Letter from the Chair
By Gwynedd Cannan
November 1, 2008

The member surveys have been perused and patterns emerge when compared with surveys from 2004 forward. Indeed, the numbers for the most part remain stable from year to year. Fifty eight members attended the annual meeting of whom 29 filled out a member survey. Similar numbers represent the previous four years.

Twelve of the participants were at their first meeting compared to 15 at the 2007 meeting. We are glad to welcome the new faces and invite them to become involved in their section and in the SAA. If new attendees would like to be in the directory on our website, contact the webmaster whose information can be found at this site.

Fifteen members volunteered to help where needed most, the one statistic that differed from previous years. Fifteen is almost twice the number that usually checks that box. The next highest number of volunteers marked “writing an article for the newsletter.” Our online newsletter has three regular issues: Fall, Winter and Spring. The submission deadlines for the three issues are October 15, February 15, and May 15. Our newsletters have been light in content lately, so don’t wait for our editor to solicit calls. Send in articles, announcements, reports, news, and notes. Volunteer to submit a virtual tour of your institution by contacting Representative at Large, Audrey Newcomer. Or as one of our members suggested, visit a religious archives other than one’s own and report on it.

I encourage you also to start thinking of programs for the 2010 SAA annual meeting in Washington D.C. The surveys inform us which issues have concerned our members over the last five years. Interestingly enough, diversity got the most votes with five mentions. Confidentiality and privacy came next with three requests followed by outreach models, two requests. Other ideas for programs are alienation of holdings, impact of legislation and public policy on religious archives, access issues, litigation, religious archives and church historians, recruitment and use of volunteers and funding. Religious archivists should have a strong presence in the SAA given their numbers and pesentations are one good way to see and be seen.

We are grateful that so many want to contribute and we will keep you in mind as needs arise. Don’t hesitate to initiate a project. If you have any ideas that you would like ARCS to address, let us know.

Call to Order: Gwynedd Cannan, Section Chair, called the meeting to order at 9:02 am.

RECEPTON
Gwynedd took a moment to thank Chris Doan for hosting the Wednesday night reception at the Sisters of the Presentation convent on Wed. evening. Next year Mark Duffy will be hosting the reception at Saint David’s Episcopal Church in Austin, Texas. He promised free parking.

MEMBERSHIP ITEMS
Gwynedd asked new members/attendees to rise and give their name and affiliation. Approximately 10 people did so.

Gwynedd asked attendees to sign in on the sign-in sheet and to please fill out the member survey. The survey is used to find volunteers to help out with the section and for use in session proposals. It does not disappear into a vacuum - it is used.

The group approved the minutes of the 2007 meeting with no discussion.

COUNCIL LIAISON
Margery Sly reported on happenings at SAA council. At the most recent meeting, Council:

• Voted to fund two minority scholarships for $5000 each. The scholarships can be used for education as well as attending annual meeting.
• Created a task force to develop a values statement for SAA.
• Adopted a two-pronged approach to the Native American Protocols.
• Diversity Committee and the Native American Roundtable are planning forums for the next three annual meetings.
• Council will form a task force to look at issues of cultural properties.
• Selected Drupal (http://drupal.org/ )as content management software for SAA website.
• Is moving toward electronic balloting for national elections. (They have already been used for some section and roundtable elections, but there is not yet capability to do SAA elections.)
• Awards Committee reminds Round Tables and Sections to get names to Awards subcommittees. People need to be nominated in order to win awards—the names do not generate themselves.

PROGRAM COMMITTEE REPRESENTATIVE
Mark Duffy, section member and SAA program committee member, gave a report on next years program. The Program theme for Austin is “sustainability.” The deadline for submissions is October 8 - online forms will hopefully make submission a bit easier.

ELECTIONS
Loretta Greene conducted elections for the one open Representative-At-Large seat on the Steering Committee. Paul Daniels of the ELCA and Saint Paul Seminary and Sarah Harwell of the Disciples of Christ Archives graciously volunteered to run and their statements were made available prior to the meeting on the ARCS website. There were no nominations from the floor. Paul Daniels won the election.

SR. CLAUDE LANE AWARD.
Mark Thiel of Marquette University won the Sr. Claude Lane Award. The “award recognizes individuals who have made a significant contribution to the field of religious archives.” Thiel won for his work on the five-volume Guide to Catholic-Related Records About Native Americans in electronic format.

