After Janet Mattei's many contacts with international observers and her invitation for other national groups to submit their observations to the AAVSO International Database, its numbers exceeded 300000 observations annually. Professional astronomers and educators were increasingly relying on these results for their studies of stellar phenomena.

The increase in observations tells us very little about the effort required to make those observations available for use by others. We discussed many aspects of the AAVSO's history as it evolved in the previous chapters, but said little about the staffing at headquarters organization other than for the recorder and/or the director. In the early years there was little more to consider than the position of secretary/receptionist, filled for many years by Helen Stephansky under Recorder Leon Campbell and then Director Margaret Mayall. Florence Campbell Bibber, who worked for Mayall from the 1950s through the 1970s, followed Stephansky. Mayall also began hiring work-study students and other part-time assistants to process observations and handle early programming efforts. With its limited financial resources, the Association could afford nothing more than temporary staff for this work.