Back-Porch Operations

During 1967 and 1968, the Society operated almost entirely with volunteers, but the increase in membership created more clerical work than even dedicated volunteers like Juanita Smith could manage. To make matters worse, Juanita was moving to a new job that would allow her little if any time for volunteer work.

So we faced a new crisis. Peter Zuckerman found a partial solution by locating a reliable computer service bureau that could process the Society’s records and print out mailing labels, thus greatly reducing the need for human labor. But computerization alone would not be enough: The Society also needed more volunteers and a place for them to work. The only solution seemed to be to move the operations to the back porch of my home. (Sally and I had been using our back porch as a playroom for our three sons, but they were using it less as they grew older.)

Sally found a few neighbors willing to help occasionally, but accommodating the special needs of the volunteers became an increasing burden, which fell mainly on Sally. The very nice woman who took over the Society’s book service was half blind, so Sally had to drive to her home to get her and then drive her back after she finished packing books for shipment to our members. Another problem was that volunteers who were mothers would often bring their children, who tended to wander about our house getting into things. There were even infants who might have to be held while the volunteer was typing labels for us.

We finally decided we simply had to have at least one dependable employee to keep our operations on track, so we hired Ellen Dudley, a banker’s wife who lived nearby, to work one day a week at our house. Ellen thus became the Society’s first paid employee. As the workload continued to grow, more neighborhood women worked part time on our back porch, such as Lucille Beard, wife of a U.S. Army colonel then fighting in Vietnam, and Joanne Albrecht, whose husband was an electrician. When summer came, the part-timers demanded air conditioning, so Joanne got her husband to install it. (Sally and I had never felt we could afford it.)

As the Society’s membership continued to grow, so did the small staff of part-timers and volunteers on our back porch. In 1969, we hired another neighbor, Joan McAlear, as our first full-time employee. Joan lived just down the street from us and was willing to let us use her garage for storing Society books when we no longer had room for them in our house.

Our back porch remained the Society’s headquarters until 1972, six years after the Society was founded. By that time, the situation at our house had become totally intolerable, and my long-suffering wife’s patience was completely exhausted. Luckily, Peter Zuckerman located some very low-cost office space over a used-clothing store in a downscale area of Bethesda, Maryland. Our new quarters were hardly pretentious, but they met our basic needs. We remained there until 1992, when we moved into a more modern building a block away.