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The growth of interest has been most gratifying. It is not an unusual thing for a new venture to meet with success in the beginning, and then gradually lose its hold and pass into neglect, leaving little but a remembered failure. But the Indiana Teachers' Reading Circle has steadily grown, each year fully justifying its existence by the improvement in the work done in the schools as a direct result of the fostering of higher educational standards, and of encouraging a finer professional spirit.

The membership for 1887-1888 was, in round numbers, seven thousand, every county in the State, and in thirty counties almost every district, being represented in this membership. At present the membership is about fourteen thousand.

In 1887 a proposal to organize a Children's Reading Circle division was approved, and since then this has also rendered conspicuous service.

PRESENT PLAN OF ORGANIZATION

In December, 1909, the following constitution, rules and regulations for the government of the Board of Directors were authorized by the State Teachers' Association:

1. The Indiana State Teachers' Association hereby constitutes the Board of Directors for the Indiana Teachers' and Young People's Reading Circle, and adopts the following rules and regulations for its government.

2. The aforesaid Board of Directors shall be composed of seven members, including the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, who shall be ex officio a member of the Board. Of the remaining six members, three shall be County Superintendents, one a City Superintendent, and the others shall be chosen from the teaching profession at large.

3. No member of a publishing firm, or agent of such firm, shall be eligible to membership on this Board. Should any member of this Board become a member of a publishing firm, or agent of such firm, within the term for which he was appointed to this Board, his membership herein shall immediately cease, and the State Teachers' Association shall, at its next meeting, fill the vacancy thus arising from the unexpired portion of said term.

4. The members of this Board, except the State Superintendent, whose membership shall be concurrent with his incumbency in the State Superintendency, shall be appointed by the State Teachers' Association in annual convention for a term of three years, or until their successors are appointed. No one shall be eligible to succeed himself as a member of the Board.

5. Should any member of the Board of Directors leave the teaching profession or cease to fill such a school position as that held at the time of election, his membership shall immediately cease. At each annual meeting of the State Teachers' Association the Association shall fill all vacancies for the unexpired portions of such terms.

6. The officers of this Board shall be a President, a Vice-President and a Treasurer, who shall be chosen annually from the membership of the Board, and a Secretary, who shall not be a member of this Board, and shall be chosen annually.

On the last day of each annual meeting of the State Teachers' Association the members of the Reading Circle Board of Directors shall meet and organize for the ensuing year, during which not more than three meetings shall be held.

7. The members of this Board shall receive an annual salary of $50 and railroad fare to and from the three regular meetings. The Secretary shall receive a salary of $150 per year.

8. It shall be the duty of this Board to plan a course of reading, from year to year, to be pursued by the public school teachers of Indiana.

It shall be the duty of this Board to plan a course of reading, from year to year, to be pursued by the pupils in the public schools of Indiana, and to make such rules and regulations as to examinations, certificates and diplomas, in the Young People's Reading Circle, as the Board may deem desirable and practicable.

It shall be the further duty of this Board to select the books to be read in such Teachers' and Young People's courses; to make the most favorable terms with the publishers as to prices of such books to members of the two Reading Circles, and to provide a plan for a convenient and inexpensive distribution of the books to the teachers and pupils.

9. At each annual meeting of the State Teachers' Association this Board shall make a report of the receipts and disbursements for the year just closing, and of such other items as in its judgment shall be of interest to the Association, or as the Association from time to time requests. At each annual meeting of the Association an Auditing Committee shall be appointed to audit the books and accounts of the Reading Circle Board. At each meeting of the Association the report of this Auditing Committee shall be ap

pended to the report of the Board of Directors and shall be a part of the report of that Board to the State Teachers' Association.

10. This constitution, rules and regulations may be amended, revised, or annulled by a majority vote at any annual meeting of the Indiana State Teachers' Association.

DIVISION VII

THE OVERSIGHT OF THE STATE

CHAPTERS XXVI-XXIX

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