CONSTITUTION of the SMITH FAMILY JOYSPREADERS UNLIMITED (undated, probably pre 1935))

Post date: Dec 26, 2015 6:5:12 AM

Via Facebook, I was able to obtain presumably the first section of the CONSTITUTION of the SMITH FAMILY JOYSPREADERS UNLIMITED. The date of this document is unknown but associated with the 1930's on the Smith Family web site where a smaller cropped version appears. The larger section obtained on Facebook appears below. They have the same tear and appear pasted in a book of lined pages, they look like the same document.

Under the "Obligations of a Smith" we see No 2. "When engaged in the official work of The Family at no time to reveal his true identify" is of particular interest. We find names associated with the Smith Family in news articles in the 1930's, but many reports simply speak of "Smiths". The names mentioned are high profile people such as the Governor General at official events where they would have been well known. However this second obligation of a Smith to maintain anonymity will prove an obstacle to research, but if there are trusts and bank accounts associated with this organisation, then names must have been used (such as the lease or title for their HQ in Sydney's Pitts Street.. and I am assuming there is not a history of the Smith Family which I am yet to discover... I may prove to be on a path someone has already tread).

The fourth obligation is "To undertake to endeavour to introduce to the Smith Family a new member within six months of the acceptance of his application for membership."

There are echoes of Freemasonry here, the "Obligations" and a restriction to males over 18 years of age, but there is nothing purely masonic in these things.