At Rocky Mountain PBS (Channel SIX in Denver, CO), we established a new Volunteer Board Committee in May, 2000, which is called SAM (Station's Archived Memories). The committee is working towards having a special "archival" project completed by the year 2006 to help celebrate our station's 50th anniversary.
Making the Project Manageable
Our committee felt overwhelmed by the ideas which we brainstormed as possible projects. It was decided to break our 5-year project into smaller pieces (phases) which can be more easily digested -- and accomplished -- by the members of the committee who are already very busy, overly-committed people!!
Collecting Photographs
The first phaseincludes collecting, organizing and cataloging photographs relating to volunteers' history at RMPBS from the past 45 years (1956-2000).
Our volunteer office houses several hundred photographs, but we are also requesting and collecting photos and memorabilia from current/past staff and current/past volunteers. We already have close to a thousand photographs and they keep coming in! The photos are priceless and conjure up lots of memories. Phase 1 is still collecting photos and will soon begin the process of sorting and cataloging them for preservation purposes. Some day, we may even decide to digitize our photographs - - - but, that takes $$ which we currently do not have.
An Overview of Our History
To kick off our SAM project this September, we invited one of our retired general managers (Don Johnson) to give a 2.5 hour seminar presentation on the history of public (educational) television, the history of our own Rocky Mountain PBS (previously known as KRMA-TV), and the history of how our community of volunteers have made the station what it is today. Without volunteers, our public television station simply would not exist! The production staff videotaped Don's presentation and will edit it so that we'll have it for posterity!! Don's presentation was our first official "archived memory."
The volunteers on the SAM Committee range from having volunteered at the station for 5-40 years. Therefore, we felt that having Don's historical presentation would give us ALL equal information on the history of our volunteer corps and how it has evolved into what it is today. Don's information was very valuable to the efforts of the committee!! An understanding of how the Rocky Mountain PBS volunteer corps was first conceived really gave us a much greater appreciation for what we are today.
Promoting SAM
To raise awareness, curiosity and participation amongst fellow volunteers and staff members at the station, the SAM Committee members wear buttons saying "ASK ME ABOUT SAM." Also, articles about SAM have appeared in recent volunteer newsletter, e-mails have been sent to all staff members explaining the SAM efforts, and written requests for donations of photos and memorabilia are appearing in invitations being mailed to our volunteers for two special events which are being hosted and attended by our volunteers this Fall. By the way, we have 2500 volunteers, so by the time we collect photos and memorabilia from our volunteer corps, we anticipate a LOT of work ahead to organize and catalogue everything - - but we know it'll be a lot of fun!!
Personal Stories
We hope to eventually expand our archival efforts to additional Phases to include requesting, receiving, and cataloging personal stories from staff and volunteers. We want to know the history of our PEOPLE -- how did they get involved? Why did they get involved? What keeps them involved? What memories of volunteering do they treasure?
These stories may eventually include videotaped or audio taped oral history interviews (a professional archivist has offered to train us to properly conduct oral histories) of key staff members and key volunteers. For people who are no longer living in the Colorado area or for those volunteers or staff members who don't feel comfortable being taped, their stories may be written and submitted to the archive project. The stories that will be requested will include things such as: "I'll always remember when . . ." or perhaps "Why I volunteer for Rocky Mountain PBS." There are so many stories out there!!! We can't wait to hear and read them.
We are also keeping audio tapes, minutes and photographs of our SAM meetings realizing that we are creating history as we work on preserving it!! That might be another great story on "How To Preserve Volunteer History" once we really get this going . . . .
The hope is to make the SAM committee a permanent committee on our Volunteer Board of Directors so that our past, present and future continue to work hand-in-hand throughout the years. We know that by preserving our history, we will enlighten our future
The SAM volunteers have expanded their project to include conducting video and audio oral history interviews of staff, community members, and volunteers who have been influential in the development of Rocky Mountain PBS since its on-air debut in 1956. Approximately 50 interviews are currently completed with an additional 100+ hoped for. Each interview is taped and transcribed, then entered into a database.
Over the past year, the SAM Committee has authored a two-part 140-page TOOLKIT which details exactly how the archive project is being done.
The 2 parts include 1) Administration and 2) Committees. Each chapter includes job descriptions, flowcharts, full reports on how-to-do each job (photo committee, oral history committee, station research committee, memorabilia committee, etc), and samples of every form used to track the information. Two SAM Toolkits were given to every PBS station and additional copies are available upon request. A full session was given by SAM volunteers at the 2003 PBS Development Conference on how to organize and develop an archive project of great magnitude. The response was fantastic.
All data is being entered into a database by volunteers so that station staff, community members and station volunteers will have access to the historical information. Every item (article, photo, interview, memorabilia piece) is assigned a specific accession number and entered into the database.
The project is ongoing and is now a permanent part of our PBS station in Denver. The SAM Chair is a volunteer serving as the historian for the station and as a member of the Volunteer Board. An office has been given to SAM to conduct work and research and a 2nd office has been dedicated for storage of the archives (both physical and electronic).
The SAM Committee hopes to be able to offer videoconferencing to other PBS stations wishing to ask specific questions about this archive project.
Anyone wanting further information or with questions can contact SAM Chair, Laura Sampson, at Rocky Mountain PBS voice mail, 303-620-5734 or e-mail her directly at rmpbs_sam@krma.pbs.org.
Contact is encouraged -- we are very excited about our project!!