Akhtar Hameed Khan Comilla Cooperative Pilot Project what was the goal of the comilla cooperative pilot project? The Comilla Model (1959) was Khan's initiative in response to the failure of a Village Agricultural and Industrial Development (V-AID) programme what were V-AID's failures? V-AID remained a government-level attempt to promote citizen participation in the sphere of rural development. how was the comilla model different? developed a methodology of implementation in the areas of agricultural and rural development on the principle of grassroots-level participation. what were the major aims of the citizens that participated? Initially, the aim was to provide a development model of programmes and institutions that could be replicated across the country. but was the ultimate goal to improve economic conditions for farmers? Advisory support in this respect was provided by experts from Harvard and Michigan State Universities, the Ford Foundation, and USAID. did the comilla project succeed? Comilla Model simultaneously addressed the problems that were caused by the inadequacy of both local infrastructure and institutions through a range of integrated programmes.
do you have any examples of what these problems were?
do you have any examples of what the Comilla Project's problems were?
The Comilla Model (1959) was Khan's initiative in response to the failure of a Village Agricultural and Industrial Development (V-AID) programme that was launched in 1953 in East and West Pakistan with technical assistance from the US government. V-AID remained a government-level attempt to promote citizen participation in the sphere of rural development. Khan launched the project in 1959 on his return from Michigan, and developed a methodology of implementation in the areas of agricultural and rural development on the principle of grassroots-level participation. Initially, the aim was to provide a development model of programmes and institutions that could be replicated across the country. Advisory support in this respect was provided by experts from Harvard and Michigan State Universities, the Ford Foundation, and USAID. Practical help was also sought from Japan to improve the local farming techniques.  Comilla Model simultaneously addressed the problems that were caused by the inadequacy of both local infrastructure and institutions through a range of integrated programmes. The initiatives included the establishment of: a training and development centre; a road-drainage embankment works programme; a decentralized, small scale irrigation programme; and, a two-tiered cooperative system with primary cooperatives operating in the villages, and federations operating at sub-district level.  After Khan's departure from Comilla, the cooperative's model failed in independent Bangladesh because only a few occupational groups managed to achieve the desired success. By 1979, only 61 of the 400 cooperatives were functioning. The model actually fell prey to the ineffective internal and external controls, stagnation, and diversion of funds. This prompted the subsequent scholars and practitioners in microfinance, such as Muhammad Yunus of Grameen Bank and Fazle Hasan Abed of BRAC, to abandon the cooperative approach in favour of more centralised control and service delivery structures. The new strategy targeted the poorest villagers, while excluding the 'less poor'. However, Khan's leadership skills during the course of his association with the project remained a source of inspiration for these leaders, as well as other participatory development initiatives in the country. CANNOTANSWER
The initiatives included the establishment of: a training and development centre; a road-drainage embankment works programme;
Akhter Hameed Khan (, pronounced ; 15 July 1914 – 9 October 1999) was a Pakistani development practitioner and social scientist. He promoted participatory rural development in Pakistan and other developing countries, and widely advocated community participation in development. His particular contribution was the establishment of a comprehensive project for rural development, the Comilla Model (1959). It earned him the Ramon Magsaysay Award from the Philippines and an honorary Doctorate of law from Michigan State University.

In the 1980s he started a bottom-up community development initiative of Orangi Pilot Project, based in the outskirts of Karachi, which became a model of participatory development initiatives. He also directed many programmes, from microcredit to self-finance and from housing provision to family planning, for rural communities and urban slums. It earned him international recognition and high honours in Pakistan. Khan was fluent in at least seven languages and dialects. Apart from many scholarly books and articles, he also published a collection of poems and travelogues in Urdu.

Early life
Khan was born on 15 July 1914 in Agra. He was among the four sons and three daughters of Khansaahib Ameer Ahmed Khan and Mehmoodah Begum. His father, a police inspector, was inspired by the reformist thinking of Syed Ahmed Khan. In his early age, Khan's mother introduced him to the poetry of Maulana Hali and Muhammad Iqbal, the sermons of Abul Kalam Azad, and the Sufist philosophy of Rumi. This upbringing influenced his interest in historical as well as contemporary social, economic, and political affairs.

