The problem of this research was to investigate David Sills' explanation of membership attrition in voluntary associations. Using the membership population of the Dallas Association for Retarded Citizens from 1969 through 1974, a survey was conducted to determine whether the organizational characteristics of bureaucracy, minority rule, and goal displacement are associated with membership attrition in a selected voluntary association. The findings of this study support Sills' ideas about the association of goal displacement and minority rule with membership attrition in voluntary associations. Bureaucratization, however, was not found to be related to membership attrition.

The problem of this study was an audience analysis of Dallas' weekly underground newspaper Iconoclast. A readership survey was mailed to 200 randomly selected subscribers to Iconoclast. Data were taken from the ninety useable questionnaires of those returned. The study is organized into four chapters. Chapter I discusses problems, procedures, introductory material and recent and related studies. Chapter II is a history of Iconoclast. Chapter III is an analysis of data. Chapter IV presents summary, conclusions, and recommendations. The data revealed the typical subscriber as having a mean age of 28.7, some college education, and higher than $10,000 yearly income. He obtains both exclusive and supplementary information from Iconoclast, and considers it an important but biased news source.