Organizational responsibility for development of the National Association program and program materials was especially fluid during the first twenty-five years of the YWCA of the USA. Initially, the Association divided its staff into a Home Department (concerned with work in the U.S.) and a Foreign Department (concerned with U.S. staff working abroad.) By 1909 the Association added a Department of Territorial Work to facilitate establishment of a single cohesive national organization out of the array of local, state, and regional organizations that made up the two predecessor organizations.

Though the National Association incorporated in 1907, the Home Department did not have its first meeting until November of 1909. This meeting brought together representatives of the Department's three committees--City, Student, and Association Extension-"to consider the questions of common importance." One of the first topics of discussion was a change of the Department's name to something that would better describe its responsibility for "developing and perfecting" YWCA methods. The group decided to change the its name to Department of Method at its second meeting in January 1910. Also in 1910 the Department of Territorial Work was re-christened the Department of Field Work and charged with responsibility for communication between the National Association and Community Associations on "standards, policies, finances, and work desired and contemplated." In theory, these two departments had quite separate responsibilities, but in practice, the staff seems to have been extraordinarily aware of the big picture needs of the Association and to have participated wherever and however they were needed. From its earliest staff configurations, the National Association seems to have remained unsure about whether or not it was desirable to divide responsibility for "method" and "services."

The Method Department's duties included making studies "to reveal the needs of young women in different localities and groupings," making "continuous study of the Association as a cooperative instrument of service in any community," and testing the "adaptability of its policies to different localities by a series of experiments conducted by expert secretaries." By 1913 those "expert secretaries" included specialists in city, and small town and country association work; in economics, education, physical education and hygiene, and religion; work in college and universities, Indian schools, secondary schools, church schools, "colored" schools; and work with "colored" women, girls, women in industry, and new immigrants. Method Department staff traveled the country visiting Associations and reporting on their area of expertise, but also on any other aspects of YWCA program they felt warranted comment.

The post-World War I staff reorganization and reduction placed specialist "subject" and "constituent group" staff in the newly-created Education and Research Division. The intent was for staff of the Division to act as a resource "to their colleagues at headquarters," but not to work so much with staff of local Associations. They were to carry out research; maintain the library and other resource files at headquarters (such as files on legislation and a clipping service); develop program materials and training courses on "girls as growing personalities," citizenship, general and vocational education, religious and social education, "constructive" health; and to correlate all material related to the educational work of the Association.

As the National Association's financial challenges continued, and the emphasis on national-level development of program decreased, the size of the program staff and its placement within the administrative structure changed every few years until 1960. It was sometimes part of the office responsible for services to Community Associations, sometimes explicitly part of Training, and sometimes a department of its own. Staff overseeing the National Association's public advocacy (which originally emerged from the Method Department) was often linked with program staff, but almost as often under the supervision of General Administration.

The establishment of the Bureau of Research and Program Resources in 1960 brought staff responsibility for research, program materials development, and public advocacy back together-though on a much-reduced scale. These activities remained linked, though under a succession of different names, through the end of the Twentieth century.

Forms part of the YWCA of the U.S.A. Records--Record Group 6. Program.

NOTE: For the most part, the Microfilmed Records and the Original Format Records do not duplicate each other and both should be consulted. This description covers materials in both formats. See the Contents List for a folder-level inventory of the Original Format Records. See the Microfilmed Records Reel Lists for a detailed inventory of the microfilm.

Records in this series include minutes, reports, publications, correspondence, conference files, studies, and training materials recording the work of the staff and committees overseeing development of the YWCA's overall program and general program materials.

As the home department for secretaries working on a variety of subjects and with a variety of groups, the minutes and reports (particularly those pre-1921), as well as the publications (particularly the Program Packets from the 1940s), provide an excellent overview of national program activities and the myriad of techniques used to implement them.

Publications and Resource Materials contain books, pamphlets, "work tools," forms, and kits covering techniques for planning program, for effective organization administration, a variety of political and economic subjects. They also include how-to guides on child care, running residences, space planning, and "world fellowship." The Program Series and Program Packets contain extensive suggestions for programs in all the YWCA's areas of concern. Because they cover so many different subjects, the various Program series and serials give an especially good sense of the scope of the Association's activities.

The series includes records of the Family Commission (1924-29), a group charged by Convention in 1922 to study the "character, place and significance of work in the life of women." The eventual study was expanded to include "work, marriage and divorce, and changing moral standards of today." There are also a couple of small files on other projects.

The bulk of the records date from the years of most intense National involvement in program activities, roughly 1906-39. As is true elsewhere in the records, few items have survived for the period between 1971 and 1988.

Microfilmed Records, 1884-1970 only

[see Microfilmed Records Reel List]

The Minutes and Reports are also available on paper.

• Minutes and Reports
  • Program and Budget Committee
  • Research and Method Committee [includes Home Department and Method Department]
  • Research and Program Resources
  • Education Staff
  • Education and Research Division
  • Family Committee
  • Laboratory Division Committee
  • Leadership Services Division
  • Membership Resources Committee
  • Methods Council
  • Research and Investigation Committee
• Subject Files
  • Economics
  • Education
  • Educational Work of the YWCA
  • Family Relations
  • Laboratory Division
  • Leadership Services
  • Membership Resources
  • National Board-Program
  • Research and Program Resources
  • YWCA--Program

Original Format Records, 1909-2000, n.d., 9 linear feet

[see Original Format Records folder list]

With the exception of some of the publications and the scrapbooks in the Miscellaneous section, most of the Original Format Records dated prior to 1971 are also on the microfilm.

The two (disassembled) scrapbooks were presumably compiled as a reference tool on structures and their uses for staff consulting with Community Associations. They contain information about YWCA buildings and buildings of similar organizations.

The original format records are arranged in nine subseries as follows:

• General and History
• Minutes
• Conferences
• Projects
• Publications and Resource Materials
• Reports
• Studies
• Training
• Miscellaneous

Related Materials

All of the other Series in this Record Group contain information about different aspects of YWCA Program.

There is material about reorganization of YWCA work with constituent groups after World War II on the Microfilm under War Work, World War II, YWCA Constituency Groupings (reel 151).

RECORD GROUP 1. GENERAL AND HISTORY, SERIES II. REORGANIZATIONS contains records of the various consultants' reports and studies of the administrative structure and goals that helped to determine the National Association's approach to Program.

Researchers should consult RECORD GROUP 2. PREDECESSOR ORGANIZATIONS AND NATIONAL BOARD for information about program in the predecessor organizations and discussions about program in the National Board and Executive Committee minutes.

RECORD GROUP 4. NATIONAL CONVENTIONS AND CONFERENCES contains records of the development of the National Association's overall program and the related discussions and ultimate endorsement of the program.

Information about Student Program was the responsibility of the Student Department and National Student Council and can be found in RECORD GROUP 7. STUDENT WORK.