The leaders' handbook for the Young men's Christian associations of North America

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

Introduction. By Wiley Winsor, Metropolitan Director of Physical Education, San Francisco, Cal., Chairman, Leaders' Club Committee of the National Physical

Directors' Society v

Introduction

We are surely in a gregarious era. Almost every branch and phase of society and commerce has grouped those of like interests in highly specialized and multitudinous forms of organization. Constitutions and by-laws of every conceivable nature are today roaring from the presses of our nation to guide and standardize the efforts of both selfishly and altruistically organized bodies.

Out of a nation-wide need has grown this first edition of the "Leaders* Handbook." The outstanding expression of this need has been the staggering mortality of leaders' clubs. The foundation upon which too many of our clubs are built is the personality of the physical director rather than the dynamic of Christian service and loyalty to our national program.

I firmly believe that there is no other body of men quite so essential to the success of the Young Men's Christian Associations' four-fold program as are the members of the well-established and properly organized leaders' club.

Caught in the centripetal whirl of this formative era, we have likewise become intricately banded together on a national scale in order to fulfil in a larger way our obligation to the community and our desire to promote motives of Christian caliber.

Your National Leaders' Committee, for the past two years, has eagerly awaited the day when such a volume vi INTRODUCTION

as this would be available for the personal library of every young man and boy leader in our country.

It is hoped that its contents will bring to the reader the broadest possible conception of the opportunities that are his to administer Christian service to others through physical education.

The following chapters should be an aid in establishing the highest qualities of leadership ; first, as a leader of one's own self ; second, as a leader and servant of others ; and lastly as a promoter of the best interests of the local group, the state body, and the national program of the Standard Leaders' Club.

Wiley Winsor, Editor Chairman, Leaders' Club Committee.

THE LEADERS' CLUB COMMITTEE

Wiley Winsor, Chairman, San Francisco, Cal. J. S. Andresen, Sears-Roebuck, Branch, Chicago. J. T. Maxwell, Detroit, Mich.

C. A. Neavles, Minneapolis, Minn.

John Brock, Bridgeport, Conn.

Carl Wilzbach, Cincinnati, O.

Geo. L. Listman, Boston, Mass.

D. M. LowERY, Hartford, Conn.

C. K. Herrick, Buffalo, N. Y.

J. J. ToEDT, Chicago, 111.

C. H. Goodwin, Morristown, N. J.

Wm. H. Ball — International Committee, New York City.

(Counseling relation for Men's Clubs.) C. H. Hagenbuch, M. D., International Committee, New York

City. (Counseling relation for Boys' Clubs.)

CHAPTER I THE HISTORY OF THE YMCA By Paul Super

The YMCA was organized Thursday, June 6, 1844, in London, England, by twelve young dry-goods clerks. The moving spirit was George Williams. As a boy of fourteen on a farm in southwestern England he had upset a wagonload of hay. The family ruled that a boy who could not keep a load of hay on the road gave little promise of being a successful farmer. So they sent him to the near-by village of Bridgewater for six years' apprenticeship as a dry-goods clerk. While serving in Bridgewater he was converted and became very active in Sunday-school and mission work and an earnest personal worker.

When he was twenty years old, he secured a position in London in the wholesale dry-goods house of Hitchcock and Rogers, ^2 St. Paul's Churchyard, in the shadow of the great St. Paul's Cathedral. His salary was $200 a year. Money went farther then.

There were one hundred and forty other clerks employed by the same firm and these, as was the custom in those days, lived in dormitories over the store. They worked long hours, from daylight until nine o'clock at night.

When George Williams joined this group, he found that they, in common with most young men of the day, were Hving grossly immoral lives. At that time there was no Christian organization devoting its attention to young men, even the Church itself making little effort to reach them. Young Williams was not the kind of man to allow his religion to die in an unfavorable environment. He at once attempted by vigorous personal work and prayer to win his fellow clerks to the Christian life. The men met in an upper room for prayer. The number grew. Finally Mr. Hitchcock himself was converted.

Finally Williams thought the time had come for definite organization. So on the June night referred to above twelve young clerks met and organized **a society for improving the spiritual condition of young men." A man named Christopher Smith (the Smiths are ever with us) suggested the name "Young Men's Christian Association." This was at once adopted.

