[Dialogue] [Oe List ...] Trashing the Archives

Tue Jun 26 19:49:04 EDT 2007

Point of clarity. Are ICA and EI separate non-profit organizations? If 
separate, who serves on the EI Board of Directors?
Marianna Bailey
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Dunn" <david at mirrorcommunication.com>
To: "OE Community" <oe at wedgeblade.net>; "'Dialogue' Listserv" 
<Dialogue at wedgeblade.net>
Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2007 4:00 PM
Subject: Re: [Dialogue] [Oe List ...] Trashing the Archives

Colleagues:

With gratitude to Marshall and Margaret for resurfacing the subject of care
for the archives in Chicago, let me weigh in with some additional context,
information, experience and comment.

This will be the first of three successively and mercifully shorter emails.
The first must carry the burden of a fair bit of missing information. The
second will be a copy of a letter I sent to the board and executive staff of
the ICA USA last March. The third will contain some proposals for how to
approach the Living Legacy project and the future of the ICA USA.

I. Clarification:

--- "The CHICAGO meeting and TORONTO meeting" ---
The Chicago meeting--the Living Legacy event in October--is being organized
by the ICA USA board of directors. The Toronto meeting--a follow-on to the
March '07 'Springboard Gathering' in Denver--is an event being organized by
an ad hoc group of members of the Order community. The Living Legacy event
seems to be an opportunity to talk about the future of ICA USA. The event at
John and Thea Patterson's 'Abbey North' home in Haliburton, Ontario north of
Toronto is one of an evolving series of events when people can talk about
the future of the Order Ecumenical.

II. The movement's archives housed at 4750 N Sheridan Road, Chicago

A. The TWO ARCHIVES in Chicago and how they differ ---

Just for clarity of intention and communication, we need to distinguish
between:

1) the "JWM Archive" (the 14 file cabinets of Joseph's personal files housed
on the first floor of 4750 N Sheridan Road that Betty has cared for for the
last several decades), and,

2) the "Global Archives" (the northeast corner of the basement of 4750 N
Sheridan that contains several dozen file cabinets containing everything
from OE personnel and assignment records to HDP and Town Meeting manuals and
documents. It's a lot of stuff.

We need to make careful distinctions between the two. Some of the people
that I will mention below are interested principally in the JWM Archive and
others are interested principally in the rest of the archives that we have
commonly called the Global Archives.

The JWM Archives, now housed in a room on the first floor at 4750 N
Sheridan, remains the property of the Mathews family, under the oversight of
the ICA USA board and in the direct care of Betty Pesek. I believe that it
is accurate to say that the final disposition of the JWM Archive is a matter
of legal and institutional negotiation and consensus building. Certainly its
safety and preservation are a concern to us all, but the process of guiding
it in the direction of a permanent institutional home is presently in the
hands of George Walters and John Epps.

The Global Archives, in contrast, is the neglected greater part. We have all
moved on in our lives leaving Betty Pesek to tend to the JWM Archive and
letting the file cabinets that remain in the basement of 4750 to fall into
disarray. I do not know what proprietary claim the ICA USA board could or
would wish to make on this rather more vast collection, but we do know that
there is a growing concern that this collection has not been under any
individual's direct care for over a decade.

A sampling of some of the essential content from both of these archives was
digitized and put on the Golden Pathways CD in the mid-'90s. We all recall
the huge expenditure of ICA staff and volunteers to digitize, do OCR, edit
and publish the material on the Golden Pathways CD. The CD remains the only
digital compilation of which I'm aware of our movemental memory. The back up
files on which it was based were stolen in the mid-'90s.

It seems important to notice, however, that there is a third kind of global
archives that has existed for many years and a fourth that is growing. All
of us have greater or lesser archives of our own. There is even a catalog
scheme created during the '90s that has been used in at least one
location--ICA Toronto--to categorize the entire archival collection of the
Toronto office. In a sense, taken collectively, we all represent a kind of
dispersed, virtual global archive.

