Report from AD History Committee to the National Board of Epsilon Sigma Phi
October 2011
- The process of digitizing THE SPIRIT AND PHILOSPLY OF EXTENSION and THE PEOPLE AND THE PROFESSION has been completed by the library at Penn State. It is on CD. Currently it is unclear whether or not the books are available on line. Jan Scholl who has coordinated this project is looking into that question.
- The committee is grateful that the board has moved ahead to archive this organization’s documents at the National Ag Library. This turned out to be a very labor-intensive project that included some travel this year by the Executive Director and national president to assist with the process of sorting and cataloguing of the items.
- Jan Scholl is presenting the history committee’s concurrent session at the 2011 National Conference. This committee express appreciation to Jan for assuming this responsibility.
- A draft for a “white paper” of summarizing the history of National Epsilon Sigma Phi covering the most recent 40 years will be by the national conference for review by the board. After edits are completed it will be posted on the National ESP Web Site.
- Several historic items, including annual reports and Ruby lectures have been posted on the Web site. Any individual wanting to research the history of the organization will find these items very accessible.
- There have been no positive responses to the requests for chapter “history point-persons”. This need was discussed at the meeting of chapter presidents (or their representatives) at the JCEP leadership meetings last winter. The feedback wasn’t encouraging. Chapters are struggling just to fill basic leadership needs.
- Three or four Extension history related articles have been published in the ESP Connection. The committee recommends similar articles be continued.
- The majority of the past national presidents returned a response to a request to list the “top 3” accomplishments of their term. These will be filed at the National Office. Hopefully the board will see fit to “institutionalize” that process as each national president completes his/her term. This will provide a brief history resource that is more concise than the report in the annual report.
- There are some outstanding issues related to organizational history that haven’t been addressed. Probably the most important one is a plan to intentionally keep documents in a format that isn’t outdated or made inaccessible by changes in technology. i.e. Hard paper copies of the organization’s annual meeting minutes should be stored in a bank lock box.
- The committee continues to support the appointment of a national historian that is not a member of the national board. Other options could be to add “the historian piece” to the job description of the past president or the national executive director.
