Series 02 - Annual Meetings and Annual Reports

In general documenting the annual conference and public accounting of activities held after the close of the fiscal year, this series consists of MCSA records only, i.e., those generated by or for the institution's central bureaucracy; and, in a single instance (file 1094), an address delivered at the annual meeting of a member agency, the John Howard Society. Where the MCSA was itself closely affiliated with, or a member of, an external organization but the latter was not a member of the MCSA -- for example, the Canadian Mental Health Association or the Canadian Welfare Council -- the foregoing's annual meetings are in the Conferences, Seminars, Workshops and Institute Proceedings Series. The annual reports of functionally farther removed external organizations -- for instance, the Arctic Institute of North America or the Canadian Research Centre for Anthropology -- are in the Subject Files Series.

In the early years a few gaps exist in the MCSA records of annual meetings and annual reports. However, extant holdings represent 1924-1925 and 1931-1972. Though sparse compared to later standards, annual reports from the first usually included statements to the public and the Council membership made at annual meetings by the President, Executive Director, Executive Secretary, and heads of the four major Divisions (later Sections); but sometimes not all of these features are present and if there was an annual meeting, it does not seem to have been recorded. Of particular interest to students of the Depression may be the 1931- 1933 Annual Report of the Special Committee on Unemployment (file 997).

By the early 1960s, however, reflecting an increase in the amount, complexity, and professionalization of MCSA activities, files in this series have substantially expanded. They contain: invitations to member delegates and non-member political figures and welfare officials; agendas; logistics; dinner menus; minutes of the last annual meeting; and reports by the President, Chairman, Executive Director and/or Associate Executive Director, and Honorary Treasurer. Also included are amendments to the Constitution and by-laws, the report of the Nominating Committee and the election of Directors, the appointment of auditors for the next fiscal year, and addresses by guest dignitaries or visiting officials of other welfare organizations. In later years these files invariably contain the minutes of the last general meeting, and often of the current year, too. As of 1969 the fall meeting and annual meeting become virtually the same thing, being held the same day and place, the annual meeting taking perhaps an hour in
the morning for the presentation of executive and administrative reports with the afternoon devoted to the fall conference's addresses, papers, panel discussions and workshops. Most of this series is understandably serious in style as well as subject, but a lighter note was hit by Constance Lethbridge at the 1956 annual meeting with her production of Progress Through Planning and Leadership: An Illustrative Musical Playlet (file 803).