In March and April of 1918, the women of Ann Arbor had been exhausting at work giving practice hours in registration, crating “four minute speeches, making posters” and collaborating in registration drills . Under the chairmanship of Joan Shipley in 1983, the committee started holding lectures Thursday evenings, in addition to mornings to accommodate a rising demand for tickets. During the blockbuster 1984 lecture series, “A Sense of Humor,” the viewers was moved to the Sports Center to accommodate an audience of a thousand. In 1986, ten lectures had been held and the lively membership expanded to 80 members. In 1998, the collection returned to a common format of one lecture held on each Thursday in October.