Training School Notes, Association Outlook & Association Seminar

The Association Training School Notes, Association Outlook, and Association Seminar are publications that were produced and published by the International YMCA Training School now Springfield College. The publications spoke to topics important to the YMCA, the College, and its faculty, students and Alumni. So far all issues through July 1915 have been scanned and can be seen on this site.

The Association Training School Notes was published from February 1892 through July 1897. It was devoted to the general interests of the International YMCA Training School community and acted as a medium of communication between the school, its former students and the students themselves. The publication describes events at the school, including board meetings, sporting events, special events, and faculty and staff work and news.  The Association Training School Notes was replaced by the Association Outlook, though the Training School Notes, with its description of happenings on campus and alumni news, remained a section in both the Association Outlook and the Association Seminar.

The Association Outlook was published from October 1897 through July 1900. The main focus of the Association Outlook  was intended for those “…who are interested in religious work for young men in general, and the Young Men’s Christian Association in particular. It aims at the leaders rather than the members of the movement.”  Luther Halsey Gulick was the editor and manager of the publication.  When Luther Halsey Gulick left the school, the Association Outlook was discontinued. After a year hiatus, the publication was brought back as the Association Seminar.

The Association Seminar was published from October 1901 through February 1918. The main goal of the Association Seminar was to publish works by the Student, Faculty and Alumni of the International YMCA Training School, now Springfield College. These works include articles on physical education, religion, sporting events, boys work, and other topics important to the YMCA. 

The Springfield Student (the Student), the student newspaper on campus, was first published as part of the Association Seminar in the January 1909 issue (Vol. 17, No. 4) and concluded in the July 1910 issue (Vol. 18, No. 10). The Springfield Student is still the name of the campus newspaper to this day.