Category Archives: Advocacy and Outreach

SOA and Congressional History Caucus Effort—Member Help Is Needed

The National Coalition for History (NCH) is trying to help create a Congressional History Caucus in the US House of Representatives. The Society of Ohio Archivists is a member of NCH and the SOA Advocacy group of the Advocacy & Outreach Committee supports the effort.

For more information on this effort, go to the NCH web site www.historycoalition.org and the related “Dear Colleague” letter in the House to see the purpose and goals for the caucus.

NCH’s goal is to have 50 members signed on before Congress breaks for the Memorial Day recess. The SOA Advocacy group would like to see SOA members to invite members of the Ohio delegation to become members of the caucus. We need for SOA members (plus friends and associates too) to contact your representatives—or their staff members—to encourage them to join. Phone calls, e-mails, visits to the district offices are all good. We ask that you make the contacts before the SOA spring conference. For information on House members from Ohio go www.house.gov/representatives/ and to the list for Ohio. Most members have a web site that includes phone numbers for both the DC and district offices. And once you do make the contact please let either Robin Heise ([email protected]) or George Bain ([email protected]) know so we can assess how well we are doing and what we can expect from this. Thanks.

Advocacy & Outreach Committee Participates in Statehood Day

Several members of the SOA Advocacy & Outreach Committee will be participating in Statehood Day on March 4, 2015 in an effort to promote and support the CARMA (County Archivists and Records Managers Association) Legislative Committee’s proposal to amend ORC 149.43. This proposal would lift any access restrictions on records with permanent retention after 100 years from the date the record is finalized and closed.

Statehood Day is a day to celebrate the history of the State of Ohio as well as a day to advocate on legislative issues that may impact archival repositories throughout the state. Committee members will be available and working with the CARMA Legislative Committee to promote their proposal and answer any questions that participants may have. Committee members will also be encouraging participants to bring this issue to their local legislative representative and to explain the importance of this proposed amendment.

Important records such as: Adoptions, Lunacy, County Home Registers, Children’s Home Registers, Witness Dockets, Juvenile Court Cases, and Veteran’s Relief Records are some of the records that would become open to the public if this proposal is adopted. These records are important to researchers as they provide valuable insight into our collective history as a state, as a society, and as families. For more information on the CARMA proposal, please visit the SOA Advocacy & Outreach Committee at Statehood Day.

For more information please visit Ohio History Connection’s page for Statehood day.

Celebrating Archives Month in Ohio

Ohio Senator Joe Eucker (center), who represents Clermont County (Utopia) in the state senate, receives a 2014 Archives Month poster from State Archivist Fred Previts (left) and SOA Archives Month Committee chair George Bain (right) in his Statehouse office in early October.

State Representative Doug Green, who represents Utopia, OH (Clermont County), poses by the historical marker that relates the community’s beginnings. A photo of Utopia from 1940 is featured on the Society of Ohio Archivists’ Archives Month 2014 poster.

For more information about Archives Month in Ohio, see the Archives Month page.

2014 “I Found it in the Archives” Contest Results

I Found It In the Archives 2014 Ohio State-wide Competition Results

Deborah Clark Dushane is the winner of the I Found it in the Archives contest with her essay “If He Hadn’t Shot the Town Sheriff….” that received 46% of the total 1257 votes. Deborah will be given a VIP tour of the Ohio State House and will be a guest at the Fall Society of Ohio Archivists meeting on October 3, 2014.

Thanks to the three contestants who shared personal stories about the discoveries they made using historical records found in archival collections at the Ohio History Connection, University of Akron Center for the History of Psychology, and Greene County Archives. Thank you to everyone who voted for their favorite entry and shared this opportunity with family and friends.

Read the entries for the 2014 “I Found it in the Archives” Contest.

“I Found it in the Archives” 2014 Voting Begins

Vote for your favorite “I Found it in the Archives” experience! Read the 2014 “I Found it in the Archives” state finalist essays on the “I Found it in the Archives” Contest Entries page. Voting begins August 18, 2014 and ends August 31, 2014.

See the “I Found it in the Archives” contest page for more information about the contest.

The “I Found it in the Archives” state winner will be featured during the SOA fall meeting, held in partnership with the Ohio Local History Alliance, on October 3, 2014. For more information about SOA’s fall meeting, see the SOA Fall Meeting page.