The first annual report tells us that "The services which the Young Men's Christian Association is established to promote are chiefly prayer meetings and, whenever it is practicable, Bible classes.'* Personal work was an important part of the program.

The number of young men interested grew until in 1849 they moved into rooms on Gresham Street, occupying the second, third, and fourth floors of a first-class building, and providing such features as reading rooms, a library of one thousand books, educational classes, lectures, a refreshment room, and bathing facilities.

At first these privileges were open to members only, and membership was limited to Christian men. These members soon realized that non-Christian young men needed the Association privileges as much as they did,

THE HISTORY OF THE YMCA 3

and made provision in the constitution for the reception of "associates," who enjoyed all Association privileges but could not vote or hold office.

A student in Columbia University, New York City, visited these rooms in London in 1850 and wrote an article describing them, which was printed in an American religious newspaper. This inspired a retired sea captain in Boston to promote the organization of a similar society in Boston; and December 29, 185 1, in the Old South Meeting House the first American YMCA was organized. Like the London organization, it kept the control of the Association affairs in the hands of Christian men who would preserve the original Christian purpose of the organization, that of improving the spiritual condition of young men.

Associations were quickly organized in other American cities. The constitution had been expanded to include the educational as well as spiritual improvement of young men, and when the New York City Association organized in 1852, their constitution included social improvement, and in 1866 this Association added physical improvement, completing what we now call the four-fold work of the Y M C A — educational, physical, social, and religious.

- In 1854 in Buffalo the first convention of American Y M C A's was held, including Associations in Canada. An Executive Committee was appointed, which twelve years later, in 1866, became what is now the International Committee, which supervises and promotes the work of the YMCA throughout the United States and Canada and certain non-Christian lands, but has no control over the affairs of any local Association in America. Its relationship is entirely advisory.

Each Association is called a local independent unit and has complete charge of its own affairs. It can only belong to the Brotherhood, however, and be represented in international Y M C A conventions on condition that it maintains its fundamental Christian purpose, keeping the control of its affairs in the hands of active members, who are designated as those who belong to Protestant Evangelical Churches. While only Protestant Evangelicals can vote or hold office in a Y M C A, all the privileges of the Association, including service on many committees, is open to men of every faith or no faith, so long as they are men of good moral character. Indeed, many men whose character would hardly be designated as moral are often admitted to the Association for the sake of the good the Association will do them.

American Y M C A*s grew in size and efficiency and influence until today they are recognized as the best Associations in the world, and the American local Association is the standard held up to all other countries, and the International Committee is regarded as a model central organization.

The Associations today are organized among all conceivable groups of men, each of these groups being represented by special sub-committees employing expert secretaries. Associations have now been organized for railroad men, college men, industrial men, colored men, Indians, rural communities. The International Committee publishes an official magazine called Association Men, which now has a circulation of over 250,000. The American and Canadian Y M C A's now own buildings and property totalling over $125,000,000, a number of individual buildings having cost over $1,000,000, such as Brooklyn Central, Boston Central, and the Y M C A

THE HISTORY OF THE YMCA 5

Hotel in Chicago. There are over 720,000 members in these two countries, employing over 5,000 secretaries, and expending annually more than $20,000,000 in current expenses. The YMCA stands today as the great organization in the life of men in practically all lands, building them up educationally, physically, socially, and spiritually.

The figures given above are entirely apart from the war work. This was carried on by an agency called the National War Work Council, which was composed of representatives of all Association agencies, just as the International Committee is. It was not a branch of the International Committee but paralleled it and had the direction of all the YMCA war work done for American soldiers. The work for the armies of other nations and for the prisoners of war is done by the International Committee.

Chapter II

HISTORY OF LEADERS' ORGANIZATION By Wm. H. Ball

Mr. Robert J. Roberts^ the pioneer Christian Physical Director of the Young Men's Christian Association, should be credited with creating a demand for gymnasium leaders, that has resulted in the present International Standard Leaders' Clubs organizations and program, which is being followed by Associations in various parts of the world, and especially in the countries of North America.

