DOVE met on 06/10/10 at The University of Virginia, Office of Development and Public Affairs. Attendees included Sonia Yaco (Old Dominion University), Patrice Grimes (University of Virginia), John Kern (Division of Historic Resources – retired), Bob Vay (George Mason University), Tonia Graves (Old Dominion University), Michael Robinson (University of Virginia), Emma Edmonds (University of Virginia), Ted Delaney (Washington and Lee). Carolyn S. Parsons (University of Mary Washington) chaired the meeting.

1. Project Update and Regional Task forces

• Sonia presented a slideshow about DOVE and briefly reviewed DOVE’s two year history.
• Sonia announced that there is an opening for somebody to chair the Eastern Shore Regional Task Force.
• Sonia thanked The University of Virginia, Office of Development and Public Affairs for hosting the meeting and generously providing lunch.

a. How to recruit volunteers for region task forces

• Each region is forming a task force to direct local surveying, including recruiting and training volunteers
• Suggestions were made of who regional chair should consider recruiting for their regional task forces

b. The recruiting discussion morphed into a discussion about roles needed for DOVE’s success and recommendations for potential records. Places to consider as potential sources for records, regional task force members and volunteers include:

• School boards-especially school board secretaries (consider asking them to volunteer)
• Historical societies
• Civic leagues
• Civic leaders
• Fraternities/sororities
• Real Estate Agents
• Public Libraries – Virginia or local history rooms
• NAACP

c. Communication tools – Google Docs demonstration
A demonstration of how to use Google Docs to track surveying of repositories regions was given. Directions and passwords are included in the surveying procedures manual

2. Surveying procedures manual

• Bob Vay presented a draft manual developed mainly as a result of the training session from the last meeting and asked for us to submit comments and suggestions.

3. Grants

• Tonia Graves gave a brief presentation on grant basics and led a discussion of how DOVE volunteers can help including
  • Searching for and reading grant proposals
  • Experience developing budgets
  • Editing/proofreading skills
  • Grant writing experience
  • Identifying individuals/organizations to contribute letters of support
• How to get them/ what we want funded – Activities that grants often support and are what DOVE wants funded include:
  • Programming
  • Curriculum development
  • Research
  • Travel
  • Individual Education/Training

Part of this discussion included identifying disciplines, in addition to history, that might benefit from DOVE such as education, women’s studies, anthropology, journalism, and rhetoric and new media.
A suggestion was made to put on the DOVE website stories of why people donated their school desegregation collections to an archives or allowed them to be surveyed.

4. Planning for MLK Jr. Memorial Commission partnered fall 2010 training/surveying sessions

Sonia announced that the MLK Jr. Memorial Commission has agreed to sponsor training/surveying sessions in the four areas whose schools were closed due to Massive Resistance. Potential sites for these sessions include public libraries in Fairfax, Charlottesville, Front Royal and Norfolk. The sessions are planned to be one day events that will feature hands on training in surveying records for the first half of the day hands on records surveying for the second half of the day.

5. Next meeting – location and agenda items?

The next meeting is tentatively scheduled for early/mid September in Prince William County.

College of William and Mary
Williamsburg, Virginia

Attendees:

Susan Riggs, College of William and Mary
Bob Vay, George Mason University
Carl Childs, Library of Virginia
Larissa Smith Ferguson, Longwood University
Tonia Graves and Sonia Yaco, Old Dominion University
Charles H. Ford, Norfolk State University
Lynn Rainville, Sweet Briar
Brian Daugherity, Virginia Commonwealth University
Lucious Edwards, Virginia State University
Marc Brodsky, Sherrie Bowser and Aaron Purcell, Virginia Tech
Dianne Jordan, volunteer, Region 4: Greater Tidewater
Francine Archer, volunteer, Region 5: Central Piedmont
John Kern, volunteer, Region 7: Western (Valley and Blue Ridge)

The meeting was chaired by Tonia Graves.
1.   Grants

Lynn Rainville and Larissa Ferguson discussed an NEH Digital Humanities Startup Grant application by a consortium in Prince Edward County. DOVE will be used as an advisory board for the project.

