The Kentucky Archivist

Newsletter of the Kentucky Council on Archives

Page Six

An Archival Horror Story

Glen Drummond, Macon County [Alabama] Engineer, recounted this story recently. It relates to his quest to locate Macon County's missing court records dating from the 1830s. Late in 1996, he found the records stored in old trailers, having been placed there during the 1985 court house fire and then forgotten.

After securing a site in the Court House Annex for records storage and an adjacent storeroom to be used as a workroom, he set out to find grant money for the renovation. The USDA Rural Development program agreed to provide a grant for 55 percent of the construction cost, estimated to be $50,727. The grant application was approved on September 23, 1997, but Mr. Drummond still had to find the remaining $22,827 from local donations. He secured the bulk from Alabama Power Company, the Meade Foundation, and the Macon County Bar Association, with each contributing $7500. The major hurdles had been overcome, but some unexpected problems arose.

There were no funds for shelving, and the architect forgot to include lights in the interior workroom! Fortunately, the state archives had surplus steel shelves, which Mr. Drummond quickly seized. Also, he convinced the architect to furnish the lighting for the workroom. Construction began February 15, 1999, and was completed May 1. Many volunteers in the Tuskegee area contributed to this successful project by unloading the trailers, moving the documents into the Court House Annex, dusting and chasing spiders, inventorying, and grouping documents. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints donated a computer, and offered support through volunteers and donations. Without Glenn Drummond's efforts, however, the records would undoubtedly remain in the trailers today.

Origin of SAC

The Southern Archivists' Conference (SAC) was an outgrowth of joint meetings of the Society of Mississippi Archivists (SMA) and the Society of Alabama Archivists (SALA) which were held at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, in the spring of 1985, and at the University of Southern Mississippi's Gulf Park Campus in Long Beach, Mississippi, in April, 1986. At the 1986 meeting, there was discussion of forming a regional archival organization. There was little, if any opposition to forming such an entity, but there was debate about its scope and nature (ACCESS, Summer 1986)

Since the SALA/SMA joint meetings worked well, it was decided that these organizations would meet again in 1987. Prior to that, SALA and the Society of Georgia Archivists (SGA) had met jointly a time or two. Archivists from Georgia and Tennessee were invited to join SALA and SMA for a meeting at the 4-H Camp at Lay Lake in Columbiana, Alabama, in 1987. "The theme of regional cooperation dominated the (spring 1987) meeting. While everyone saw some advantages, there was disagreement about the nature, scope, and even the value of a regional organization. Out of the discussion came a more clearly focused image of what Mississippi and Alabama were willing to try." (ACCESS, Summer 1987).

Alabama and Mississippi agreed to join together and form the conference. President Sally Ripatti, Tennessee Archivists, stated that she would take the SAC proposal to the state organization and invited Mike Thomason, SALA member, to present the idea for formation of SAC at the joint Tennessee/Kentucky fall meeting. At the September 1987 fall meeting, Tennessee decided to join. [KCA decided not to join the new association.] Mike Thomason and Linda Overman, SMA members, presented the idea for a regional organization at a joint SGA/SALA meeting in the fall of 1987. By a narrow margin, the membership of SGA declined to join SAC at that time.

The first official SAC meeting was held at the University of Mississippi, Oxford, May 17-19, 1988. Archivists from Alabama, Tennessee, and Mississippi were in attendance. A decision was made that SAC be an association of organizations rather than a membership organization. No one wanted competition with the state organizations. SAC was purposely loosely formed for that reason--no constitution, no by-laws, no officers, and no membership fees. The primary goal was to increase the potential for speakers and have better programs. With greater financial resources, it would be possible to offer more workshops, hold more training programs, and bring in more speakers for sessions. At the 1988 meeting in Oxford, there were three pre-conference workshops, including one from SAA followed by a day and a half of concurrent sessions of two or three topics with three to five speakers each. Nine representatives of non-member organizations were on the program or taught the workshops. Tours and receptions were included. The state organization made money on the meeting.

SAC was meant to achieve whatever goals we in the region felt were worthwhile. It was meant to help us pool our resources, increase communication between state organizations and their members, and strengthen the profession in the member states. Initially, meetings were held at inexpensive sites where meeting spaces were free, where attendees ate all meals together, and where there was an opportunity to really get to know one another. Over the past few years, the meetings have been held in larger cities and they have become more expensive. In some cases, this has reduced the number of members from the same institution who have been able to attend.

Linda Overman, Reprinted from Tennessee Archivist