When Mr. Roberts adopted his platform, "All exercises shall be short, safe, easy, beneficial, and pleasing," there was an immediate increase in the attendance at the Boston Y M C A gymnasium classes that made it imperative that he should have a number of helpers or assistants to serve as leaders of the squads desiring to exercise on the different pieces of apparatus at the close of the mass class dumbbell drill.

His method was to select leaders for each class from among those present who had attracted his attention by their interest and ability in the work and who he knew to be of the right character, with inherent qualities of leadership. These leaders received comparatively little special training outside of the regular class, for popular gymnastics were in their days of beginning and any leader who had a repertoire of twenty or twenty-five movements on the standard three or four pieces of ap-

HISTORY OF LEADERS' ORGANIZATION 7

paratus could readily hold the interest of his group. From among the leaders thus selected and trained came a number of our foremost Physical Directors of today, among them being Dr. J. E. Raycroft of Princeton, Dr. W. G. Anderson of Yale, and Messrs. W. E. Day, H. L. Chadwick, R. L. Weston, and many others.

In 1888 Mr. Day left Boston to become the Physical Director of the Y M C A in Dayton, Ohio. During the following year he organized a splendid group of leaders, in fact several groups, as there was one for the boys, juniors, intermediates, and seniors. These groups were all thoroughly organized, had weekly meetings for work and study, had annual photographs taken and annual banquets toward the close of the year. Members of these Leaders' Clubs are now prominent Physical Directors in Y M C A work all over the United States.

Early in January of 1892 the Montreal Association XDrganized a" Leaders' Corps, adopting a constitution and electing officers. This group met weekly throughout the year from September to June for study and work. The floor work included special practice for all regular and special types of gymnastics. The study consisted of anatomy, physiology, first aid to the injured, nomenclature, etc.

Both the Dayton and Montreal leaders' groups have a continuous history of growth and service from the day of their origin until the present time. As a result of these and similar organizations, the leaders idea spread rapidly, but in many instances the form of organization was extremely loose, the qualifications for membership varied widely, and the methods of training and the type of service were anything but uniform.

During the summer of 1912, the Canadian Physical

Directors while in attendance upon their annual Summer School at Couchiching discussed the subject of creating a National Leaders' Corps organization. The following summer such an organization was developed and still exists in a flourishing condition. During the Great War these Leaders* Corps in the Canadian Associations proved to be a vital factor in maintaining the physical work of the Associations and this in spite of the fact that fully three-fourths of the senior Leaders* Corps entered the service of their country. Their places as leaders were at once taken by the younger boys Leaders' Corps members.

In early March of 1903, a group of about thirty of the more experienced Physical Directors of the Associations of the United States met at Lakehurst, New Jersey, in a week's conference for the purpose of establishing uniform standards of purpose and procedure among the hundreds of Young Men's Christian Associations of the country. Among the subjects discussed was that of the Leaders' Corps. A committee of which F. B. Messing was Chairman thrashed things over carefully, and when they reported to the entire group the whole matter was thrashed over still more thoroughly. The result was the adoption of a standard constitution and by-laws for local Leaders' Clubs and a uniform minimum program of work and study for all Standard Clubs. In addition, standard gymnasium costumes and emblems were established for leaders, and annual tests have been conducted ever since.

Prior to the entrance of the United States in the War there were 22y enrolled Standard Leaders' Clubs in the United States. During the War many of these were

HISTORY OF LEADERS' ORGANIZATION 9

completely disorganized and we are now passing through a period of reestablishment.

It is interesting to note, and is quite significant, that those Associations having a thoroughly organized Leaders* Club composed of high-grade and Christian young men or boys are the organizations promoting the strongest program of physical education.

Chapter III Constitution Of The Standard Leaders' Clubs

By THE Physical Directors' Society

ARTICLE I Name

This organization shall be known as the Leaders' Club of the Young Men's Christian Association of

ARTICLE II

Object The object of the Leaders' Club shall be to assist the Physical Department committee and the Physical Director in carrying out the objective of the Physical Department of the Young Men's Christian Association, especially in the development of a high standard of Christian manhood and the promotion of physical education in general and among the members of the Young Men's Christian Association in particular.

