Writing a Chapter History

[Senusret I]

I just wanted to bump this thread because our fiftieth came and went and there are many updates....

Well, the person in charge of writing the history dropped the ball. Which, in retrospect, wasn't a great surprise. One thing I learned from that experience is that books can't be written by committee.

A year after the 50th, I was elected Alumni Association President. After spending a year strengthening our service program and beginning to "fix" some of our systems, I realized that I will probably have this office for a while. It's not exactly a coveted position.

But, I am hoping that the signature of my service as President will be that book-length history I mentioned back in 05. I must say that all of you contributed some very good advice!

Since that time, I have acquired (thanks to members of the National History and Archives Committee) PDFs of many old Torch and Trefoil national newsletters. I haven't even looked through them lately, but I am certain the period from 1956 to the present will be helpful.

The undergraduates have a strong chapter with a very strong historian (who is an APO legacy herself). I think I can create a research team with her leading the students.

I am prepared to write the whole thing on my own, giving myself until September of 2010 to finish it. That gives us a few months for edits and revisions and a few more months for printing.

A few days ago, I printed out every article from three online campus newspapers with significant references to my chapter.

I can send an undergrad to the library to photocopy the APO pages from yearbooks since 1956.

The alumni association records duplicate many of the items from the official university APO archives.

And through the magic of google, we are finding biographical information about our older alums.

I think my summer project will be to finish gathering the secondary sources, then by the fall determine the process for locating primary sources.

[oldu]

I wrote a history of my chapter about twenty years ago. I was able to find the minute books going all the way back to the beginning of the twentieth century--including the very first chapter meeting after the local organization joined the national. It was very interesting reading, including very poingnant remarks as the men were going off to World War II. Other good sources were the national magazine, the student yearbook and newspaper, available either at national headquarters or the library. As I worked through it word was announced in the chapter newsletter. I was inundated with stories, episodes and memorabilia which added rich character to the book. There have been many chapter histories written and I have about 50 of them in my personal library. They are hard to locate in rare book shops because the typical printing was so small. Good luck, you will enjoy every minute of it. If I remember correctly it took me about a year to put it together.

[Senusret I]

Thank you, sir!

[RACooper]

One other source of information usually neglected is talking to the involved alumni from other GLOs on campus (particularlly in the 'tighter' Greek community campuses) ~ you'd be surprised at the amount of information that can come directly or indirectly from these talks.

[Senusret I]

Originally Posted by RACooper

One other source of information usually neglected is talking to the involved alumni from other GLOs on campus (particularlly in the 'tighter' Greek community campuses) ~ you'd be surprised at the amount of information that can come directly or indirectly from these talks.

I am very glad that you mentioned this. I have always tried to maintain cordial relationships with Delta Phi Epsilon Professional Foreign Service Fraternity alumni -- all of the charter members of APO on my campus were in the school of foreign service, and there were many DPE/APO dual members in the early days.

One DPE alum in particular has been really helpful and I hope to meet him for lunch or something over the summer.

[honeychile]

Originally Posted by RACooper

One other source of information usually neglected is talking to the involved alumni from other GLOs on campus (particularlly in the 'tighter' Greek community campuses) ~ you'd be surprised at the amount of information that can come directly or indirectly from these talks.

Good idea! I wish we had thought of that.

We did ask who the campus rivals were, and which fraternities were "special" to the chapter at the time.

ETA: AND, which fraternities and sororities were on campus at the time, and what the numbers were like.

[Senusret I]

Found out one of my charter members was black!

[Senusret I]

Thank you, rbethea!

Well, here's a bit of an update....

We have been VERY BLESSED with the access we have to old yearbooks, Torch & Trefoils, and NOW we've discovered that The Hoya (campus newspaper) has a digital catalog available for free on the internet!

The level of detail we can now provide in our chapter history is amazing. In the course of this project, I've discovered our chapter's connection to Tong-Sun Park, Madame Nhu, a House inquiry on internal security, a murder, and more!

But to find out how it all fits together, you'll just have to wait!

[Maat]

best of luck with the project

[Senusret I]

Bumping this because I'm not sure if I mentioned it elsewhere....

This project was completed in three parts:

1) The first major version was placed on our chapter's website.

2) The second major version was made into a hard cover book through Blurb (I think).

3) The final major version is being printed as a major portion of the souvenir journal for our chapter's 55th anniversary celebration.

After the couple of years of principal writing, the chapter got into the habit of adding to the end of the document, so now it has about four authors, along with "and Historians of [our chapter]" at the end.

The chapter won the national historian's award based largely on this project, as well as sectional awards for alumni association/chapter collaboration AND the first Randolph Finder Historian's Award (named for GC poster naraht).

It was fun and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's reaction to having the history in their hands.