Khan attended Government High School at Jalam (Uttar Pradesh), and completed his education in 1930 at Agra College where he studied English literature and history. He read English literature, history, and philosophy for a Bachelor of Arts degree at Meerut College in 1932. At that point, his mother was diagnosed with tuberculosis. She died in the same year at the age of 36. Khan continued his studies and was awarded a Master of Arts in English Literature from Agra University in 1934. He worked as a lecturer at Meerut College before joining the Indian Civil Service (ICS) in 1936. As part of the ICS training, he was sent to read literature and history at Magdalene College, Cambridge, England. During the stay, he developed a friendship with Choudhary Rahmat Ali.

Khan married Hameedah Begum (the eldest daughter of Allama Mashriqi) in 1940. Together, they had three daughters (Mariam, Amina, and Rasheeda) and a son (Akbar). After Hameedah Begum's death in 1966, he married Shafiq Khan and had one daughter, Ayesha. During his ICS career, Khan worked as collector of revenue, a position that brought him into regular contact with living conditions in rural areas of East Bengal. The Bengal famine of 1943 and subsequent handling of the situation by the colonial rulers led him to resign from the Indian Civil Service in 1945. He wrote, "I realised that if I did not escape while I was young and vigorous, I will forever remain in the trap, and terminate as a bureaucratic big wig." During this period, he was influenced by the philosophy of Nietzsche and Mashriqi, and joined the Khaksar Movement. This attachment was brief. He quit the movement and turned to Sufism. According to Khan, "I had a profound personal concern; I wanted to live a life free from fear and anxiety, a calm and serene life, without turmoil and conflict. ... when I followed the advice of old Sufis and sages, and tried to curb my greed, my pride and aggression, fears, anxieties and conflict diminished."

For the next two years, Khan worked in Mamoola village near Aligarh as a labourer and locksmith, an experience that provided him with firsthand knowledge of the problems and issues of rural communities. In 1947, he took up a teaching position at the Jamia Millia, Delhi, where he worked for three years. In 1950, Khan migrated to Pakistan to teach at Islamia College, Karachi. In the same year, he was invited by the Government of Pakistan to take charge as Principal of Comilla Victoria College in East Pakistan, a position he held until 1958. During this time (1950–58) he also served as President of the East Pakistan Non-Government Teachers' Association.

Rural development initiatives
During his tenure as principal of Comilla Victoria College, Khan developed a special interest in grassroots actions. Between 1954 and 1955, he took a break to work as director of the Village Agricultural and Industrial Development (V-AID) Programme. However, he was not satisfied with the development approach adopted in the programme that was limited to the training of villagers. In 1958, he went to Michigan State University to acquire education and training in rural development. Returning in 1959, he established the Pakistan Academy for Rural Development (PARD, eventually renamed as Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development) at Comilla on 27 May 1959 and was appointed as its founding director. Khan became vice-chairman of the board of Governors of PARD in 1964, and in the same year, was awarded an honorary Doctorate of law by Michigan State University. In 1969, he established collaborative links with Arthur Lewis.

Advisory roles
Following his move to Pakistan, Khan was asked to implement the Comilla Model in rural settlements of North-West Frontier Province (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Punjab, and Sindh. He declined the offer on the grounds that the proposals were predominantly motivated by political interests rather than the common well-being. However, he continued to advise the authorities on various aspects of rural development, such as participatory irrigation management. He worked as a research fellow at the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad from 1971 to 1972, and as Director of Rural Economics Research Project at Karachi University from 1972 to 1973. Khan went to Michigan State University as a visiting professor in 1973 and remained there until 1979. During this time, he carried on advising the Rural Development Academy at Bogra in northern Bangladesh, and the Pakistan Academy for Rural Development, Peshawar, on the Daudzai Integrated Rural Development Programme. In 1974, he was appointed as a World Bank consultant to survey rural development situations in Java, Indonesia. He also briefly worked as a visiting professor at Lund University, Harvard University, and the University of Oxford.

