Archmologia Cantiana are supplied to Annual Subscribers for an additional annual payment of 3s. 6d.; to Life Members for an additional payment, by composition, of £ 3 10s. 0^. (Surplus stocks of two issues of Archceologia Cantiana are retained by the publishers, from whom extra copies may be obtained by members. For copies of earlier issues application should be made to Mr. H. Elgar, the Society's Curator, at the Maidstone Museum.) . The regular channels of payment, at the choice of the new member, are:— (a) By banker's order, made payable either (1) to the Kentish Bank, Maidstone; or (2) to the Capital and Counties Bank, Canterbury. (b) By cheque drawn in favour of a Local Secretary. HONORARY LOCAL SECRETARIES. Ix x i The new member is requested to transmit his banker's order, or his cheque for life membership, or his entrance fee and first Subscription, direct to the General Secretary (who forwards the same to the Financial Secretary, who sends receipt to the new member), and, in case he elects to pay an annual subscription, he is requested to state to which Local Secretary (whether of his own district or some other) he wishes in the future to make his payments. The General Secretary then sends the necessary information to the Local Secretary or Secretaries. For this purpose the use of the appended Form L is reeommended. Tour Committee feel assured that the use of these forms will lighten the heavy burden of clerical work which devolves upon the General and Financial Secretaries. SPECIAL RETURNS. The recommendations foreshadowed at the end of the first section of this Report are as follows:— (a) That the Local Secretaries be asked to take advantage of the opportunity afforded by the recent rearrangement of districts to make in the near future a systematic canvass for new members. It is suggested that each Local Secretary should invite the co-operation in this matter of some other members in his district; that for every parish a list should be made (by reference to Kelly''s Directory, or otherwise) of residents likely to become members; and that a personal canvass should be carried out. This system has been followed, with fruitful results, in one of the districts. (b) That each Local Secretary be invited to make a return to the General Secretary, giving the names, with particulars, of members in his district who are specially interested in any particular line of archasological study, with a note of collections or publications made by them. It is suggested that this should be done before the Annual Meeting of 1914, and it is believed that a record such as this, when completed, would not only assist the Council in settling the details of the Summer Meetings, but might also result in opportunities and encouragement being given to those members whose abilities have not hitherto been recognized. Tour Committee are also of opinion that steps might be taken to bring independent local Societies in the country into touch with the Kent Archseological Society, with a view to co-ordination Ixxii HONORARY LOCAL SECRETARIES. of effort. It is thought that such Societies would he willing to send their annual reports, or special reports, to the General Secretary, so that such reports might be placed in the Society's Library at Maidstone, and an abstract published from time to time with the Society's Proceedings. In conclusion, it is recommended that this Report, if it be adopted by the Council, be printed in the Society's Proceedings, and that a few extra copies be struck off for circulation among present and future Local Secretaries. Signatures: W. GARDNER-WATERMAN. RICHARD COOKE. G. M. LIVETT. H. HANNEN. HERBERT KNOCKER. NOTE. The foregoing Report was adopted without alteration by the Council at its meeting on 3rd June 1913. At its meeting in June 1913 the Council decided that in future its Proceedings should be published annually, together with the annual statement of accounts, brief reports, etc.