Managing Mennonite Memory, Mennonite Central Committee, 1920- (Fifth in a series)

by Irene Leaman

 

INTRODUCTION

The Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) collection at the Archives of the Mennonite Church continues to beckon me. During a recent visit, Dennis Stoesz, archivist, asked me to write an article on MCC records management. I readily agreed. MCC historical records have intrigued me for the past 20 years. Preserving MCC history concerned the Executive Committee from the beginning. Only the method has changed. Begun as a small collection of files in the homes of administrators, the collection has grown into a centralized electronic system maintained by the Records Department.

For the purposes of this article, I will address only the MCC Binational and MCC U. S. records. Although MCC also has some MCC Canada records, MCC Canada preserves its official records in the Mennonite Heritage Centre on the campus of Canadian Mennonite Bible College, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

EARLY HISTORY OF MCC RECORDS, 1920-1945

MCC was born in 1920, responding to an appeal from the Russian Mennonites suffering from war and famine. The records for this period, 1920-1935, were kept by the secretary, Levi Mumaw, in his home in Scottdale, Pennsylvania. Most of the correspondence was carried out by the secretary at that time. The files were arranged chronologically.

During the following years, in the 1930s and 1940s, MCC relief for victims of war and natural disaster spread from Europe to Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. MCC headquarters followed the next secretary, Orie O. Miller, to his home in Akron, Pennsylvania. From this modest beginning in the large white house on the corner of Main and 11th streets, MCC headquarters today consists of five buildings in the Akron and Ephrata area with about 200 staff members.

In 1937, the year MCC was incorporated, the Executive Committee pondered what would become of the old files. The December 30, 1937, Executive Committee meeting recorded the following action.
It was voted to take over all the official records and correspondence of the old Mennonite Central Committee and its officers and place them in the custodianship of the secretary-treasurer. The active material shall be placed in the hands of the secretary and made a part of the corporation records. The remaining material is to remain the property of the Mennonite Central Committee but shall be deposited in the Mennonite archive to be established in the new Goshen College Library building. The officers and members are requested to deposit with the secretary for incorporation in the archives any documents or correspondence in their hands relating to the official business and activities of the committee or which may cast light on the policies and activities of the committee.

In the early 1940s, MCC became involved in administering the Civilian Public Service Camps. The Executive Committee discussed the voluminous files created from Civilian Public Service (CPS) camps in December 1945. H.A. Fast, at the request of the executive committee, studied the problem of handling the CPS files and made the following recommendation:
(a) These files should remain under M.C.C. supervision and control. For the present they should be housed at Akron, Pennsylvania, in a fireproof structure. Permanent housing of C. P. S. files should await permanent location of M.C.C. headquarters.
(b) Supervision of the files and access to them should be under the administrative control of the Executive Secretary.
(c) Access to files should be under the following conditions: Written registration providing all necessary information about the person seeking use of files including a statement describing his purpose and giving assurance that the information gained will be used to a constructive purpose and that confidential matters, legal and otherwise will be respected as confidential.
(d) Duplicate copies in M.C.C. files may upon request be made available to N.S.B. (National Service Board) - C.P.S. files if needed there to complete its records.

At the same meeting, the committee acted on the larger set of CPS files created by the National Service Board for Religious Objectors. This organization acted as an umbrella for the three peace church groups who administered the CPS camps: Friends (Quakers), Church of the Brethren and MCC.
(a) These files should be kept intact, located in a site acceptable to the cooperating peace church agencies and left in the hands of a competent archivist and accessible to the public under conditions set forth by the Board of Control appointed by these groups. Expenses shall be shared on an equitable basis by the three groups. Temporarily it would appear best to gather these files at the N. S. B. office in Washington until a permanent location can be agreed upon.

CENTRAL FILING SYSTEM ORGANIZED, 1946-1975

A major shift in record keeping occurred in 1946 when a central filing system was organized. Department directors desired a more unified filing system and the research section of CPS needed to coordinate the activities of each department. Consolidating the files seemed a good option. In May 1946, the Executive Committee authorized the Executive Secretary to engage a filing expert to set up a filing system. The 1946 MCC workbook reported the following:
Mr. Bennie Bargen, of Bethel College, a filing expert, came to headquarters the first of June, 1946 to set up a central filing system. On August 1st the actual work of filing current material was begun.

Bargen reported his findings to the Executive Committee in September, 1946. He noted that there were 200 file drawers in the office. Some of the material was of great value, he commented, and some was of no value. He attached a table of obsolescence to his report as a guide to disposition of the files and recommended assigning two full-time file clerks. He also recommended indexing all Executive Committee minute actions to be “undertaken at once.”

The 1961 Revised Central Files Manual included the following purpose statement.
The purpose of the Central files is to bring together in one place and in one system for the entire organization all material of a general nature accurately and neatly arranged for prompt reference.....It cross-indexes material so fully that all material of a given topic or related subject can be found easily....