In 1980, Khan moved to Karachi and started working on the improvement of sanitary conditions in Karachi suburbs. He laid the foundations of the Orangi Pilot Project for the largest squatter community of Orangi in the city. He remained associated with this project until his death in 1999. Meanwhile, he maintained his support for rural communities around Karachi, and also helped to develop the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme. OPP became a model for participatory bottom-up development initiatives.

Major development programmes

Comilla Cooperative Pilot Project

The Comilla Model (1959) was Khan's initiative in response to the failure of a Village Agricultural and Industrial Development (V-AID) programme that was launched in 1953 in East and West Pakistan with technical assistance from the US government. V-AID remained a government-level attempt to promote citizen participation in the sphere of rural development. Khan launched the project in 1959 on his return from Michigan, and developed a methodology of implementation in the areas of agricultural and rural development on the principle of grassroots-level participation. Initially, the aim was to provide a development model of programmes and institutions that could be replicated across the country. Advisory support in this respect was provided by experts from Harvard and Michigan State Universities, the Ford Foundation, and USAID.

Comilla Model simultaneously addressed the problems that were caused by the inadequacy of both local infrastructure and institutions through a range of integrated programmes. The initiatives included the establishment of: a training and development centre; a road-drainage embankment works programme; a decentralized, small scale irrigation programme; and, a two-tiered cooperative system with primary cooperatives operating in the villages, and federations operating at sub-district level.

After Khan's departure from Comilla, the cooperative's model failed in independent Bangladesh because only a few occupational groups managed to achieve the desired success. By 1979, only 61 of the 400 cooperatives were functioning. The model actually fell prey to the ineffective internal and external controls, stagnation, and diversion of funds. This prompted the subsequent scholars and practitioners in microfinance, such as Muhammad Yunus of Grameen Bank and Fazle Hasan Abed of BRAC, to abandon the cooperative approach in favour of more centralised control and service delivery structures. The new strategy targeted the poorest villagers, while excluding the 'less poor'. However, Khan's leadership skills during the course of his association with the project remained a source of inspiration for these leaders, as well as other participatory development initiatives in the country.

Orangi Pilot Project

The Orangi poverty alleviation project (known as the Orangi Pilot Project, or OPP) was initiated by Khan as an NGO in 1980. Orangi is located on the northwest periphery of Karachi. At that time, it was the largest of the city's approximately 650 low-income squatter settlements (known as katchi abadi). The locality was first developed in 1963 as a government township of . The influx of migrants after the creation of Bangladesh swelled the settlement to about one million people crowded over an area of more than . The working class multi-ethnic population was predominantly composed of day labourers, skilled workers, artisans, small shopkeepers, peddlers and low-income white collar workers. The project proved an impetus to the socio-economic development of the population of the area. As the project director, Khan proved to be a dynamic and innovative leader. The project initially focused on creating a system of underground sewers, using local materials and labour, and succeeded in laying hundreds of kilometres of drainage pipes along with auxiliary facilities. Within a decade of the initiative, local residents had established schools, health clinics, women's work centres, cooperative stores and a credit organisation to finance enterprise projects. By 1993, OPP had managed to provide low-cost sewers to more than 72,000 houses. The project subsequently diversified into a number of programmes, including a people's financed and managed low-cost sanitation programme; a housing programme; a basic health and family planning programme; a programme of supervised credit for small family enterprise units; an education programme; and a rural development programme in the nearby villages.

Comparing the OPP with Comilla project, Akhter Hameed Khan once commented:

The Orangi Pilot Project was very different from the Comilla Academy. OPP was a private body, dependent for its small fixed budget on another NGO. The vast resources and support of the government, Harvard advisors, MSU, and Ford Foundation was missing. OPP possessed no authority, no sanctions. It may observe and investigate but it could only advise, not enforce.

The successful OPP model became an inspiration for other municipalities around the country. In 1999, Khan helped to create Lodhran Pilot Project (LPP) to collaborate with Lodhran municipal committee. Learning from past experiences, the project extended its scope to the whole town instead of concentrating on low-income settlements only. The municipal partnership was itself a new initiative that ensured wider civic co-operation.

