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Introduction
Every Auxiliary historian holds an important
and exciting position. You help ensure the legacy of your unit will be
captured, recorded, and preserved. In doing so, you honor the memory and
work of your Auxiliary colleagues.
The principal duty of a
Coast Guard Auxiliary historian, at any level, is to gather, evaluate,
preserve and safeguard those materials that are the evidence of members’ and
units’ historical activities over the years. These include documents,
publications, physical objects (artifacts) and sound and visual materials.
The District Historian is
the lynchpin in the national history program. Division and flotilla
historians may also be appointed and perform parallel duties.
Duties of a District Historian
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Maintain a permanent place to store unit
archives that is safe from pilferage, fire, dampness, excessive heat, and
so forth.
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Assemble and maintain a complete reference
set of the District publication, board and committee minutes, standing
rules and by-laws with changes, staff reports, officer directories,
correspondence, even programs, clippings and other permanent historical
records. Include the unit charter, district awards, significant member
awards and similar memorabilia. District award information should include
information on the establishment of the award, i.e., namesake information,
date of establishment, purpose and criteria, and historical list of
awardees, along with individual citations.
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Maintain a record of past and present
elected officers, staff officers, committees and members. Record important
facts about these people. Compile and maintain a record of all individual
and unit awards.
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Compile and maintain a chronology of
District facts for past years. Be sure to state the source. Keep a unit
journal of events as they occur.
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Collect photographs of District members in
action. Store these properly. (Get professional advice on this, if
necessary.) Emphasize action/work photos rather than those taken for award
presentations, speeches, and as poses. However, it is important to obtain
photos of high level officers and awardees. Each photo should tell a
self-evident story.
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Encourage the donation of personal papers
and memorabilia of key Auxiliarists.
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Develop an “oral history” program within
the District. Encourage interviews with "old timers" and key people to get
their experiences recorded for future reference. This includes press
interviews.
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Be responsible for the collection and
preservation of Auxiliary archival materials until they are turned over to
the Auxiliary Record Collection at East Carolina University. Ensure that
the District publication is sent regularly to ECU at the address below. Send copies of important documents, as well as surplus historical
materials to:
O. W. Martin, Jr. Coast Guard Auxiliary Records Collection
c/o Dale Sauter
Manuscript Curator, Special Collections Department
Joyner Library
East Carolina University
Greenville, NC 27858-4353
(252) 328-0275
sauterd@mail.ecu.edu
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Be responsible for the collection of artifacts
such as uniforms, insignia, flags and other non-print materials related to
Auxiliary history. These items need to be evaulated and sent to the Coast
Guard Curator. A letter of donation must accompany the material which
describes it, who the former owner was with an accompanying donation
letter to you from the member or member’s family, and a listing of the
items being donated. In the list or letter provide the best description
possible of what the items are, when they were in use and for what
purpose, and their significance for permanent preservation. Brief
biographical information on the member should be provided that includes
dates of birth and death, dates of membership, offices and qualifications
held, awards received (with citations), and family contact information,
plus any press items on the person. Similar information should be provided
for a unit. It is best to contact Angela Drews, Coast Guard Curator, first
to let her know what you would like to send. She can then assess its
importance:
Ms. Angela E. Drews
Coast Guard Curator
USCG Exhibit Center
7945 Fernham Lane
Forestville MD 20747
Angela.E.Drews@uscg.mil
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The exhibit center will make these materials available on a
carefully accounted for loan basis to museums and other reputable
institutions for exhibits including Auxiliary history.
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Encourage the appointment of division and
flotilla historians. Even though these positions are not recognized as
official staff members, it is logical for division captains and flotilla
commanders to select a willing volunteer to act as the unit
historian. Give unit historians and members guidance, training, and
assistance in evaluating, collecting, and preserving historical
materials. Encourage members to create, write, maintain, and preserve
unit histories. Encourage members to submit articles or short items on
historical topics for each issue of the unit periodical and to mount
historical displays at meetings, conferences, and community venues. The
District Historian might be unaware of events and activities taking place
at various locations in the district. This fact alone argues strongly for
the appointment of active historians at the flotilla and division
levels. They are essential to ensuring that important historical evidence
is gathered, preserved, and made known.
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Prepare articles for the district publication
which will engender interest in Auxiliary unit history and make clear how
members can help in the gathering of historical material. It is useful to
make clear that what is obvious and familiar today may be important, but
forgotten in the future, unless deliberately preserved. Similarly, the
District Historian must press for a few minutes to address at each meeting
the district board and an open session for all members concerning the
status and needs of the historical program.
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Plan and be responsible for the eventual
publication and dissemination of a competently researched and
well-written, comprehensive history of the District/Region Coast Guard
Auxiliary.
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As needed, appoint and supervise members of a
unit history committee for the purpose of all of the above.
NOTE: The greatest obstacles to having interesting and useful Coast Guard
Auxiliary history available are:
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a lack of awareness of the importance of history to achieving pride in
belonging and to increasing efficiency by making it possible to build on
past successes and to avoid past errors.
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failure to record events as they take place
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not assembling and preserving written, audio-visual and physical
evidence of history, and
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lack of a carefully planned historical program carried out with
vigor. The District Historian can and must overcome these barriers with
tactful persuasion and unswerving persistence, and most of all by
setting the example.
(Revised 02/02)
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District Shipping Schedule (By
Month):
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1N, 1S January
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5N February
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5S March
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7, 8CR April
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8ER, 8W May
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National June
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9C July
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9E August
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9W, 11N September
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11S, 13 October
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14, 17 November
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Special December
NOTE: Regularly published district and unit newsletters and
publications should be sent to ECU as published, i.e., ECU should
have its own mailing label. This includes any district newlstter
sent out by the Directors of Auxiliary.
NOTE WELL: Publications must have publishing unit
district/division/flotilla, date, volume number (one per year), and
issue number (within year) at the head of every issue. This is the
only way that these can be filed and later found. Likewise,
newspaper clippings must have name of paper, city, state, date, and
page number written in the margin or attached to identify the
source. For photos, never write on the
back; attach a caption with tape, identifying the subjects, by name
and title, event, unit, and date; the exception to this are
scrapbook bound ones.
Send To:
O. W. “Sonny” Martin
Jr. Coast Guard Auxiliary
Records
Collection
Joyner Library
East Carolina University
Greenville, NC
27858-4353.
11/1/99
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