According to the manual each department had its own set of files until 1946. Filing was not consistent and letters routed from one department to another were often lost. The manual outlined in detail all procedures and practices of the Central Filing Department.

Although central filing and the manual were an excellent beginning, implementing the decision was difficult. Confidence in the Central Files department was low. If a letter could not be found, where was it? Was it the problem of the department who neglected to send it to Central Files, or was it misfiled? Who could know?

In 1975, at MCC’s request, Miriam Weaver from Eastern Mennonite College, evaluated the central filing system. Weaver noted in her report that nothing indicated filing had a very high priority in the MCC office. She added that many administrators considered their departments an exception to the requirements of central filing guidelines. Weaver introduced the concept of records management. This concept evolved slowly. The name change from Central Files to Records Department did not happen until 1983.

FROM CENTRAL FILES TO RECORDS MANAGEMENT

Records management includes managing the entire paper cycle from creation to disposition. The methods of records management vary according to the needs of an institution. However, records management always involves the monitoring of records, regardless of type or format throughout their life cycle.

When I came to MCC in 1979, we had some 300 files in the Central Files department divided into two sections. The correspondence section consisted of both incoming letters and copies of outgoing letters. The data section had reports of various types. Each week the different departments sent to the Central Files department a folder containing their correspondence and reports of that week. The central files staff coded this material and filed it into appropriate files. If any of the documents were needed again, the file clerks located the document.

Active files are kept in the center of the office where they are easily available. After three years they are considered inactive and moved to the basement. During this time, the files are still nearby if needed, but do not take valuable office space. The inactive file area is something like purgatory. It is a place where files are kept until their value is determined and they are sent to their final destination

The Executive Committee decided that the files should be transferred to the archives after a period of ten years. Each year the ten-year-old files are weeded by the Records Department manager for materials of passing value. The remaining materials are placed into acid free file folders and sent to the archives. With this method about a third of the collection is saved.

Bargen and Weaver’s recommendations worked well at a time when there were only a few hundred files each year. However, as the organization grew, we had more than 1,000 files for each year. The simple filing system of alphabetical filing became a problem. How could anyone scan 1,000 file titles and know where to place a document?

In 1986 I completed an archives course at a local university. This provided the knowledge I needed to change our filing system. I changed our previous A-Z filing method to filing by department. I realized this method could create the need to have similar files in different departments. Consequently, I created project files in addition to the usual correspondence and data files. The files were placed under the department responsible for the work.

For example, creating project files meant that any letter regarding a hurricane in Honduras was filed into the Honduras Hurricane file regardless of who wrote the memo. If the Latin America Department assumed responsibility to address the needs of Honduras at this time, the file was placed with the Latin America department files. If Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) assumed responsibility for the work, it was placed with the MDS department files.

We maintained an organizational chart each year to note administrative changes. This created an organizational history. In addition, we maintained a subject authority list. We noted what project names were currently used as well as project names no longer used. This list was useful, and still is, when programs change their names or restructuring places them in different departments.

The Orphan Support Program, for example, began in Korea in the 1950s. Various sponsorship programs emerged which were later combined into the Child Sponsorship Program. In 1976 the name was changed to the Sponsorship Program. In 1988 the name changed again to become the current Global Family Program.

COLLECTION POLICIES AND DISPOSITION SCHEDULES

With the filing system organized, the next step meant creating a collection policy. According to the policy adopted “the purpose of the MCC archival collection is to preserve the historical and legal documents of MCC.” The objectives are to provide access to information for current administration, for research and to “provide for posterity, the historical accounts of MCC policies, programs and activities.” MCC does not archive materials from other agencies even though various materials are received regularly for the purpose of sharing information.

Using the collection policy, we already have the beginning of a disposition schedule. Bergan referred to the disposition schedule as a “table of obsolescence” in 1946. What to keep and what to discard requires a thorough knowledge of the institution and its programs and is the most challenging aspect of archival or records management.

MCC records are divided into 25 specific departments. I met with staff to create a specific schedule for each department. The collection policy can clarify materials that are found in every department. We keep all minutes, program plans, administrative trip reports, policies, contracts, semi-annual worker reports and published materials permanently. Disposition schedules further address each department’s unique files that need individual assessment.

MICROFILMING

Creating a disposition schedule is challenging work, but equally challenging is deciding how to keep information. In 1958 the Executive Committee agreed that the CPS files would be microfilmed and the paper discarded.

Microfilm is expected to last several hundred years. Some predictions are 500 years. Much depends on standards for filming as well as methods of storing. The CPS film began deteriorating forty years after filming. Examining the microfilm carefully, our current microfilm provider concluded that a chemical residue had remained on the film. All 129 reels of film needed to be refilmed.