The success of OPP did come at a cost for Dr Khan as his liberal views and self-help initiatives were questioned and criticised by certain interest groups. At two occasions, he was accused of blasphemy. However, all allegations against him were acquitted by the courts of law and cleared by independent religious scholars.

Death
In 1999, Khan was visiting his family in the United States when he suffered from kidney failure. He died of myocardial infarction on 9 October in Indianapolis at the age of 85. His body was flown to Karachi on 15 October, where he was buried on the grounds of the OPP office compound.

Legacy
Khan's ideology and leadership skills were a source of inspiration for his students and colleagues, and continue to serve as guiding principles even after his death. Edgar Owens, who became an admirer of Khan's ideology while working at USAID's Asia Bureau, co-authored a book with Robert Shaw as a result of observations and discussions with Khan at Comilla Academy. A later study of various rural development experiences from South Asia, edited by Uphoff and Cambell (1983) was jointly dedicated to Khan and Owens.

Soon after Khan's death, on 10 April 2000, the Government of Pakistan renamed the National Centre for Rural Development the Akhter Hameed Khan National Centre for Rural Development and Municipal Administration.

Later in 2005, the Council of Social Sciences, Pakistan, in collaboration with the National Rural Support Programme and other institutions, announced the Akhter Hameed Khan Memorial Award. The annual cash award is given on Khan's birthday to a Pakistani author for a book on issues related to rural and urban development, peace, poverty alleviation, or gender discrimination. At the occasion of the award ceremony in 2006, a documentary film about the life and times of Akhter Hameed Khan was premiered. The film includes archival footage and interviews with family members, colleagues, and contributors and beneficiaries of the Comilla and OPP projects.

The Akhter Hameed Khan Resource Centre (AHK Resource Center)was established in Islamabad, under the auspices of the Institute of Rural Management, as a repository of published and digital resources on rural development. The Akhter Hameed Khan Resource Center was initially formed in 2010 as a repository of works and writings by Khan and his mentee Shoaib Sultan Khan; after 2015 the resource center transitioned into an NGO that established an experimental site in urban development in Dhok Hassu, Rawalpindi.

Awards and honours
Khan received the following civil awards:
 Jinnah Award (Posthumous, 2004) for services to people as founder of the Orangi Pilot Project.
 Nishan-e-Imtiaz (Posthumous, 2001) for services to the community.
 Ramon Magsaysay Award (31 August 1963, Manila, Philippines) for services to rural development.
 Sitara-e-Pakistan (1961) for pioneering work in rural development.

Publications
Khan was fluent in Arabic, Bengali, English, Hindi, Pali, Persian, and Urdu. He wrote several reports and monographs, mostly relating to rural development in general or his various successful and model initiatives in particular. He also published collections of poems and travelogues in Urdu.

In English
 1956, Bengal Reminances, vol 1, 2 & 3. Comilla Academy (now the Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development), Comilla, Bangladesh.
 1965, Rural Development in East Pakistan, Speeches By Akhter Hameed Khan. Asian Studies Center, Michigan State University.
 1974, Institutions for rural development in Indonesia, Pakistan Academy for Rural Development. Karachi.
 1985, Rural development in Pakistan. Vanguard Books. Lahore.
 1994, What I learnt in Comilla and Orangi. Paper presented at the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) seminar. Islamabad.
 1996, Orangi Pilot Project: Reminiscences and Reflections. The Oxford University Press: Karachi. (editions: 1996, 1999, 2005). 
 1997 The sanitation gap: Development's deadly menace . The Progress of Nations . UNICEF.
 1998, Community-Based Schools and the Orangi Project. In Hoodbhoy, P (ed.), Education and the State: Fifty Years of Pakistan, Chapter 7, Karachi: Oxford University Press. 
 2000, Twenty Weeks in America: A Diary, 3 September 1969 – 21 January 1970. Translated from Urdu by Aqila Ismail. City Press.

In Urdu
 1972, Safar-e-Amrika ki Diary (A Diary of Travels in America). The City Press: Karachi. 2nd Edition: Atlantis Publications, Karachi 2017.
 1988, Chiragh aur Kanwal (Collection of poems in Urdu). Saad Publishers. Karachi.

