Charities Get $24,638 Net In '66-7 Drive

The chairman of the Harvard-Radcliffe Combined Charities has proposed major changes in the annual drive after last fall's intake dipped for the third consecutive year.

A total of $24,636 was raised during the five-day drive last October. Last year the drive totalled $26,500, and two years ago it was $27,500.

Louis Maisel II '67, in his chairman's report, stated that 2533 Harvard and Radcliffe students--about 46 per cent of those solicited--contributed an average of $8.62. Off-campus students were not contacted.

"I feel that now is the time to undertake a major re-evaluation of Combined Charities," said Maisel. "Our total gifts and percentage of givers have become progressively smaller during the past three years. Although the average gift was raised considerably during this drive, we could not offset the drop in percentage of donors; our total feel short of our mark."

The drive's goal was $30,000.

Maisel proposed a number of major changes for the drive in the future:

* change the time of the drive from the fall to the spring.

* ensure that the chairman and treasurer are both juniors.

* systematize and democratize the selection of charities.

* revert to a smaller staff.

If the drive were held in the third or fourth week of the spring term, Maisel said, there would be more time for preparation and the selection of recommended charities. In addition, volunteers have a lighter work load in the early spring, and contributors have more money than in the football season, he noted.

Maisel said that the chairman and treasurer should be juniors because seniors would be too busy with theses to give the job proper attention in the spring.

Maisel made several suggestions to give the Advisory Board a more active role. In the past, the Advisory Board has consisted of a few organization heads, house chairmen, and deans, who have had no part in the research for the recommended charities. They only met once to vote on the charities presented them by the research chairman.

This selection process, however, was criticized this year by several members of the Advisory Board who felt there was a total lack of communication between the researchers and Advisory Board.

Maisel suggested that representatives of organizations, rather than the organization heads, serve on the Advisory Board. In this way, he said, the Advisory Board can spend more time and play an active role in researching and selecting the charities. Maisel felt that the Advisory Board should meet two or three times with the chairman and research chairman in advance of the meeting to vote on the recommended charities