MCC continued microfilming personnel files after the CPS files were filmed, but it was not until 1989, when archival storage costs began to climb, that MCC decided to microfilm the majority of its materials.

Like all mediums of preservation, microfilming has its own special problems. Microfilming is permanent. It is difficult to add forgotten files after filming. Files must be in perfect order before filming and the film must be checked for the three Cs: Is it clean? Is it clear? Is it complete? After one filming, we discovered the camera was out of focus. The entire collection needed to be reassembled and refilmed.

Some materials, such as posters, packets, blueprints, and certain legal documents, retain their intrinsic value only in their original form. Consequently, MCC keeps a small collection of printed materials. There is no doubt, however, that microfilming is an excellent way to save space and at the same time preserve information when filming and storing meet archival standards.

ELECTRONIC FILING, 1998-

Today e-mail is the preferred method of communication. Nearly all correspondence between MCC Akron headquarters and other MCC offices, including MCC overseas offices, is done by e-mail. Frequently secretaries asked, “Do you really want us to print out all our e-mail?” Until 1998 we said “yes,” but with some hesitation. I knew that eventually electronic filing must be considered.

We already used the computer for administrative functions in the Records Department. We put all of the file titles, including those already at the archives, on computer so that we could search for file titles. We scanned all of the Executive Committee meeting minutes into the computer. The ISYS text retrieval system enabled us to search the minutes for information. (I used ISYS to find information for this article.) Filing by computer was only a step away.

When part of the overseas department moved to Winnipeg, electronic filing became a “hot” topic. Phil Horst, manager of MCC Computer Services, had been exceptionally helpful in our previous applications of computer technology; I knew I could count on him again to provide the technical assistance needed for electronic filing. “Well, Phil” I said, “I think we’re being forced into it.” We decided to use the Africa department as a pilot project.

The first attempt was disappointing. I wanted to continue keeping the files organized by department. Otherwise, I reasoned, we would get too many hits using word search that would be more confusing than helpful. However, we discovered that we had too many layers and needed to do too much scrolling. Filing was time consuming.

Phil tried again and this time reached a perfect solution. Using Lotus Notes, he created separate databases for each department. Clicking on a database, we have various options. We can choose from the “in” box to see if any new e-mail needs filing, or we can go directly into a file. Clicking on “all” allows us to see everything in that database. Using word search, we can quickly locate a document.

E-mail from departments in the MCC Akron office, regional offices and overseas offices in Winnipeg have a blind carbon copy that automatically sends their e-mail directly to their database in the Records Department unless it is manually deleted.

Word Perfect documents can also be transferred to a database. Obviously, we still have mail coming into the office. At this time, we are keeping incoming mail in its original form.

Many questions remain. Will we weed the electronic files after ten years as we do the paper files? Should we scan incoming mail into the computer and discard that paper also? What about confidential materials? We solved the latter question by printing confidential materials and deleting them from the database. Also, by having separate databases for each department, persons in each department have access only to their own records.

FILES FROM MCC OFFICES AROUND THE WORLD

In the past there have been a few times when overseas offices closed and the files sent to the archives. In recent years, I have been making a concerted effort to gather files from overseas offices.

In Bangladesh, India, Indonesia and the Philippines, with the help of staff, we separated the files into three categories. Current files and files needed for continuing administrative work stayed in the overseas offices. The remaining files were separated into discard piles or placed in boxes to ship to the MCC Akron headquarters.

I have found that overseas files not retrieved within ten to fifteen years are victims of rodents, cockroaches, silverfish, ants, humidity and dust. Most dangerous, however, are well-meaning staff who see no need for “keeping all this old stuff.”

CONCLUSION

At the present time, we use three forms of preservation: print, microfilm and computer. My predictions are that after we have microfilmed all the inactive files now stored in the basement, microfilming will become an obsolete method of preservation. The small amount of paper left can easily be scanned into the computer. I may be wrong. We do not know if the computers of the future will be compatible with present day computers. We also know that information on the computer can be altered. On the other hand, we know that microfilm will always be readable. And we know that it is permanent; no one can alter it. It is reassuring that either of these mediums can be converted to paper at any time if desired.

The theory of records management is simple, but practice is not. Organizational structures change. Names of departments change. Technology changes. And perhaps most important are personnel changes. Any of these changes will bring new possibilities, new ideas and new problems. Today, records managers not only collect files and decide what to keep, they must also stay abreast of current technology and preservation practices.

At MCC, the Records Department is administratively lodged in the Administrative Services Department. We still function with the equivalent of two full-time staff. If Miriam Weaver evaluated the Records Department today, I hope she would see evidence that preserving MCC history is an important part of MCC administration. And indeed it is.

 

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Irene Leaman is the Records/Library and Archives Manager at Mennonite Central Committee, Akron, Pennsylvania.

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Mennonite Historical Bulletin, April 2000