Abundant in minutes, reports, correspondence and memoranda, Committees were crucial to the work of the MCSA. In this series, whose surviving documents commence in 1937, may be found the records of the two standing committees - the Executive and the Nominating - of each of the four special interest sections, which along with their respective Chairman, Vice-Chairman and Secretary, administered each section. Also to be found here are the numerous and various special committees created by the relevant section Executive Committee to study, survey or otherwise deal with matters coming to the section's attention: the resulting fruits of their labours are found not only here but also constitute a significant proportion of both the Reports, Studies, Briefs and Surveys Series; and the Publications (MCSA and Member Organizations) Series.

At the very centre of the MCSA's permanent bureaucracy stood the central standing committees (as distinct from the two standing committees, previously alluded to, for each of the four special interest sections). The Committees Series likewise contains the records of these central standing committees: the Executive Committee deputed by the Board of Governors to function in place of the Board between its meetings; and the Planning, Research, Admissions and Standards. Public Information, and Nominating Committees respectively, all also appointed by the Board.

Besides documents generated exclusively by the MCSA, this grouping also holds some of those of joint or other closely affiliated committees, most notably those of the Directors of the Federations and Councils, Welfare Federation of Montreal and United Red Feather Services, Federated Appeal of Greater Montreal, and the Conseil des Oeuvres and its successor, the Conseil de Developpement Social. External committees will be found in other series according to their provenance and function.

Spanning the years 1920-1972, virtually the whole of the Council's existence, this series reflects the rather casual filing system which characterized much of its administration. It is not a listing of full-fledged member agencies exclusively, i.e., only those accredited to regularly send delegates to MCSA assemblies and other meetings. (Authoritative lists of such institutional members, however, dated 1949, 1966 and 1971 may be found, amongst other locations, in files 1136, 879 and 30 respectively). Rather, Member Organizations· presents records as they pragmatically accumulated in that series in the course of business and inclusion generally means that application for membership was made, though in a few instances not speedily or even ever endorsed by the Admissions Committee or accepted by the required two-thirds vote of the Board of Governors.

But again, the MCSA did not practice a rigid consistency in these matters. For instance, because of suspected irregularities in services and finances, Christian Homes for Children (file 643) never gained Council membership despite its wish to do so, and it indeed appears in Administrative Records rather than Member Organizations. So, too, does the Cecil Butters Memorial Horne (file 644), though it was a member in spirit and the MCSA and Welfare Federation worked on amiable and cooperative terms with the institution; there was, however, perhaps geographical logic in not formalizing its membership in view of the horne's far removed location at Austin, in the Eastern Townships. On the other hand, while the Association of Leisure Time Services was also omitted from printed membership lists, it occupied the same Red Feather Services Building (1040 Atwater Avenue) as the MCSA and operated under Red Feather-MCSA auspices. It is included in the Member Organization Series.

Member Organizations has one of the widest scope and content ranges of any series, with files holding anything from a single document, usually a membership application (for instance, the Eastern Association of Baptist Churches, file 32), to the more than fifty years' association revealed by the Montreal Diet Dispensary (file 85). Yet, while the Travellers' Aid Society covers something less than half the chronology of the Diet Dispensary, its six files provide one of the fullest looks at the actual-day-to-day operations of any member in the series. In general, a high proportion of Member Organizations not only feature such related basics as their constitutions, letters patent, by-laws and initial annual reports with financial statements (required to be submitted with applications to the Council); but also correspondence, MCSA special committee reports on the agency or its field of endeavour, and relevant newsletters, brochures or pamphlets. Some also provide copies of their own submissions to government, or Federation and Red Feather Budget Committees.