2. Updates from regional chairs

• Region 1: Southwest (Appalachian). Aaron Purcell, Marc Brodsky, and Sherrie Bowser have started the background work to assemble a team. Aaron sent out blanket emails to higher ed. in the region. Sherrie compiled a list of local organizations (history societies and libraries) for ten of our eighteen counties. They will make those contacts next. Marc did some census demographics to get a sense where the black populations have been located and found that the percentage of African Americans in this part of the state will probably be the least of any other region. Once they have more contacts (this spring), then they could plan some site-visits and try to hit several places sometime this summer.

• Region 2: Southside. Lucious Edwards has been working with graduate students at VSU and expects to have his regional task force together by the end of the semester.

• Region 3: Hampton Roads. Charles Ford’s local history class has been collecting material.

• Region 4: Greater Tidewater. Bea Hardy has done outreach to people at the College, in the city of Williamsburg; and a group called Alltogether that is trying to build better race relations in Williamsburg. Dianne Jordan is the new regional co-chair. She has contacted people about joining the Tidewater task force and/or volunteering as surveyors, and she has several speaking opportunities set up. Bea has come up with a list of all the libraries and historical societies in my counties as a starting point. A student worker has gone through Southern School News/Southern Education Report to note every time one of Region 4’s counties was mentioned, and they’ll be using that in helping to educate our surveyors.

• Region 6: Northern Virginia. Bob Vay has made contact with Dick Harrington, Archivist of Fairfax County. He is happy to work with us. Bob has contacted people from Prince William, but has not gotten as far. Bob has begun identifying George Mason University members who may have an interest in the project and plans to post on Mason’s history department listserv to see if students may be interested.

3. Outreach activities

• DOVE has been nominated for the Society of American Archivists Philip M. Hamer and Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award
• Presentation to the Library Advisory Council of SCHEV March 5th.
• Presentation at the Virginia Library Association Paraprofessional Forum, May 17^th.

4.  Training session

Attendees were trained in records surveying. Several issues were identified as needing further development. Bob Vay offered to create a surveying manual based on the training.

5.   Next general meeting: Tentatively scheduled for Charlottesville – May 19

There will also be an informal DOVE meeting at the Virginia Forum, tentatively scheduled for Saturday at 12:30.

George Mason University

Present: Co-Chairs: Dr. James Sweeney and Sonia Yaco, Old Dominion University
Bob Vay, George Mason University; Jennifer McDaid, Library of Virginia; Jefferson Moak, NARA; Charles Ford, Norfolk State University Nicole Dressler and Tonia Graves Old Dominion University; Francine Archer, Virginia Department of Education; Bea Hardy, William and Mary;

1. Updates – Sonia Yaco
* The Virginian-Pilot article on DOVE generated a number of positive responses from around the state. http://hamptonroads.com/node/510501
* Letter of support from Delegate Paula J. Miller, Delegate, 87th House District
* Letter from Conley Edwards. Library of Virginia supports the effort to raise awareness of the project’s public value, but they declined to actively participate in DOVE activities due to lack of funds. Although they were concerned about the overlap between the DOVE project and the Virginia Heritage Project, members discussed that DOVE is a more active, inclusive, centralized, and thematic project.
* DOVE table at AARP Diversity Conference, Thursday Nov. 12, 2009 Richmond
* DOVE invitation for next MLK Commission meeting. Date to be announced.

2. Letter to Repositories – Charles Ford discussed the initial contact letter for taskforces to send to repositories that he drafted. A follow up letter also will be needed.

3. Report from grants subcommittee – Tonia Graves

We identified two kinds of grant needs for DOVE:
1. Grants that would fund the DOVE organization itself. This would include monies for the expenses of DOVE meetings, regional task force meetings, monies for training surveyors, monies for interns, archival supplies to distribute to small archives to encourage records preservation.
2. Grants that would develop transform the DOVE catalog into a resource for educators. This new expanded database could be displayed as a map and a timeline similar to the Jefferson travel history browser done by the Virginia Center for Digital History at University of Virginia.

4. Geographical Boundaries for DOVE regions – Francine Archer presented potential cities and counties break-down for regional taskforces. VDOT vs. DOVE vs. Dept of Ed regions were compared. A modification of the original DOVE regions was agreed to. Chairs should revise this list. Members should send suggestions/comments to Frances.