ARTICLE III Membership Section i. The membership of this organization shall be restricted to those who are active members of the Young Men's Christian Association.

Section 2. Membership shall be classified as follows: honorary, active, ex-leaders, and boys.

(Note). The Leaders' Club in the Association may be organized as one club, the same to include the men's

THE LEADERS' CLUB CONSTITUTION ii

and boys' divisions. However, such divisions of the club may be organized as is desired, and each division may have jurisdiction over its own affairs, including the selection of its members, study course, and work, so long as they are in conformity with the general aim of the club.

Section 3. Honorary leaders are those who have acquired one or more gold stars and have retired from active service. The club may also elect to the honorary membership men who have contributed a special service to physical education.

Section 4. Active leaders are those who are engaged in the active work of the Physical Department.

Section 5. Ex-leaders are those who have severed their connection with the Leaders' Qub before completing the four-year course.

Section 6. Boys' leaders are those who are engaged in the activities of the physical work for boys and members of the boys' division.

Section 7. Election of any of the above classes of members shall be by ballot upon recommendation of the Physical Director and the Membership Committee. A unanimous vote of active members present at any meeting of the club shall be necessary for election. It may be wise to nominate new members one meeting before election.

Section 8. The annual dues of $.... shall be paid by each member upon election to the club and at the annual meetings thereafter.

Section 9. Any member who is unfaithful, or who absents himself from the regular work of the club for one month, without reasonable excuse, shall be dropped from the active membership of the club.

Section lo. Boys' leaders having served four years may be elected to the men's section, when voted upon in the regular manner, and shall receive the first-year emblem of the men's division.

ARTICLE IV Officers

Section i. The officers of the club shall be: President, Vice-President, Secretary-Treasurer, who shall be elected by ballot at the annual meeting.

Section 2. The General Secretary, the Physical Director and associates, and the chairman of the Physical Department committee shall be members ex-officio, and these with the regular installed officers shall compose the executive committee.

ARTICLE V Requirements for Grading

Section i. The requirements for active grading shall be regular attendance at weekly meetings of the club on meeting periods, and regular attendance on evenings selected by active members as teaching periods, except when valid excuse for absence can be given.

Section 2. Verbal or written excuses shall be given to the Physical Director when absence from weekly meeting is unavoidable; if for an evening on which the leader is to have charge of a squad, he shall secure a substitute, or notify the Physical Director of his inability to secure one, as soon as said leader has knowledge of his necessary absence. When such notice is given, the member shall be given one-half mark for at-

THE LEADERS' CLUB CONSTITUTION 13

tendance. The same method shall be used for attendance at business meetings.

Section 3. When any member of the Physical Department has been elected as a leader he shall be presented to the club by the President at the next business meeting. An initiation service may be part of the program.

ARTICLE VI Emblems

Section i. The men's emblem shall be a five-inch triangle, sides three-quarters inch wide, with an interwoven English L. No emblem shall be worn by anyone who does not follow the regular course as outHned for leaders.

Section 2. The first-year leaders shall wear a single three-quarters inch crimson star in the apex point of the triangle, which shall be presented with the emblem upon fulfilment of the first year.

Section 3. The second-year leaders shall wear two crimson stars, one in each upper point of the triangle, which shall be presented upon fulfilment of the requirements of the second year.

Section 4. The third-year leaders shall wear three crimson stars, one in each corner of the triangle, which shall be presented upon fulfilment of the requirements of the third year.

Section 5. The fourth-year leaders remove all crimson stars and wear one gold star in the apex point of the triangle, which shall be presented upon fulfilment of the requirements of the fourth year.

Section 6. Each active leader who has passed the examination and the requirements and who has taught not less than fifteen lessons of graded classes during the season shall receive the emblem or stars as provided for.

Section 7. The boys* emblem shall be the same as men's, size to be four inches.

Section 12. Leaders remaining active after attaining the gold star may retain the gold star and begin again with crimson stars. Should any remain eight years, two gold stars shall be presented, one gold star at each of the upper points of the triangle. These leaders are exempt from all requirements except the weekly meeting and the leading of squads or classes.

