Chapter Clips #1

This is a repeat of the Chapter Clips page from the blog in March.

        On May 5, 1893, the SCDAR organized its first chapter, the Columbia Chapter.  Since the beginning of the SCDAR, the state has organized more than 100 chapters.  Over the years, chapters have organized, disbanded, and even merged.  Our newest chapter, Elizabeth Hutchinson Jackson, organized September 18, 2010.  Today, the SCDAR has 71 active chapters.

          Each year, we hear the names of active and even disbanded chapters, but have you ever wondered why a chapter's name was chosen?  This blog will share with you interesting information about each chapter's organization.  Let's begin with the process of how a chapter's name is chosen.

        One aspect in the process of becoming a chapter in the NSDAR is to select a name for your chapter.  Organizing chapters in states admitted to the Union before 1825 must choose a name that precedes 1825 and is a historic event, a geographic area, or an individual relating to the American Revolution.  For organizing chapters in states admitted after 1825, a territorial historic event, a geographic site, or a name of a prominent early area pioneer may be chosen.  Chapters located outside the United States may choose names for historic events or individuals representative of the period of the American Revolution or for geographic sites.  Chapters located in military installations may be named for the military installation.

        A chapter presents three proposed names to the Organizing Secretary General who submits the recommended names to the National Board of Management.  After a name has been officially granted, it cannot be changed by the chapter unless permission is granted by a two-thirds vote of the National Board of Management.  A chapter may not adopt the name of a chapter in existence.  A chapter may adopt the name of a disbanded chapter, provided permission is granted by two-thirds vote of the National Board of Management.  A chapter may not use the name of a historic property owned by a state organization of the Society or by another chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

        Our first chapter chose the name Columbia Chapter while our newest chapter chose the name Elizabeth Hutchinson Jackson.  Future posts will share the significance of each chapter's name and interesting facts about the organization of the chapter included the disbanded chapters.

 

Conservation Corner #1

Except for the last paragraph, this is a repeat of the Conservation Corner page from the first blog in March.

You will find that preserving your chapter history will seem daunting in the beginning.  To begin your process, let’s begin by recording your chapter property using the Chapter Property Inventory forms.  These forms are writeable forms meaning you can type and save the information directly on the form.  The only difficulty that you might have is attaching pictures to the form.  If you have Adobe Acrobat Pro, you can do that easily.  If you don’t, you will need to do a few more steps to include the picture on the form.

Once you have the forms completed for your chapter, please send them to me to file.  The purpose of this is to have a back-up copy on hand in case of emergency.  These emergencies can be due to natural disasters such as hurricanes and tornados, but they can also be in the event a chapter must seek legal means to retrieve property.  Unfortunately, this has happened due to the family incorrectly believing that certain chapter property was actually the personal property of the family member.  The chapter had to seek legal help to get the chapter property returned.  Had these forms been available at the time, the family would have been presented the forms and known that the property was the chapter’s and not the family member’s that had unexpectedly passed away.

Please do not change these forms in any way as the forms were created by the NSDAR legal advisors and will hold up in a court of law.  Simply complete, sign, and send them to me.

The property of each chapter will vary.  Some will simply have chapter regent’s bar, minutes, original member papers, treasurer’s records, etc.  Other chapters may have additional property such as gavels, officer notebooks, scrapbooks, history books, etc.  while others may even possess furniture.  Whatever your chapter has, begin your process by taking inventory and recording its whereabouts.

I will be conducting a workshop at the District 6 workshop about all this and the other items needed from each chapter, along with the proper techniques needed to accomplish the work, that fall under the auspices of the state curator.  This will be the only in person workshop I will be giving.  For those of you who cannot attend, I will be putting the information on the blog.  Don’t forget about the webinar I conducted for NSDAR in January 17, 2012 entitled “Archiving Chapter Records – Making Your Chapter’s Mountain of Minutes, Records & Histories a Molehill!”.  That webinar is still available to view on the NSDAR Members’ Only website.

 

Necessary Changes to the Blog
 

I want to thank you for your wonderful feedback about the blog.  It is accomplishing its initial goal which is to teach our members about our own history.  When giving the Outstanding Teacher of American History Award when I served the state society as state historian, you heard me say the famous words of Thomas Jefferson “what is past is prologue.”  This rings true in almost all, if not all, areas of our life. 

I had imagined the blog as a digital newsletter being read by all members in our state and the content being used as an emergency program in the event that a speaker could not come to a chapter meeting at the last minute.  What I did not fully imagine is the creative ways chapters are using the blog.  I have been told that you are sharing the blog with new members as well as prospects to help them to understand what DAR is all about, to learn about our impressive beginnings, to help explain what Tamassee is and its importance to the DAR, etc.  This innovative use of the blog and other issues has made me realize that some changes need to take place.

I did not realize upon the blog’s creation that when I changed the content found on the different pages, i.e. Chapter Clips, Society Snippets, National Nuggets, Tamassee Tidbits, and Conservation Corner that the content posted prior to that would be erased and not archived.  This was brought to my attention by my mother.  This is hilarious for those of you that know her because she is “computer free,” i.e. she cannot even use the mouse to play solitaire on the computer.  However, in editing my last posts, she simply asked what happened if you missed a post.  Could you go back and read it especially the Tamassee Tidbits since at this moment it is a continuation of the story?  When I posted the second time, I realized that the answer was no.

From now on, my plan is to send a post a week.  I will begin the rotation of content by sending the schedule of upcoming posts in order for you to know what to expect in the upcoming weeks.  The title of the posts will be the name of the page and the number of the post, i.e. Tamassee Tidbit #1.  In that way, you can view the archives at any time and find the post to reread something, to share something specific with others, or to use a particular post for an emergency program.   When that rotation is complete, a new rotation will begin.  I am going to start by reposting the content from the pages of the first post and the second post.

I apologize for this being a repeat of something many of you have already read; however, this is necessary to have the complete histories that are being provided available at all times.  This will also allow those members who have just received the information about the blog posts to catch up.  Here is the schedule of upcoming posts.

July 14 – schedule of posts

July 15 – Conservation Corner #1

July 22 – Chapter Clips #1

July 29 – Society Snippets #1

August 5 – National Nuggets #1

August 12 – Tamassee Tidbits #1

Thank you for your patience as I make this change to accomplish my initial goal as well as to accomplish the enhanced vision of how you are using this blog as a tool for your chapter.  Please don’t forget to sign up for e-mail notifications.  In that way, you will know when the new post is up in the event there is a delay.  This will also give me time to complete research from the information I discovered while at Continental Congress. I cannot wait to see where this information leads, what questions it will bring, and where those answers will take us on our journey as we honor our own DAR heritage! 

ENJOY!!!