2003-2004 Annual Report

Members
Laura Koser
Anna Kuntz
Georgette Mayo
Benjamin Petersen, Coordinator
Jennifer Rainman
Lori Schwartz, Information Manager
Stephanie Stewart
Julie Vaught, Assistant Coordinator

Constance Schulz, Faculty Advisor

Chapter Formation
We had our first organizing meeting on June 18, 2003, where we discussed our rough draft of a constitution. The following week, we made appropriate changes to the draft and ratified it with six charter members. We then collected the necessary signatures to seek recognition from the University of South Carolina (USC), submitted our organization for their approval, and asked Dr. Schulz to be our advisor. USC approved our organization on July 8. We then sought recognition as a student chapter from the Society of American Archivists (SAA), which we received on February 19, 2004.

Miscellaneous Records Online Indexing Project
Our main activity has been a volunteer project at the South Carolina Department of Archives and History (SCDAH), where we enter 18th century records from the Secretary of State’s Miscellaneous Records into the Department’s online index. Under the guidance of Dr. Charles Lesser, Accessions Archivist at the Department, six ASG volunteers began working two hours a week in July 2003. In January 2004 we added two more volunteers, and to date we have entered over 1600 individual records.

To promote the project, we developed a poster to present at several different events. Work on the poster began on February 23, 2004 and was completed shortly before its first showing at the South Carolina Archival Association’s Spring 2004 meeting on March 24th. We then presented it at USC’s School of Library and Information Science annual event, I-Comm Week, on April 3rd and at USC’s Graduate Student Day on April 7th. We wrapped up the showing of our poster at SAA’s annual meeting at Boston in August 2004.

Miscellaneous Activities

• Organized a social gathering at a local bowling alley, which was attended by current members and alumni along with their spouses, significant others, and children. February 21, 2004
• Organized a behind the scenes tour of the SCDAH, USC’s South Caroliniana Library, Conservation Lab, and Annex Facility along with a lunch meeting for Barbara Heck and Cliff Stratton. Barbara, a graduate student of N.C. State’s public history program, was interning at the Modern Political Collections Division of the South Caroliniana Library. Cliff, a graduate student of Auburn University’s history program, was interning at the SCDAH. June 17, 2004.