Region 1: Southwest, Chair: TBD
Includes Cities: Bristol, Clifton Forge, Covington, Galax, Norton, Radford, Roanoke, Salem.
Counties: Alleghany, Bland, Botetourt, Buchanan, Carroll, Craig, Dickenson, Floyd, Giles, Grayson, Lee, Montgomery, Pulaski, Roanoke, Russell, Scott, Smyth, Tazewell, Washington, Wise, Wythe

Region 2: Southside, Chair: Lucious Edwards
Includes cities: Bedford, Danville, Emporia, Lynchburg, Martinsville, and South Boston
Counties: Amelia, Amherst, Appomattox, Bedford, Brunswick, Buckingham, Campbell, Charlotte, Cumberland, Franklin, Greensville, Halifax, Henry, Lunenburg, Mecklenburg, Nottoway, Patrick, Pittsylvania, and Prince Edward

Region 3: Hampton Roads, Chair: Charles Ford
Cities: Chesapeake, Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk, and Virginia Beach.

Region 4: Greater Tidewater, Chair: Bea Hardy
Cities: Franklin, Poquoson, and Williamsburg.
Counties: Accomack, Gloucester, Isle of Wight, James City, Lancaster, Mathews, Middlesex, Northampton, Northumberland, Southampton, Surry, Sussex, and York.

Region 5: Piedmont, Chair: Brian Daugherity
Cities: Colonial Heights, Hopewell, Petersburg, and Richmond.
Counties: Charles City, Chesterfield, Dinwiddie, Essex, Goochland, Hanover, Henrico, King and Queen, King William, New Kent, Powhatan, Prince George, and Richmond.

Region 6: Northern, Chairs: Bob Vay and Derek Gray
Cities: Alexandria, Fairfax, Falls Church, Fredericksburg, Manassas, and Manassas Park.
Counties: Arlington, Caroline, Fairfax, Fauquier, King George, Loudoun, Prince William, Spotsylvania, Stafford, and Westmoreland.

Region 7: Northwestern, Chair: Ted DeLaney
Cities: Buena Vista, Charlottesville, Harrisonburg, Lexington, Staunton, Waynesboro, and Winchester.
Counties: Albemarle, Augusta, Bath, Clarke, Culpeper, Fluvanna, Frederick, Greene, Highland, Louisa, Madison, Nelson, Orange, Page, Rappahannock, Rockbridge, Rockingham, Shenandoah, and Warren.

5. Progress of regional taskforces – Bea Hardy

Some regions have begun contacting people to serve on regional boards. Bea suggested contacting United Way for volunteers. AARP also suggested. She’ll send notice to MARAC calling for volunteers. Taskforces should meet by early October.

6. Brochure – Members received a draft of the brochure written by Peter Jones and Brian Daugherity to look over and make changes where necessary.

7. Survey Forms – Sonia Yaco

Members received the drafts for the following:
Record Survey Form:
Outline for Volunteer Training:
Permission Agreement for Use of Collection Descriptions Form:

Changes to the survey form based on Virginia Kinman and Nicole Dressler’s ‘test drives’ were discussed. Virginia set up a repository survey status form in Google docs. Bob Vay will develop this into electronic filing system for regional taskforces. These forms could be made electronic to make more accessible. No objections were made to the forms.
Jennifer offered to help train for surveyors.

8. Future meetings

Regional taskforce meetings – late September, early October
General meeting:
Longwood University in Farmville, tentatively scheduled for November 19, 2009.
William and Mary, tentatively scheduled for February, 2010.

Revised: 8/3/2009

Virginia State University

Present: Dr. James Sweeney and Sonia Yaco, Co-chairs; Nicole Dressler, Old Dominion University; Jennifer McDaid, Library of Virginia; Virginia Kinman, Longwood; Jefferson Moak, NARA; Peggy McPhillips, Troy Valos, Norfolk Public Library; Charles H. Ford, Norfolk State University; Francine Archer, Brian Daugherity, Virginia Commonwealth University; Va. Department of Historic Resources; Lucious Edwards, Virginia State University; Derek Gray, Washington D.C. Public Library; Bea Hardy, Peter Jones, William and Mary