See also

 Civil society
 Social entrepreneurship
 Social innovation

Notes

References

 Abadi, H. (2006). Dr. Akhter Hameed Khan. Karachi: Oxford University Press.  
 BARD (1983). The Works of Akhter Hameed Khan. Volumes I–III. Comilla: Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development.
 Barmazel, S. (2005). "Orangi Pilot Project: An NGO Helping to Build Community" in O.P. Richmond and H.F. Carey (eds.) Subcontracting Peace: The Challenges of NGO Peacebuilding. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing. pp. 191–98. 
 Chowdhury, A.N. (1990). Let Grassroots Speak: People's Participation Self-Help Groups and NGO's in Bangladesh. Dhaka: South Asia Books. 
 Chaudhuri, M.A. (1969). Rural Government in East Pakistan. Dhaka: Puthighar Ltd.
 Dowla, A. and Barua, D. (2006). The Poor Always Pay Back: The Grameen II Story. Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian Press. 
 Hasan, A. (1994). "Replicating the Low-Cost Sanitation Programme Administered by the Orangi Pilot Project in Karachi, Pakistan" in I. Serageldin, M.A. Cohen, and K.C. Sivaramakrishnan (eds.) The Human Face of the Urban Environment, Proceedings of the Second Annual World Bank Conference on Environmentally Sustainable Development. (19–21 September). Washington, D.C.: The World Bank. 
 Hasan, A. (1996). "Introduction" in A.H. Khan Orangi Pilot Project – Reminiscences and Reflections. Karachi: Oxford University Press. pp. xi–xli. 
 Hasan, A. (1999). Akhter Hameed Khan and the Orangi Pilot Project. Karachi: City Press. 
 Hasan, A. (2002). "A model for government-community partnership in building sewage systems for urban areas: The experiences of the OPP-RTI". Water Science and Technology Vol. 45, No. 8, pp. 199–216.
 Khan, A.H. (1996). Orangi Pilot Project: Reminiscences and Reflections. Karachi: Oxford University Press. (editions: 1996, 1999, 2005). 
 Nigam, A. and Rasheed, S. (1998). "Financing of Fresh Water for All: A Rights Based Approach" in UNICEF Staff Working Papers. Evaluation, Policy and Planning Series, No. EPP-EVL-98-003.
 NRSP (2000). In commemoration of The Life and Times of Akhter Hameed Khan: Talks of Akhter Hameed Khan at the National Rural Support Programme. Islamabad: National Rural Support Programme (NRSP).
 Raper, A.F. (1970). Rural Development in Action: The Comprehensive Experiment at Comilla, East Pakistan. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. 
 Valsan, E.H. (2005). "Leadership in Public Administration for Alleviating Poverty and Development: A Conceptual Approach", in J. Jabes (ed.) The Role of Public Administration in Alleviating Poverty and Improving Governance, NAPSIPAG. Manila: Asian Development Bank. 
 Yousaf, N. (2003). Allama Mashriqi and Dr. Akhtar Hameed Khan: Two Legends of Pakistan. New York: Xlibris.

External links
 Akhter Hameed Khan Memorial Award, at Council of Social Sciences (COSS) website
 AHK Resource Centre and Digital Library
 AHK Photo Gallery at Institute of Rural Management (IRM) website
 

1914 births
1999 deaths
Development specialists
Sewerage
Appropriate technology
Alumni of Magdalene College, Cambridge
People from Karachi
Academics from Karachi
Recipients of Nishan-e-Imtiaz
Pakistani humanitarians
Recipients of Hilal-i-Imtiaz
Cooperative organizers
Microfinance people
Muhajir people
Pakistani scientists
Pakistani economists
Pakistani scholars
Pakistani Sunni Muslims
Ramon Magsaysay Award winners
Michigan State University alumni
People from Agra
Fellows of Pakistan Academy of Sciences
20th-century economists
Comilla Victoria Government College faculty
Recipients of the Sitara-e-Pakistan
Squatter leaders
The Junto, also known as the Leather Apron Club, was a club for mutual improvement established in 1727 by Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia.  The Leather Apron Club's purpose was to debate questions of morals, politics, and natural philosophy, and to exchange knowledge of business affairs.

