--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 15 number: 3 published: 1912-01 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Mutual Work," *Improvement Era* 15, no. 3 (January 1912): 285–286.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1503unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera1503unse start_page: 285 end_page: 286 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1912-01) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1503unse publication_year: 1912 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1912, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Mutual Work Mutual Work Cheering Words from Box Elder Supt. Ernest P. Horsley, writing from Brigham City, November 22, in relation to Mutual Work in Box Elder stake, says: "We are very much crippled in athletic work on account of Brigham City not having halls for this purpose, but we have the work at heart, are converted, and are making a strenuous effort to have it succeed, and to get some young men to take the gymnasium course for the January term. "Our programs for the extra five open meetings of the seniors will consist of something like the following: First night, a lecture in each senior class to the boys, by a surveyor on the subject of the division of land; second night, a lecture to the boys on the marketing of fruit, by one of our fruit-shippers; and the other three nights will be used in a similar way, with such topics from the manual under consideration as will be especially adapted to this locality. Interspersed will be the best musical talent that can be obtained in this part of the state, such as orchestras, soloists, and special talent, which we expect to send from one ward to another. Our associations are showing up better this year than ever before, especially in attendance. We will soon have five per cent of the Church population for the "Era." The Normal Athletic Class On November 20, twenty-seven stalwart young men, representing an equal number of wards and stakes were enrolled in the Deseret Gymnasium, for the purpose of receiving a brief training, aimed to assist them in the direction of athletics and gymnastics in their own wards. The course consists of ten lessons in anthropometry; ten lessons in administration and methods; twenty lessons in gymnastic dancing; twenty lessons in calisthenics and marching; twenty lessons in gymnastics and games, and twenty lessons in athletics, basket ball, baseball, volley ball, and tennis. While the course was very short, lasting four weeks, with five hours per day, marked improvement was clearly shown in the work of these earnest men. This course was given by way of an experiment, but so far as we are able to judge, it has met the most sanguine expectations of the gymnasium officials and members of the General Board. The stakes and wards represented are to be congratulated 286 IMPROVEMENT ERA upon the character and earnestness of the men who represented them. It is the misfortune of stakes which failed to send representatives. Commencing January 20, the course will be repeated, and indications are that there will be a very much larger class. This marks an epoch in the history of Mutual Improvement activities. It is the first work of the kind ever given in the Church, aDd will no doubt finally lead to a much more thorough and careful preparation for this important line of work in our Young Men's Mutual Improvement AsThe first M. I. A. Normal Class in Athletics, and their teachers, Deseret Gymnasium, 1911. sociations. Stake superintendents should read the call for these classes on page 95 of the November, and make imme1911, "Era," diate preparation for the new class, in which at least one hundred young men should attend. Write immediately to Secretary B. S. Hinckley, Deseret Gymnasium, Salt Lake City. The names of the enrolled members who have taken the course are as follows: Alma Tucker, Cowley, Wyo.; Vern Asay, C. S. Lynn, Lovell, Big Horn stake; W. C. Christensen, Martin Mickelsen, Sanford, Colo., San Luis stake; Walter Swain, Daniel, Walter S. Carlile, Heber 2nd, Joseph Swain, Charleston, Lawn Smith, Heber 1st, J. Thomas Crook, Center, Rolland Baird, Heber 3rd, Wasatch stake; Eddis W. Watkins and John O. Hughes, Mendon, Lloyd Oldham, Paradise, Hyrum stake; J. S. Bennion, Taylorsville, Martin Isaksen, Mill Creek, J. L. Myers, Grant, Granite stake; G. S. Heiner, Morgan stake; Malcom W. Watson, Ogden 5th, Weber stake; William E. Marshall, Darrell Marshall, Randolph, Woodruff stake; O. O. Bates, Tooele stake; J. C. Coult, 31st Ward, Liberty stake; A. V. Butler, Driggs, Teton stake; F. W. Bacon, Georgetown, Bear Lake stake. On the evening of December 13, the class met with President