1. Status of Project – There are six regional task forces.
1. Tidewater Bea Hardy, Director of the Special Collections Research Center at the College of William and Mary
2. Valley of Virginia- Ted DeLaney, History Department, Washington and Lee
3. Eastern Shore and Southside – Lucious Edwards, Head of the Special Collections & Archives at Virginia State University
4. Northern Virginia – Derek Gray, Washington D.C. Public Library and Bob Vay, George Mason University
5. Southwest – chair needed
6. Piedmont – chair needed

2. Bea Hardy led discussion on regional task force methodology
1. Taskforces should try to have media representation because the media may have school desegregation material and so that they can help to publicize DOVE.
2. These task forces will survey libraries and archives – ideally a pair, a historian and an archivist.
3. Charles Ford will be writing a letter to give to repositories before we go visit them. The letter will list the topics DOVE seeks to document including the role of integration, segregationist groups, and busing in Virginia schools. A draft of the letter will be available at the next DOVE meeting.
4. There may be out-of-state repositories that hold Virginia records. Dove may need to send survey forms to these repositories instead of traveling to them.
5. Survey form design:
* First draft is completed and is available on the DOVE website.
* Those present agreed to ‘test drive’ the form on collections at their own institution and suggest changes to the form.
6. It was suggested that we use Google docs to keep track of which repositories have been surveyed
7. Among the groups to be contacted by taskforces are: scholars, reference archivists, historical societies (as a conduit to the public), churches (church bulletins), courthouses, teacher unions, realtors
8. Francine Archer will come up with a list of which counties are in which DOVE regions
9. Training surveyors. Because there will be different kinds of people doing surveying, training should be aimed at a variety of audiences. Possible training text and video online and in-class training, as well as on-site repository. Break into segments – 1) for people unfamiliar with the history of desegregation 2) for people unfamiliar with archives etc. Surveyors should be periodically re-trained to insure consistency. Maybe just retrain taskforce chairs.
10. Data entry will be done by regional taskforces so that they can do quality control on work done. ODU will do metadata cataloging.
11. Schedule of tasks – additions to DOVE timeline: Regional taskforces should be formed by September 1.

3. Peter Jones led a discussion about the content for a DOVE brochure. He and Brian Daugherity agreed to write the brochure this summer. Sonia Yaco will do the design and layout. Bea Hardy will pay to have 1000 copies printed at printer. A PDF file of the brochure will go on the DOVE web site so taskforces can print off more copies as needed. Send it throughout Virginia communities, possibly to community newspapers, the Chambers of Commerce, and other local organizations.

4. Catalog – A status flag should be added to the catalog – ready to be public, still under review, not yet cataloged, etc.

5. Charles Ford discussed possible grants for DOVE. Charles, Jennifer McDaid, Brian Daugherity and Sonia Yaco will work on the grants. We will address the development and progress of possible grants at the next meeting

6. Next meeting will be hosted by Bob Vay at George Mason University on Tuesday, July 14. We hope to include the Arlington Public Library in the meeting.
Agenda items for the next meeting :
* Brochure
* Grants
* Progress of regional task forces
* Geographical Boundaries
* Surveyor Form
* Letter to Repositories

Revised: 6/12/09

Longwood University
Virginia Kinman Chairing

Attendance – Charles Ford (Washington & Lee), Larissa Smith Ferguson (Longwood), Aaron Purcell (Virginia Tech), Sherrie Bowser (Virginia Tech), Marc Brodsky (Virginia Tech), Lacy Ward, Jr. (R. R. Moton Museum), Brian Daugherity (VCU), Lucious Edwards (Virginia State University), Kelli Palmer (U.Va), Virginia Kinman (Longwood), Lydia Williams (Longwood), Jennifer McDaid (Library of Virginia), Emma Edmunds (U Va), Bob Vay (George Mason University), Sonia Yaco (ODU)

Introductions

Update with Sonia – Jim Sweeney is leaving as Chairman. She suggested Brian Daugherity of VCU as Co-Chair of DOVE. There were no objections from those in attendance. She showed a Power Point presentation of the project summarizing progress to date.

