3.3 3.4 the administration of lou b. williams, 1895-1906.  (Page 5/5)

In general, the projects the BWMW undertook around 1900 moved women outside the restricted sphere of their local church, its building, and its pastor and into the lives of a distant missionary family, an indigent urban mother and child, or a cooperative effort larger than their own circle could support. The Baptist Sanitorium in Dallas was one such cause; George Truett addressed the women on its possibilities at their 1904 meeting and it quickly captured their interest and support. Another was the Margaret Home, a WMU-SBC project. This was a home in Greenville, South Carolina, which provided for missionaries' children who returned to the United States to attend school. It operated for eight years and was then sold and the money used to endow WMU scholarships for the children. Other successful ventures sponsored by the WMU were the Christmas Offering for Chinese missions (later expanded to include all foreign missions) and the Week of Self-Denial, or Week of Prayer. In all these activities women were carefully maintaining their traditional, supportive role, but they were expanding the range of choices within its boundaries.

Fully as important to the BWMW as the expansion of activities undertaken during Lou Williams's presidency were the organizational changes that evolved. The percentage of reporting societies (approximately one-third) indicates that these refinements were not pervasive, but were concentrated in the state body, in locales where there were Baptist schools, and in urban groups, particularly those in proximity to the Dallas headquarters. As models, however, they filtered down to the less well organized; in fact, this organizational efficiency was the vehicle that brought the timid, the recalcitrant, and the uninformed into the fold. Under Fannis Davis's tenure the decision had been made to name an executive committee of nine women who, along with the four officers, would conduct business between sessions, but the committee did not actually get underway until after Lou Williams took office. With both Mrs. Williams and Mrs. Gambrell residing in Dallas and most of the appointed members living in its environs, the group proved effective in transferring responsibility from single individuals (i.e., the president and the corresponding secretary). Its size was enlarged to twenty-five members in 1902. The corresponding secretary's office was combined with that of the treasurer so money would come to the source that was in most frequent contact with both the local societies and the mission boards, and the duties of all the officers and committees were defined in bylaws appended to the BWMW constitution in 1901. In a further effort to subdivide responsibility and create accountability at a level lower than the state, associational vice presidents were named in 1898 and they were urged to form associational unions of women that would meet quarterly at associational gatherings.

Probably the most influential change made in the manner of doing business was the appointment of a committee on apportionment in 1905. It was the culmination of a decade of moving away from raising money from benefits, rummage sales, suppers, etc., toward tithing (giving 10 percent of one's income) in a systematic fashion. "The most legitimate and satisfactory way to raise mission money is to go down into your pocket and give it," claimed a sister from Lindale. BS, February 22, 1894, p. 7. Her motivation was not simply the unprofitability of those other ventures, but a growing denomination-wide conviction that good stewardship implied at least a tithe, "the Lord's plan of giving." This changed conception of funding from haphazard gifts to stipulated amounts that women were duty-bound to contribute, along with the creation of a sophisticated network of accountability, were innovations with wide implications for the BWMW's future. Their impact began to be felt by 1903 when annual collections jumped nearly $10,000 to $23,955. By 1905, they were up to approximately $33,750 and in 1906, $57,800.

The programs given at annual meetings during the decade demonstrated the same attention to planning; for example, the 1903 meeting in Dallas had ushers, young women dressed in the native costumes of missionary fields, visitors from all important denominational boards, musical soloists, and prepared resolutions from all committees. These occasions also demonstrated a growing need to appeal to a wide range of women and to do so by utilizing symbols, catchwords, and other advertising "gimmicks." The BWMW motto ("Saved to serve") and colors (royal blue and white), adopted in 1902, were just the beginning of this trend, which, in part, contradicted the interest in content that the desire for a training school and better literature implied.

It is difficult to know how much Lou Williams contributed directly to the BWMW's development during her term of office, but it appears that her service lay in maintaining an attitude of confidence and equanimity while encouraging other women to unleash their organizational imagination and energy. The inspirational quality of her role, however, was recognized in her being referred to as "Mother" Williams until her death in 1931. Long a fixture in Texas Baptist life, she moved into the woman's training school that was eventually built in conjunction with the Baptist seminary in Fort Worth and maintained a strong interest in its landscaping.