The fourth kind of global archive is of course the growing online Repository
at wedgeblade.net.

B. THE ORIGINAL LIVING LEGACY EVENT ---

I've been in touch with Betty Pesek on many occasions over the last eight
years since we worked with Ellery Elizondo and others to edit and publish
The Circle of Life. During the last year of my work for ICA USA, I was in
regular conversation with Judy Lindblad, chair of the Living Legacy event
planning group on the ICA USA board; Dick Alton, who at the time was one of
the key players in conceiving of the October 2006 Living Legacy event in
Chicago; and of course, Betsy Houde, who was the principal champion for
securing the funding needed to care for the two archive collections and to
launch what was to be called the Joseph W. and Lyn Mathews Library. We had
gotten as far as beginning funding research for the library, putting up
preliminary information on the ICA USA web site, and creating publicity
materials for a Fall '06 event in Chicago.

The collaboration between Betsy and the rest of us was cut short by her
dismissal in June of 2006. The collaboration between Judy Lindblad and the
rest of us was cut short by the layoffs in October 2006.

C. ARCHIVE WORK SINCE THE LAYOFFS IN OCTOBER 2006 ---

It took me until January 2007 to get up enough steam to think about the
archives, but over the next several months Betty Pesek and I spent several
hours together in Chicago talking about the state of both archives and what
needed to be done to care for the JWM Archive in particular. I reviewed
Betty's catalog of the JWM collection, and completed my own inventory and
assessment of the extent and condition of the files in the 14 file cabinets
that have been in her care.

Betty and I formulated some simple plans for a pilot project in which we
would work to stabilize the oldest and most vulnerable documents from the
time of Joseph's and his brother Jim's work together in the '30s and '40s.
Some of these papers, programs and other documents are beginning to
deteriorate badly. I began to research the needed archival supplies and the
most cost effective methods for preserving and making these materials
available to the OE and ICA communities. I was in conversation with Betty
about what should be said in a personal letter from her to people we hoped
might support this pilot work that she and I had conceived.

I also built a rudimentary draft budget and met with the Denver colleagues
whose new nonprofit has provided a vehicle for offering ICA methods and
programs in Denver. At my request, this new "Institute for Consensus Action"
set up a special account with its fiscal agent, the Colorado Nonprofit
Development Corporation, to provide a mechanism for receiving tax-deductible
donations to support work with the ICA USA archives. Beret Griffith (who had
offered to talk about archive work in a trip across the country) and I held
various conversations with colleagues to gauge interest in this sort of
grassroots colleague engagement.

D. THE RESPONSE OF THE ICA USA BOARD TO BETTY'S AND MY WORK ---

On several occasions, I attempted but was not successful in opening lines of
conversation with members of the ICA USA board. My earliest attempts were to
talk by phone with Judy Lindblad, with whom I had worked closely on the
ICA's 30th anniversary calendar and with whom I had been collaborating in
preparation for the Living Legacy event. I was never able to speak with Judy
directly, in spite of several voicemail invitations to talk since early in
2007. She finally sent an email that said in essence, "We have nothing to
talk about."

When I was in Chicago on January 29 to work with Betty Pesek, I had an
appointment with Kirk Harris. I described to him my interest in working with
Betty and the JWM Archives and my hope that I might begin an assessment of
the condition of the Global Archives. Kirk called me (early the following
day) to clarify with me the ICA USA board's directive that I was under no
circumstances to set foot in the basement of 4750 N Sheridan Road. I was
willing to agree as my first interest was in working with Betty on the JWM
Archive.

In mid-February, Betty received an invitation to join a conference call with
board members who wanted to talk about the archives. She was invited to
recommend other people who might be involved in this conference call. Betty
asked me to join her and to respond to Judy Lindblad indicating that the two
of us would be available. I sent an email to Judy Lindblad to that effect
and received the following reply:

> At this point there is really very little to talk about in terms of the
> Archives...JWM or in the basement.  Betty is caring for the JWM files as 
> you
> know and protocols are being developed between now and May for those in 
> the
> basement.  When there are decisions made they will be announced.

