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Our Catholic II crilage in Texas
and to outline its policies for the ensuing year. Any member of the Hierarchy is eligible for a Board position upon application. The priests and laymen on the Board are usually selected to represent various sections of the country. It has become an established practice to invite founders to be members of the Board of Governors during their lifetime. At the annual meeting of the Board of Governors an executive committee is selected, which consists of the chancellor and the president as ex officio members, a bishop, and four business men. This committee alone has the power of allocating the funds of the Society. The Constitution and Bylaws of the Society provide that no member of the Board shall receive remuneration for his services. The publication of the Extensio11, Magazine, the official organ of the Society, is left in the hands of the president, who is assisted in the various departments by priests and laymen. The work of the Society is carried out under the immediate direction of the president. As previously stated, the books of the organization are audited quarterly by an auditing committee. There are four kinds of memberships, namely, founders, life, annual, and subscription. Founders are those who contribute $5,000 or more in cash or $500 a year for ten years. Life members are those who give $1,000 either in cash or in ten annual payments of $100 each. Founder- ships and life memberships may be established through wills or in the name of deceased relatives. Annual members are those who contribute ten dollars per year. Subscription members are all subscribers to the Extension Magazine for three dollars a year, and all profits derived from this source are used for the general purpose of the Society. 39 Aiding tl,e niissitms. Immediately upon the organization of the So- ciety, missionary priests were invited to make application for aid to build the church or chapel they were desirous of erecting. The request for help had to be accompanied by the plans for the proposed structure, together with cost estimates and an endorsement of the Ordinary of the diocese. It soon became the general practice to reject all applications for aid whenever the estimated cost was more than $5,000. The Society consid- ered that in such instances the community was probably able to realize its desire without outside help. In the majority of cases, chapels erected with assistance from the Society seldom required grants of more than $1,000.
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59 O'Brien, "Catholic Church Extension Society," Catltolic B11ilders of t/,e Nation, V, 128-129.
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