RELIGIOUS READER
Mark Duffy gave an update on the Religious Reader. He and Margery Sly put forward a proposal which was accepted by the SAA Publications Board. They have a working chapter outline, but it is still very much in draft form. Margery is looking for help to put together a session/proposal colloquium on different traditions that will help as they move forward in the process. The proposal is to coalesce around different themes with different small groups to help bring out ideas for the book. Anyone wishing to help with the colloquium should e-mail Margery (msly@history.pcusa.org). For the book, contact either Margery or Mark.

COMMITTEE REPORTS
ARCS Committees gave brief reports.

Models and Resources Committee: Chris Doan talked briefly about her plans for Models and Resources. She will provide the members with more information via the ARCS listserv.

Newsletter: Wes Wilson would be happy to give up the position so that other members can become involved in the work of the section. Anyone interested in editing the newsletter may contact Wes or note it on their survey form and he can talk with the member about what is involved. The newsletter is online with new material added until it is “closed” whereupon a new issue is started.

Website: Mark Duffy circulated statistics from the website. The directory is the most used area on the site, which is interesting as SAA is encouraging sections to eliminate their own directories and use the SAA directory. Our directory is browseable though, which makes it a bit easier to use than the SAA directory, which requires a user to know a name. Please refer questions about the website or the statistics to Mark - he is happy to help. He would also be happy to have someone replace him as Webmaster. He is willing to work with someone for a year or two to get them started. It requires a commitment of perhaps a few hours a month.

Listserv: Dale reported that he is closing the Yahoo listserv and ARCS will use the SAA ARCS listserv by the end of 2008. Everyone who is an official member of the ARCS section is signed up to be a member of the new list, but no one receives mail unless they go to their SAA profile on the SAA website and change the settings. Dale will send out the instructions for doing this.

New Business

The SAA Education Committee has instituted an important change - workshop proposals can now be submitted throughout the year - they no longer have to be submitted at the same time as session proposals.

FLOOR DISCUSSION
Gwynedd invited attendees to make brief announcements or statements from the floor.

• Texas Baptist Archives is taking the records of the American Tract Society, including tracts and George Whitfield’s traveling pulpit.
• Chicago Area Religious Archives was founded this last year. They gave a tour.
• The Claretians have started a Catholic Archive Collaborative - it is scheduled to be up and running Oct. 1.
• Laura Botts from Mercer University in Georgia announced that Mercer - Atlanta is the new home of the American Baptist Historical Collections. They are run separate from the Mercer Archives and are in the process of hiring.
• It was announced that the LDS has a new building designed for both archives and library.
• Terry Reilly from the University of Calgary spoke briefly about the controversial four year plan wherein the United Church of Canada shared space in the University of Calgary. This is no longer happening - the congregations are reestablishing their own archives in their offices. They are not really open yet but the website has some news.
• Paul Daniels from Luther Seminary announced that a an oral history collection consisting of 110 oral histories from Lutheran Missions in China before the Revolution may be going online through the National Church Archives.
• Archdiocese of New Orleans representative Lee Leumas will keep the Section updated on Hurricane/disaster activities through Loretta Greene.

SESSION PROPOSALS*
Alan Lefever, section Vice Chair, opened brainstorming on Session Proposals. Some of the ideas mentioned:

• Masterless Mistresses - how belief impacts action
• How congregations grew and developed before the 1929 stock market crash
• Tension between access and organization
• Merging collections
• Mission churches

PROGRAM
We ended the session with a program wherein section members briefly introduced us to their faith traditions and to their collections. One scheduled participant, Lucinda Glenn, was unable to attend. The participants were:

• Bill Sumners: Southern Baptist Historical Society
• Jennifer Cole: American Judaism and the American Jewish Historical Society
• Lori Curtis: Loma Linda University and the Seventh Day Adventists

Gwynedd adjourned the meeting at 11:00 a.m
 
 
 
 
 