ARTICLE VII

Examinations

Section i. An examination shall be held annually under the direction of the local Association; the examination outline to be supplied by the Physical Department of the International Committee.

Section 2. The examinations shall consist of three parts, each part to be marked on the basis of icxd per cent, the parts to be as follows: (a) an examination in theory (first aid, nomenclature, hygiene, etc.) ; (b) an examination in the gymnasium to determine the leader's gymnastic ability; (c) an examination in the gymnasium where the leader shall conduct squads or classes to demonstrate his leadership and ability in drills, apparatus work, etc.

Section 3. One year's work shall consist of twenty periods of theoretical work and twenty periods of practical work for grading. The order in which the courses shall be taught shall be optional with the Physical

THE LEADERS' CLUB CONSTITUTION 15

Director. It shall be understood, however, that not less than twenty periods of theoretical and as many periods of practical work be given each year.

Section 4. One hundred points be given for perfect attendance at the leaders' club meetings (a proportionate number of points being deducted for each absence) and 100 points for required attendance at regular class sessions (proportionate number of points being deducted for each absence).

Section 5. That the examination papers be forwarded to the Physical Department of the International Committee for final grading and that an average of seventy per cent be required for promotion.

ARTICLE IX

Meetings

Section 3. The weekly meeting of the club for study

practical work, etc., shall be held on

with the exception of the day on which the monthly business meeting is held.

The following shall be the order of business:

1. Devotional period.

2. Reading of the minutes.

3. Unfinished business.

4. Report of committees.

5. New business.

6. Adjournment.

Section 4. Special meetings may be called as the occasion demands

i6 THE LEADERS' HANDBOOK

ARTICLE X Quorum

active members of the club shall constitute

a quorum for the conduct of business.

Leaders' emblems may be secured from the International Committee, 347 Madison Ave., New York.

CHAPTER IV STUDY OUTLINES AND EXAMINATIONS By THE Leaders' Club Committee

The study course as outlined is a minimum, flexible course. The plan is to make it adaptable to all Associations.

The three divisions for men are gymnastic, athletic, and swimming leaders. All may meet at the same time for theory and at different places for practice, or they may meet separately for study. All leaders take the same theory. The examination will consist of a thesis of two hundred words on Bible Study, Health Education, and Physical Education. The thesis for the first ten-period course may be written at the conclusion of that study, marked and kept by the Physical Director until May, when the final papers will be written. The Physical Director will keep a careful record of each leader and mark him during the year. This mark will constitute the mark on practical work. An attendance of seventy per cent both in theory and practice will be necessary for passing.

Senior Leaders' Course of Study Theory — For all senior leaders

I. Bible Study — Twenty periods of fifteen minutes each. Meeting the Master — Paul in Every Day Life — Manhood of the Master — Fosdick or any of the every day life series. 17 i8 THE LEADERS' HANDBOOK

2. Health Education — Ten periods of thirty minutes

each.

Any three or more chapters — Layman's Handbook of Medicine — Cabot, or other appropriate text book.

3. Physical Education' — Ten periods of thirty minutes

each.

Physical Education Handbook.

Pioneers in Physical Education — Leonard.

Practice — Minimum of twenty periods Gymnastic Leaders Athletic Leaders

Marching — Berry Cornell Track Events

— U. S. Military Manual. Field Events

Heavy Apparatus — Graded Games — Basket Ball

Cards Indoor Baseball

Games — Draper Calisthenics — Conditioning

Calisthenics — Local Drills Drills and Practice,

Swimming Leaders

Dry Land Drills Swimming Strokes Life Saving and Shaffer Method of Resuscitation Aquatic Games — Water Polo, etc.

Boy Leaders' Course of Study

Theory

Character Values in Y M C A Physical Work — Three periods.

I

LEADERS' STUDY COURSE 19

Pioneers in Physical Education — Leonard — Three

periods.

Physical Education — Chapter four — Two periods.

Practice Calisthenics — Four periods.

Gymnastics — Ten periods — Graded Cards — Elementary

and Intermediate.

Athletics — Two periods.

Aquatics

Swimming Strokes — Two periods.

Life Saving — Two periods.

