Archives Committee Report - August 2000

A few highlights from the International Convention. The new Archives display was set up at the International Convention. It was a combined effort by Southern Area 36 and the Northern Area 35. Area 36 supplied four tables of archival materials and Area 35 supplied 2 tables of archival materials. The hospitality suite provided to us by G.S.O. was excellent. It was approximately 40 feet by 60 feet. I would like to thank Valerie O. for procuring the hospitality suite for us and I would also like to thank Tally Management, and the Downtown Hilton for being so nice to us. I would also like to thank all the District Committee Chairs, volunteers and Herb B. for taking time out of their busy schedules and help staff the Archives display. I hope everyone had fun and thoroughly enjoyed it. We had many visitors view the display from around the United States and from various foreign countries. Many of them commented on how nice a display we had set up. Herb Brunner set out a guest book for them to sign. Lots of questions were asked and some of them requested copies of various materials and we received many requests for copies of Mitchell K.'s book "How It Worked", which is a biographical study of Clarence S. (The Home Brewmeister).

Eleven people attended the Committee Meeting on August 12 in Mankato. District 13 has a new Archives Chair John and District 20 has a new Archives Chair Brian B.

There were four items on our agenda for discussion:

In the current Trusted Servant Guidelines the role of the Area Archivist and the Area Archives Committee are the same. However their roles are not the same. The Archives Committee is the collectors of the archival materials. The Archivist is the conservator/guardian of the archival materials. I shared this information with the Structure Chair and Christine and her committee are currently reviewing the Trusted Servant Guidelines.

I submitted a request to the Area Chair (Skip L.) for an increase of $800.00 to the Area Archives budget. The total budget for the Area Archives Committee would be $1600.00. Dan F. asked why I recommended an increase of $800.00. Herb and I and shared with the committee that the tape collection should be put on CD-ROM at some point in time before they deteriorate; the Grapevine collection should be placed in binders; a computer could be purchased in order to keep an up-to-date inventory of the tape collection, Grapevine collection, the various books in the collection; to purchase supplies for restoration and preservation; a scanner could also be purchased for scanning documents; and, finally, it could be used to help pay the rent for the repository.

I had a conversation with Gail L., the archivist from Akron Ohio. I shared with her that we had a couple of our Big Books de-acidified and she asked why since there are plenty of books. She said we should do a history of our area. We had a short discussion on this and that it would take quite a long time to produce a history of the Southern Minn. Area and in the beginning maybe we could compile a short 3 or 4 page history on Unity in the Southern Minn. Area.

We also discussed compiling a list of persons willing to serve as the Area Archivist. So far we have three names on the list David K. (CPC Chair), Ken R. (2218 Archivist), Jerry O. (Archives Chair). If anyone has someone in mind that is willing to serve as the Area Archivist please send me an e-mail at archives@area36.org and I will add their name to the list. Skip L. informed me that the recommendation from the Archives Committee is to be presented to the new Area Chair at the Area Assembly in November in New Ulm.

Earlier this year the current Archives Committee wanted to be on record as recommending that that the archival materials be housed in a permanent repository and we still believe that. In the letter that I sent to Skip regarding the increase in the Archives Committee budget I also made mention of the fact that the archival materials could possibly be moved from New Ulm to another location sometime during the next rotation. I shared with him that I didn't' t know if that was a concern of the current rotation or not but that funding needs to be provided for that if they are moved and also that additional funding may need to be provided if the rent for the repository is more than the $50.00 a month that we are paying the West Side Group in New Ulm now.

Upcoming events

(The archives display will be available for viewing at all these events.)

Attention all District Archives Chairs: Remember the Archives Committee workday Oct. 7th in New Ulm.

Yours in Service and Gratitude,
Jerry O.
August 12, 2000