Virtual Tour: The Texas Baptist Historical Collection
By Alan Lefever

1.	What is the mission of your Archives? To collect, preserve, and communicate the history and heritage of Texas Baptists.
2.	How many people work in your repository? Do you have volunteers? Three full time, two part time, one volunteer.
3.	Describe your repository: Office space, reading room, storage area. The Collection has office space for the director, librarian and office manager as well as cubicles for researchers (part-time workers) and volunteers. A reading room, a small conference room, break-room, preservation area, and holdings area. All together the Collection comprises 7,700 sq ft of space on the first floor of an office building in downtown Dallas.
	Entrance to Texas Baptist Historical Society.   Intake area.
4.	Describe the holdings of your repository: Volume of material, media, types of collections, etc. The Texas Baptist Historical Collection has historical information on more than 2,000 Texas Baptist churches as well as the minutes of over 400 churches. The holdings also include the most extensive set of Texas Baptist associational minutes available. The Collection contains numerous state convention annuals, Texas Baptist newspapers, state missionary files, and photographs documenting the history of Baptists in Texas. The Collection has also recently acquired the archives and library of the American Tract Society.
	Our stacks.   Volunteers at work in our Reading Room.
5.	Who uses you repository? Describe reference services and research use at your institution. Individuals, churches and institutions researching their history in Texas. Graduate students studying Texas Baptists, and of course, genealogists also use the collection. The Collection answers over 600 requests a year for all types of information.
6.	Are there any interesting projects that you are currently undertaking? Integrating the American Tract Society into the holdings of the Collection is a challenge. The ATS collection contains tracts going back to its very first one in 1824.
7.	Are there particular collections or aspects of your repository you want to highlight? We have the personal papers of Texas Baptist leaders such as George W. Truett, L. R. Scarborough, B. H. Carroll, and William and Anne Bagby.
8.	Where are you located and what is your contact information? The Texas Baptist Historical Collection is located at 4144 N. Central Expressway Suite 110 Dallas, TX 75204. Our office number is 972-331-2235 and our fax number is 972-331-2244. Our general email is tbhc [at] bgct.org

  Thanks for the tour, Alan!

Don’t Skip the Following Article
By Loretta Greene
Chair, Nominations Committee

In accordance with our bylaws, I am asking for nominations for the election to be held in August 2009. Two positions will be open: Vice Chair/Chair Elect and Representative-at-Large. The nominations process is three easy steps:

1) Refer to Section III of the Bylaws for the responsibilities for each position 2) Consider an individual’s gifts and skills 3) Contact me to volunteer yourself or nominate a section member (ask them first, of course!). Like the Staples jingle, you will say, “That was easy!”

The Nominations Committee will begin preparing the slate in January so please give nominee information to me by the end of December, either by email loretta.greene [at] providence.org or telephone at 206-923-4010. Thank you. See, that was easy!

New Acquisitions at the Billy Graham Center Archives
By Robert D. Shuster

Interviews with John Bubelwa Lutembeka, has just been opened to use. Rev. Lutembeka is a Tanzanian who, after a career as educator in the government schools, left to lead a Christian ministry, the Big November Crusade Ministries. Big November, which he founded with four friends, was started to hold yearly non-denominational evangelistic rallies, first in Dar-es-Salaam, then throughout the country. In 2003, Rev. Lutembeka was attending Wheaton College Graduate School. During that time, he sat down to record interviews in which he talked about his family and childhood in Tanzania, education in Uganda during the Idi Amin regime, conversion to the Christian faith while attending teacher’s college; the development of his personal faith, the founding and growth of Big November Crusade Ministries; the rapid numerical growth of Christianity in Tanzania; the Tanzanian church’s characteristics, strengths and weaknesses; his education at the Wheaton College Graduate School, and a comparison of the church in Tanzania and the United States. The approximately six hours of interviews are an excellent source for information about the church in Tanzania, African Christianity, African evangelism, and East Africa at the end of the 20th century. The guide can be found online at: http://www.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/GUIDES/585.htm.

“Mission and Memory” Conference in Hungary
By Elisabeth Wittman

If you would like to join the e-mail list to receive messages and join the Study Group, contact the chair of the group, Michael Poon: mncpoon@gmail.com
 
 
 
 
 

ARCS Officers and Editor's Notes

The Archival Spirit is published three times a year by the Archivists of Religious Collections Section of the Society of American Archivists. Feature pieces as well as announcements of acquisitions and projects are welcome. Send submissions to: Wesley W. Wilson at wwwilson@depauw.edu.