History
Franklin organized a group of friends to provide a structured form of mutual improvement. The group, initially composed of twelve members, called itself the Junto (from the Spanish word junta, or assembly). The members of the Junto were drawn from diverse occupations and backgrounds, but they all shared a spirit of inquiry and a desire to improve themselves, their community, and to help others. Among the original members were printers, surveyors, a cabinetmaker, a clerk, and a bartender. Although most of the members were older than Benjamin Franklin, he was clearly their leader.

At just 21, he oversaw five men, including Hugh Meredith, Stephen Potts, and George Webb, who were soon to form the core of the Junto.  Franklin was an outgoing, social individual and had become acquainted with these businessmen. This gathering included prominent merchants who met informally to drink and discuss the business of the day.  Franklin's congenial ways attracted many unique and learned individuals, and from these, he selected the members for the Junto.

All members lived in Philadelphia and came from diverse areas of interest and business.  Along with Meredith, Potts, and Webb, they included Joseph Breintnall, merchant and scrivener, who also loved poetry and natural history. Thomas Godfrey was a glazier, mathematician, and inventor; and Nicholas Scull II and William Parsons were both surveyors.  Scull was also a bibliophile and Parsons a cobbler and astrologer.  William Maugridge was a cabinetmaker, William Coleman a merchant's clerk, and Robert Grace a gentleman.  Grace's wealth meant he did not have to work, but apparently he brought an intellectual element to the group and a fine library.  The twelfth member of the Junto remained a mystery until 2007, when Professor George Boudreau of Penn State discovered a long-forgotten account of the club's refreshments and verified that shoemaker John Jones Jr. was an original member.  Jones was a Philadelphia Quaker, a neighbor of Franklin's, and later a founding member of the Library Company of Philadelphia.  The club met Friday nights, first in a tavern and later in a house, to discuss moral, political, and scientific topics of the day.

Franklin describes the formation and purpose of the Junto in his autobiography:

Prehistory
Franklin was influenced by two predecessor organizations in particular.

Dry Club
One was an English group called the "Dry Club," which had philosopher John Locke, William Popple, and Benjamin Furly among its members during the 1690s (and was itself partially inspired by Furly's "heretics of the Lantern" society). It met one evening a week for two hours at a time and required that its members reply affirmatively to the following questions:

 Whether he loves all Men, of what Profession or Religion soever?
 Whether he thinks no person ought to be harmed in his Body, Name, or Goods, for mere speculative Opinions, or his external way of Worship?
 Whether he loves and seeks Truth for Truth's sake; and will endeavour impartially to find and receive it himself, and to communicate it to others?

Each member of the club would take turns proposing topics for discussion and moderating these discussions. The discussions were to be held in a spirit of open-minded tolerance:

That no Person or Opinion be unhandsomely reflected on; but every Member behave himself with all the temper, judgement, modesty, and discretion he is master of.

Neighborhood benefit and reforming societies
The other important predecessors were the "neighborhood benefit societies" and "reforming societies" proposed in Massachusetts by Cotton Mather. Cotton Mather described the neighborhood societies as being composed of a dozen married couples who would meet at one another's homes in succession for prayer and other religious exercises, and also to consider questions like the following:

 Who are in any peculiar adversity; and what may be done to comfort them?
 What contention or variance may there be among our neighbours; and what may be done for healing it?
 In what open transgressions do any live? and who shall be desired to carry faithful admonitions to them?

The similar reforming societies would entertain questions like these:

 Can any further methods be devised that ignorance and wickedness may be more chased from our people in general; and that domestic piety, in particular, may flourish among them?
 Is there any instance of oppression or fraudulence in the dealings of any sort of people, which may call for our efforts to rectify it?
 Is there any matter to be humbly recommended to the legislative power, to be enacted into a law for the public benefit?
 Do we know of any person languishing under severe affliction, and is there any thing we can do for the succour of that afflicted neighbour?
 Has any person a proposal to make, for our further advantage and assistance, that we may be in a better and more regular capacity for prosecuting these intentions?