When I next spoke with Betty, Betty told me that the conference call to
which she had been invited and to which she had invited me, had been
canceled and rescheduled. She had been told that she alone would be welcome
on the conference call and that no other persons were to be included. Betty
subsequently participated in the conference call from which I was excluded.
The board members on the call reaffirmed Betty's role as the keeper of the
JWM Archives and the person responsible, on the board's behalf, to insure
the JWM archives' safety.

In late March, 2007, after these experiences and before the April board
meeting, I sent an email addressed to Carolyn Antenen, President of the ICA
USA board and to Judy Lindblad, chair of the Living Legacy committee, with
copies to the other board members, urging that the board engage the wider
network, including former staff members, in its creative process. The email
concluded:

> Please give me your permission and blessing to examine the Global Archives 
> in
> the basement of 4750 N Sheridan Road, Chicago; to at least cursorily 
> survey
> and document its contents and condition; and to talk about its future with 
> any
> and all people who share an interest in its care and use. I believe that 
> the
> interest, good will and energy that will be generated by this kind of
> collaboration will redound to the benefit and advantage of the EI/ICA, 
> better
> serve the Living Legacy project and further the care for the ICA's Global
> Archives.

I have not yet been extended the courtesy of a reply from any of the twelve
people to whom I addressed my email and request. (The full text of my March
27 email will be sent in an email to follow to the two lists.)

I can only conclude from these experiences of direct, personal exclusion,
and in lieu of any meaningful information from any of the board members with
whom I have tried to communicate, that I am on a board 'black list' and a
persona non grata vis-à-vis the archive.

E. THE NETWORK OF PEOPLE WITH INTERESTS IN THE JWM ARCHIVE ---

In fact, a very diverse network of people is concerned with and shares
energy for the care, disposition and accessibility of the JWM Archives and
the Global Archives. Few of the individuals in this disparate group,
however, know the names, interests or values of the majority of the other
stakeholders. The result has been an enlarging pattern of secrecy,
exclusion, silence, indirect communication through third parties
("triangulation" in relationship systems jargon), disaffection, anxiety and
anger.

I'm going to attempt to describe what I know about the interests and
limitations of all of the parties. I apologize for inadvertently leaving out
any others with personal and/or professional interest in the Mathews Archive
or the Global Archives. I have had limited access to information and my
statements below reflect my own good faith attempt to understand the
stakeholders in this situation.

ICA USA BOARD of DIRECTORS--Interests: guarding the integrity of the
archives, exploring intellectual property issues, preserving opportunities
for income streams; limitations: isolation from key sources of movement
memory, professional expertise, stakeholder support and volunteer energy.

KIRK HARRIS, until early June, 2007, Interim Executive Director, ICA
USA--[My experience, though limited, was confirmed by others who had
occasion to meet with Kirk Harris during his brief tenure.] Interests:
articulating board policy, implementing the board president's directives;
limitations: Kirk was not allowed to be more than a spokesman for the board,
he was not allowed to operate as an independent professional manager and he
appeared to me to be unable to respond to me as a serious stakeholder in
either the Mathews or the Global Archives.

The MATHEWS family--Interests: fulfilling their father's/brother's wish that
Joe Mathews' personal files be available to the public, preserving the
integrity of Joe's personal papers, ephemera, etc., ...; limitations:
Joseph's sons have their own lives and Bishop Jim is in delicate health.

BETTY PESEK--Interests: fulfilling the personal and vocational obligation
she took on to see that Joseph's archives were cared for and provided a
suitable permanent home, keeping his archives secure and in good order,
fulfilling her obligation as the guardian of the JWM Archives on behalf of
the ICA USA board; limitations: limited physical energy and emotional
wherewithal to cope with complexity, ambiguity and conflicting agendas.