Chapter V

STATEMENT OF ASSOCIATION IDEALS By Richard R. Perkins

Right out where the Young Men's Christian Association is geared to the young man's world it is as understandable as any other instrument which gets things made or done — factory, store, government, school, or home. There are needs to be filled, and a complete mechanism of personSj materials, and methods to meet them. The Association recognizes and attempts to meet more of those needs of a youth than almost any other single factor in the world. Why? Because it has seen that:

He is a body, to be kept fit and vital, that it may support fully the plans and ambitions of the youth's life. Tasks, ills, and worries tend to cave in the body. The Association helps the body to assert confidently and boldly, "They shall not pass"; therefore, the broad, sane, physical program, interesting, competitive, social, progressive;

He is a working being, with a profession, with financial returns — every youth a business in himself. He must "make good"; therefore the extensive program of vocational (i) choice, (2) training, and (3) placement, expressed in the Advisory, Educational (class and correspondence), and Employment Departments, and in the national Thrift movement to teach him that his own life, his hours, his efforts, and his manhood concentrated into his pay envelope, must be as carefully spent as earned.

He is a social being, dependent on both boy and 20

STATEMENT OF ASSOCIATION IDEALS 21

girl companionship under most pleasant and helpful circumstances. Hence its social program, in hike and camp and "gym" and hall and home and club and stunt and concert and movie and class, and its rich contact between youth and intelligent, sympathetic trained leader.

He is a being responsive to the beauties of earth and heaven. Hence its beautiful buildings, its pictures, its out-of-doors glories, its books, music, and the fine charm of a clean, all-round program.

He is an intellect, acquisitively seeking to add to himself knowledge of all things. Hence the satisfaction of mingling with other youth who plan to "make the most" out of the one life given youth. The Association always offers the stimulus of training, in a score of directions. At forty, one should be an alert, intelligent, practiced, likable man, worth a second moment of converse. How many are? Only a life program can bring it about. The Association offers it.

He is a being guided by an inner impulse, magnetic as electricity, constant as radium, radiant as light. We call it personality. Or character. Or spirit. It, rather than face or carriage, identifies one from another. It is the inner, militant force that fights upward. Its battleground is — just the things mentioned above — the body, the life-work, social relationships, ideals of beauty, ideas of self and the world. The "impulse" may be called religion. It is not a vague, separate thing, but an inner power, driving through this battleground and occupying it in the name of Youth. Hence the C in Y M C A, and the clean, high program gathered fully, for youth, under no other emblem than the double triangle made up of the six above-mentioned elements of the life of youth. But where did all this gearing of life to youth, known as the Young Men's Christian Association, come from? It is being built (for the Association is growing and improving faster now than ever in its eight decades) by the one diamond idea of the world — men are meant to be sons of God, to stand up and take their place as such. Every youth has the idea, some time, some how. Only once has it been fully expressed in a way any youth can understand — ^this diamond idea. It is expressed in Jesus — thirty-two or thirty-three years of big, vital, clear-eyed, clean-minded, hard-hitting, enlistedtill-the-end-of-the-war fighting, fearless, wholesome, devoted — fighting up to be a worthy son of God. God has put character into the world in the form of Jesus.

The diamond idea, kept vital by the Christian Church, is making the Young Men's Christian Association.

This idea is larger than the Association. The Association can only announce it to the world of youth, program it, and offer it.

Offer it to whom? Why, to youth — all youth who want it. Any self-respecting hoy or young man may fight for character in and through the Y M C A. If he is not self-respecting he will not want to fight for it.

Thus is answered the question, "What is the Y M C A?" But who is the YMCA? The YMCA is a partnership of (i) youth who respect themselves and hope for their futures, (2) that large section of the public which supplements the seventy-nine per cent which the youth pay yearly to conduct it, by twenty-one per cent in gifts (in addition to buildings), (3) secretaries who are trained to guide the program, (4) the volunteers to the number of at the very least ten to one over the secretaries, without whose abilities, labor, and contacts the work could not conceivably be done, (5) silent partners who have faith in it, and from whom are drawn from time to time both participants and defenders, and (6) God, whose sons youth aspire to be, and who will