Brochure – Brian Daugherity passed out a computer printed version of the new DOVE brochure. A PDF version of the full color brochure will be on DOVE website. The committee discussed the brochure, its layout, and construction. Full color version will be available. College of William and Mary is picking up the cost for this. We have a willing volunteer for the Eastern Shore but DOVE is still in need of a regional chair. Lucious will check with someone at University of Maryland, Eastern Shore, who might be able to help with it. Aaron Purcell asked about the materials at each of the participating institutions’ college/university records . Should we add this information to the brochure along with private and non-denominational K-12 schools? Because the brochure has already been printed, this change will have to be made in the next version.

Sonia discussed grants. Regarding Mellon grants, DOVE would need to be “invited” by them to apply. When contacted, Mellon said that they will not invite DOVE to apply. After some tweaks a grant will be ready for an NHPRC application next October (2010). She is also looking at a Virginia Foundation for the Humanities grant for training, expenses for the regional task forces, and archives management for private records holders such as the Nansemond-Suffolk Academy to preserve records found there. DOVE is considering a type of “archives tool kit” (acid free materials and handling instructions) for places that have records to help get them started.

The question of “What do we want from the grant?” arose. Several members brought up different aims such as: digitization, travel, or training. As grants are being prepared, we will need to each collect letters of commitment from our institutions from officials as far up the chain as possible (library director and up). Letters of support will be good to have as well. Lacy Ward will compose a draft letters of commitment to review by the next DOVE meeting.

We had a discussion about digitization and use of the DOVE records interface. We discussed whether or not the interface could be adapted to use digital objects created with grant money. The field entitled, “Relation” on the DOVE catalog should be renamed to make it clear that this is for the URL of an online catalog or a digital object. More discussion about digitization included the question: “How will our digitization grant be innovative or different?” – that granting agencies will ask. We decided it will be different because we will be working with local, higher-ed, and private agencies for one goal. No other state is doing a project like this. Perhaps a planning grant might be helpful just to help get started. There was discussion about the SHRAB course. The Prince Edward project should be a good prototype for the larger grant. Should digitization and preservation be added to DOVE’s stated goals?

Brian Daugherity– MLK Commission

Virginia’s Marin Luther King Jr. Commission has commemorated Brown v Bd., Massive Resistance, and now Desegregation (1958-1959). The Special Subcommittee on the 50th Anniversary of Public School Closings in Virginia will be holding town hall meetings in locations in Virginia where public schools were closed to prevent integration – Prince Edward, Charlottesville, Norfolk, etc, including Warren County (Tuesday, December 1 at 3 PM). Bob Vay will try to get to that. Trying to decide whether Prince Edward County will need to develop a new film or use existing ones as a teaching tool. Hoping to create a list of Virginians involved in desegregation and massive resistance. The King Commission gives grants (ask Brenda for details). We should do a grant application (they are offered in the $2,500-$7,500 range).

Regional News

Bob Vay reported nothing new for his regional task force but has made contacts with Fairfax and Prince William Counties for government records. Lucious has been focusing on private collections up until now. He will begin focus on public collections again. The Norfolk School Board meeting minutes from the mid-1960s to 1980s, thought to be lost have reappeared again. Charles Ford is constituting his committee for Hampton Roads in the fall.

Task Force Survey Methodology

Discussion continued as to how DOVE will conduct the surveys. Shall we use a region or locality as a model? Perhaps Prince Edward County might be best example for DOVE. What types of people will be best for canvassers? Definitely retired people, who have time and those who lived through this era, as they will have the experience, knowledge, and passion for this project. We will need to get K-12 teachers and retired teachers involved in order to package it as a classroom project. Good contacts are also tourism, economic development, historical societies and other local entities. Sonia went over all of the resources available on the DOVE website (survey, data dictionary, etc.)

Next Meeting

A conference call is set for regional task force members on Thursday, December 17 from 10-11 A.M. Chairs will discuss how we will proceed. Next general meeting will be late January at William & Mary. The meeting will have two parts: a training session and a general meeting. The training session will also serve as a dry run for training volunteers. We will then discuss the timeline of historical waypoints that we can use as a background document for our research that Charles Ford, Lucious Edwards and Larissa Ferguson will have created. Sonia will train us on how to do a records survey. In the general meeting portion we will discuss grant deadlines and letters of commitment.

Revised:12/7/09