GEORGE WALTERS, JOHN EPPS, JOHN COCK, GEORGE HOLCOMB--Interests: securing an
appropriate permanent, institutional home for the JWM Archives, preserving
access to the JWM Archives for scholarly research and publishing;
limitations: Walters and Epps have full time jobs; all four have
professional obligations, family concerns and personal lives.

WESLEY THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, WASHINGTON, DC--Interests: possibility housing
the JWM Archive in a new library that will be build in the next several
years (The people with whom George Walters and John Epps are in touch at
Wesley knew Joe); limitations: it is 'early days' in the conversations about
housing the JWM Archives, the legal aspects of conceiving and
institutionalizing this archive are complex, and there does not appear to me
to be any clear consensus about project oversight, the needed roles of
collaborating parties and the responsibilities of each.

OTHERS WITH PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL INTEREST IN THE ARCHIVES--
Beret Griffith [organizing, fund raising, networking]; Jim Wiegel [video
interviews, oral history]; Nancy Trask [library science]; Sheighlah Hickey,
et al [Sheighlah full cataloged the ICA Toronto archive]; David Dunn [oral
history, audio recording, graphic design, program design, desktop
publishing]; Larry Loeppke [publishing]. There are undoubtedly many more.

TIM WEGNER, GORDON HARPER, LEN HOCKLEY AND THE "REPOSITORY"--Interests:
maintaining and growing the online collection of significant movement
resources, encouraging broad awareness and user-friendly accessibility of
this online archive; limitations: competition from professional obligations
and for volunteer time, dependency on others to supply content.

F. CARE FOR THE GLOBAL ARCHIVES ---

Care for the Global Archives is in some respects COMPLEX:

-- We are all, one way or another, interested stewards of a precious
heritage.
-- The pieces of paper, books and manuals, photographs and notes that
document much of this heritage is threatened by misuse and neglect over many
years, in spite of the best intentions of its guardians. (The Mathews
Archive is the notable exception. It is threatened by age, not misuse.)
-- The skills and techniques of the archivist are needed to assess,
stabilize, preserve, process, catalog, evaluate and interpret the relevance
of this material
-- Vast amounts of energy and patient persistence will be needed to bring
order out of chaos of the Global Archives.
-- A far-flung network of stakeholders in this cause--in fact, the creators
of this entire heritage--are available to engage this challenge.
-- Among the members of this national and international network there is
diverse and relevant professional expertise and knowledge to guide and
oversee the technical aspects of this work.
-- Among the members of this network there is vocational commitment and
professional capacity to oversea the proper care of the Mathews Archive.
-- It remains to be learned and seen what the intentions of the ICA USA
Board of Directors is with respect to this common, movement heritage.

-- The archives needs care more than isolation and protection.
-- The archives needs to be stabilized, preserved and ordered so that
something remains to protect.
-- Isolation without proper care amounts to abuse by neglect.

-- The archives represents the common heritage of an international movement,
not the property of an American nonprofit organization.
-- The responsibility of the ICA USA is to be a responsible steward of this
movemental heritage.
-- The ICA USA needs assume this responsibility by allowing the movement to
share the responsibility.

But in the final analysis, care for the Global Archives is very SIMPLE:

Not opening up the subject of care for the archives to the creators of its
contents is an ill-conceived and ineffective policy. This is the moment for
Board of Directors of ICA USA to trust its colleagues and to share the load.

The board of the ICA USA needs to be amenable to the leadership of the
global movement. Care for the Global Archives needs to be under the
leadership of a "task force of the willing and competent" to conceive,
design and manage a long-term process of professional-level archive care.

Please sign me up today.

David

-- 
David Dunn
www.mirrorcommunication.com
david at mirrorcommunication.com
720-314-5991
Skype: dmirror

-- THANKS FOR UPDATING MY EMAIL ADDRESS --

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