Almost every ACF chapter has an Historian, but because the office is considered lower in the organizational hierarchy, most find it hard to learn what their job is and how to do it. When young chefs volunteer to take the office as a way to make their first contributions to the local chapter, they face bags of newspaper clippings, stacks of photographs, boxes of disheveled office files, or worse. Making this vast array of materials usable is the most important long-term legacy an officer can leave to a chapter.
Corporate memory goes beyond a single person and lifetime.
Chapter historians must know what makes up the corporate memory and how to preserve it. This article addresses these materials, some of the problems associated with each, how to store the materials economically, and to preserve them for the longest possible life. Other articles will deal with associated issues such as long-term management of chapter records and how to make the documents in the historical archives accessible for use. Chapter historians deal with two different things when they set out to preserve the archives and make its contents useable. It is often difficult to remember, when you feel buried in piles of what looks like rubbish, that the information and format are distinct.