RESOLUTION
CONGRESSIONAL RECORDS & HISTORICAL ARCHIVES
WHEREAS, the Church of God in Christ was founded and successfully led for many years by Bishop Charles H. Mason; and
WHEREAS, in 1936 the Old Tabernacle original headquarters burned down destroying the national headquarters earlier historical memory leaving many of our records that are left with private individuals that are members of the Church of God in Christ who maintained theses collections; and
WHEREAS, the historic memory of the Church of God in Christ and our Founding Father Bishop Charles Harrison Mason and the “Old Pioneers” that contributed in building the foundation of this great institution; and
WHEREAS, the historical influence and contribution of the Church of God in Christ is important to Pentecostalism Globally and is a vital part of America’s African American Religious history;
WHEREAS, our history will be stored and housed at our headquarters to be used for organizational research for future publications, for scholarly research and to manage our organizational historic records.
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the General Assembly authorize that an official historical archive storage vault and space be installed at our World Headquarters. To honor the historical memory of the “Old Pioneers,” and this will ensure public trust that all historical materials given to this institutional archive by donor individuals or organizations will be protected, preserved, and an archival management system of 21st Century technological analog and digital best practices. Be utilized to preserve and maintain these records for future generations to ponder and have electronic access for research purposes.
FURTHER RESOLVED that all preexisting Church of God in Christ historical collections whether privately held by individual members or given to any institution that all original copies or copies of originals be centrally located at the official Mason Temple Headquarters General Assembly historical Archive, in order to also provide the content for our official Church of God in Christ Archive publication.
FURTHER RESOLVED that General Board identifies and locates an adequate space in order to house at our World Headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee the storage of our historical heritage memory.
FURTHER RESOLVED the national archivist chair a historical preservation committee of twenty individuals the expertise and composition will be three degreed scholars, three historians, four technology majors, three librarians, three historical researchers, three Master degreed in marketing or business professionals, and one attorney.
FURTHER RESOLVED that the national archivist along with the preservation committee will develop the system of archival records management to that would entail collections and preservation methods that would secure our future heritage digitally for the future, and the committee would the research on the type of historical vault and proposal a budget to maintain the day-to-day operations of our national archive.
FURTHER RESOLVED that a salaried digital archivist be on staff to conduct the day-to-day operations of the archive, and be the official custodian of the Church of God in Christ’s historical records. The duties of the digital archivist will be to resources, and to develop our Archives and Records Management system, the archive’s mission statement, code of ethics, collecting policy, storage, retrieval of records, re-filing, digital imaging conversion policies, technology standards for scanning digital images and designing a digital research library.