ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an introductory sketch of the formal structure of Task Force as it was in late 1970. Task Force was set up to mobilise the work of young volunteers in the service of the old. It is run by a predominantly young staff and its activities are now concentrated in London. In the first three or four years of the history of Task Force the goals of the organisation, as defined by its Director, were primarily service orientated. Anthony Steen’s aim was to help old people who were isolated or lonely and who needed social visiting or practical help of a kind that could be provided by volunteers. The hierarchical structure of Task Force was linked with a traditional approach to authority. The Director, who was sometimes called in business language the ‘managing director’ in early literature on the organisation, was the source of all executive authority.
