 At the 1918 General Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, the delegates voted 265 in favor and 57 against women's laity rights; and when the College of Bishops vetoed the measure, the General Conference sent the question to each of the Annual Conferences (approximately 40 Conferences constituted the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, at that time).The measure passed with a good majority, and women's laity rights were won by 1919.Bennett then started a Laity Committee that would organize a communications campaign throughout the South to make sure that a good number of women delegates would be sent to the General Conferences.