Questions
The Junto's Friday evening meetings were organized around a series of questions that Franklin devised, covering a range of intellectual, personal, business, and community topics. These questions were used as a springboard for discussion and community action. In fact, through the Junto, Franklin promoted such concepts as volunteer fire-fighting clubs, improved security (night watchmen), and a public hospital.

List of questions
This is the list of questions Franklin devised to guide the discussions at Junto meetings (from Franklin's papers, dated 1728, and included in some editions of his autobiography):
 Have you met with any thing in the author you last read, remarkable, or suitable to be communicated to the Junto? Particularly in history, morality, poetry, physics, travels, mechanic arts, or other parts of knowledge?
 What new story have you lately heard agreeable for telling in conversation?
 Has any citizen in your knowledge failed in his business lately, and what have you heard of the cause?
 Have you lately heard of any citizen's thriving well, and by what means?
 Have you lately heard how any present rich man, here or elsewhere, got his estate?
 Do you know of any fellow citizen, who has lately done a worthy action, deserving praise and imitation? Or who has committed an error proper for us to be warned against and avoid?
 What unhappy effects of intemperance have you lately observed or heard? Of imprudence? Of passion? Or of any other vice or folly?
 What happy effects of temperance? Of prudence? Of moderation? Or of any other virtue?
 Have you or any of your acquaintance been lately sick or wounded? If so, what remedies were used, and what were their effects?
 Who do you know that are shortly going [on] voyages or journeys, if one should have occasion to send by them?
 Do you think of any thing at present, in which the Junto may be serviceable to mankind? To their country, to their friends, or to themselves?
 Hath any deserving stranger arrived in town since last meeting, that you heard of? And what have you heard or observed of his character or merits? and whether think you, it lies in the power of the Junto to oblige him, or encourage him as he deserves?
 Do you know of any deserving young beginner lately set up, whom it lies in the power of the Junto any way to encourage?
 Have you lately observed any defect in the laws, of which it would be proper to move the legislature an amendment? Or do you know of any beneficial law that is wanting?
 Have you lately observed any encroachment on the just liberties of the people?
 Hath any body attacked your reputation lately? And what can the Junto do towards securing it?
 Is there any man whose friendship you want, and which the Junto, or any of them, can procure for you?
 Have you lately heard any member's character attacked, and how have you defended it?
 Hath any man injured you, from whom it is in the power of the Junto to procure redress?
 In what manner can the Junto, or any of them, assist you in any of your honourable designs?
 Have you any weighty affair in hand, in which you think the advice of the Junto may be of service?
 What benefits have you lately received from any man not present?
 Is there any difficulty in matters of opinion, of justice, and injustice, which you would gladly have discussed at this time?
 Do you see any thing amiss in the present customs or proceedings of the Junto, which might be amended?

Any person to be qualified as a member was to stand up, lay his hand upon his chest, over his heart, and be asked the following questions, viz.
 Have you any particular disrespect to any present members? Answer. I have not.
 Do you sincerely declare that you love mankind in general, of what profession or religion soever? Answer. I do.
 Do you think any person ought to be harmed in his body, name, or goods, for mere speculative opinions, or his external way of worship? Answer. No.
 Do you love truth for truth's sake, and will you endeavor impartially to find and receive it yourself, and communicate it to others? Answer. Yes.

See also
 American Philosophical Society
 Bloomsbury Group
 Headstrong Club
 Invisible College
 Lunar Society
 Toastmasters International
 Whig Junto
 Wicht Club

References

External links
 Junto Global
 History of the American Philosophical Society and the Junto
 Benjamin Franklin: A Documentary History -- J.A. Leo Lemay

1727 establishments in Pennsylvania
Benjamin Franklin
History of Philadelphia
History of philosophy
Philosophical societies in the United States In a construction puzzle you have to build (assemble) a technical contraption. This may be a static object (such as a bridge) or a mechanical object (like a machine).

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