Search

The Financial Correspondence and Records of Series IV comprise twenty linear feet plus twelve oversize volumes. It is evident from the quantity of financial records and from perusal of the general correspondence and committee records of the Student Volunteer Movement that financial survival was a major focus for the Movement's energies. There were those who thought that this focus tended to obscure the real objectives of the Movement. There were many who objected to the frequency and insistent nature of SVM requests for contributions. Writing in 1932, former SVM traveling secretary Weyman C. Huckabee suggested that administrative overload was a major problem for the Movement. During the time when Huckabee traveled for the SVM only one-quarter of the Movement's budget was devoted to "field cultivation" operations, direct contact with volunteers and prospective volunteers. He felt that some of the energy consumed by innumerable financial solicitation letters should be redirected into field work.(Weyman C. Huckabee, "The History and Significance of the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions" (unpublished MA thesis, Duke University, 1932), p. 179.)