Each department of the General Conference was allotted a display booth at the recent session in San Francisco. There were about twenty of these headquarters booths, stretching along a long corridor on the second floor of the auditorium, arranged in more or less alphabetical order, starting with the Department of Education at one end.
At the last session in San Francisco, in 1941, these booths were located in Larkin Hall below, on the same level as the arena, and therefore perhaps attracted greater attention. However, with the large world globe and bookstand in this hall, it would have created too much congestion to have still other features in there. The second-floor location drew large crowds nevertheless, especially since the information and registry office was located near by at one end of the hall.
Each booth contained a desk and chairs and a display peculiar to the department. The Ministerial Association booth (No. 8) featured Ministerial Reading Course books and bound volumes of THE MINISTRY for the past quadrennial period. These were wrapped in cellophane and set up on a shelf draped with a rich blue cloth.
Above this, on the rear wall, was hung a beautiful background which portrayed the mast head "Ministerial Association," with a picture of Christ the shepherd set in the center of the two words in large, cathedrallike letters. Below this, on a light blue corrugated background, the two halves of a globe appeared, surrounded by this motto in raised letters: "A World encircling Brotherhood in Spirit-filled Evangelism."
It was interesting to match names with faces, as various MINISTRY contributors, evangelists, pastors, and Bible instructors paused at the booth to chat and register.
A small table and chair were placed near the entrance to the booth, where the workers might register. More than five hundred wrote their names in this registry, and many others stopped to ask questions, to make appointments with the association secretaries or leave messages for them, to examine the Ministerial Reading Course books, or to pick up free copies of the July MINISTRY, which were left on the desk for distribution.
Large stacks of THE MINISTRY disappeared, both from the booth and from the bookstand in Larkin Hall below, where sample copies of all our denominational periodicals were displayed. Many expressed appreciation for the helpful ness of "the workers' own journal."
Much favorable comment was also heard on the attractive over-all appearance of the booth, which had been planned and executed in detail by G. E. Vandeman.
