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~~ : . ‘ + . - 1917: “In this time of national and world crisis, which is no less a crisis in the Kingdom of God, the dominant impulse is that of service.” That committee member also wrote that, “Everyone asks: What can I, what can we, do to help, not only in over- coming the evil effects of wars, but in preventing war's recurrence?” More than forty years later the same question is still asked. War is a disease and today nuclear war threatens mankind’s extinction. A lone person often feels there is nothing he can do; the AFSC tries to show that with others he can perhaps make some headway. The very nature of the American Friends Service Com- mittee precludes a rigid, hierarchical structure. Yet even as an adventure of the spirit, if people are to work usefully together, organization is necessary, and an AFSC structure has been gradually evolving. Beginning with a staff of two in 1917, there are now several hundred employed workers in the various offices as well as a host of volunteers. What began as a single center in Philadelphia consists now of eleven regional offices and several other area offices from coast to coast. In the mid-twenties the Service Committee “was incorporated, first in Pennsylvania and later in Dela- ware, with the broad purpose of engaging in religious, chari- table, social, philanthropic, and relief work in the United States and in foreign countries on behalf of the Religious Society of Friends. All members of the corporation are Quakers as are their elected member. o° the board of direc-.- .. tors, thirty-nine in number. With the directors rests the responsibility to take up, continue, enlarge, decrease, or lay down programs. The executive secretary, also a Friend, is responsible to the board of directo s for carrying out its decisions. A high percentage of the organization's executive staff members are Friends, active in their Meetings and in the affairs of the Society of Friends. The Committee’s overseas field appointees are volun- teers, serving generally for two years at a time, occasionally longer. Participation has always been open to persons not » f. ~ wd :