We are fortunate to have Mr. Rudi Prusok as our distinguished archivist, and I would welcome his input on this subject.  However, there are others who may have experience to share, thus I have not particularly addressed my question directly to Rudi.

     I am commencing a research project with some focus on the historical schuetzen activities in America during the golden age of late 19th and early 20th centuries.

     My question is whether or not there presently exists a computerized word/phrase index to the ASSRA archives which may be accessed remotely by ASSRA members who are doing on-line research?

     Thanks much,      

      Creedmoormatch

Has anyone come up with any ideas as to what will be done with the archives when  Mr. Prusok can no longer do what he does.
   S T

Sorry Jeff,
I all ready have a job like that and would not be able to handle both of them. I know what I would be in for as I've been doing that same type job for over 10 years now. 

Of course we do have a back up guy to help out and a place to store all our hard copy archives, we are now starting to set everything up on the computer. There are thousands and thousands of pictures and records so it does take time but it the best way to preserve things like this for future research.

I only asked because it was talked about on another gun group.
  S T

Rudi has been very helpful to my projects, it fact living in CA as i do, i'd not be a member if NOT FOR THE ARCHIVES.A range 2500 miles away does me no good,sad to say.I'd love to go to the meeting's but i'm not rich.

Webb,
I'm do not know the date of the next BOD meeting; we may be on an "as needed" schedule. (I'm new to the board) Contact the president about your proposal. Good luck with it, it sounds very interesting.
I believe you are correct in your assumption that the complete archives reside in Marquette. 
I would prefer that you address me as Jeff. "Mr. Schultz" makes me uncomfortable; makes me feel like I'm being addressed by law enforcement  .

  Mr. 40 Rod and S.T.
               I agree with everything you've said above regarding the ASSRA collection of archival materials.  My background includes historical preservation and archival cataloging for the U.S. National Park Service at a colonial period National Historic Site, and therefore, have the skills and interest to perhaps assist with the ASSRA collection.

   Although archival cataloging is an important precursor to accessing historical materials and artifact for scholarly research, I would suggest that preservation is of greater importance and a much more valuable activity in the long term.  For what good would an excellent index be if the original materials are in a state of rapid decline ?

   Please; lets not, under any circumstance, gift the ASSRA collection to any other person or entity.  Should it ever become necessary to dispose of the collection, I would prevail upon our association's officers and directors to seek out an arms length transaction of sale and purchase for the collection.

   Webb
 

speaking personally from a background in publications, Historian and researcher, museum/archive administration and a couple other related things, and as a new BOD member (and as a past ex-officio one):  

I can say that securing the future of the archives has been andis one of the Association administration's priorities.  It has been an ongoing topic of discussion for several different ASSRA administration's discussions. To date no really workable resolution has been found.  Obviously a major problem is the financial aspects followed by the matter of personnel.

 The archives have been one of Rudi's "life works" since his days as editor of the Journal and perhaps even earlier.   The accumulation of material, both in primary and copy form, he has assembled over the years would be mindboggling to anyone who physically accessed it.  Currently the Archive is housed in Rudi's residence, or perhaps Rudi is is housed in the Archives residence.

securing its preservation should be priority #1 because if we fail to do that every other effort is wasted.   It will need eventually to be relocated to a physical facility with adequate climate controls for ongoing preservation.  This will entail a fair amount of cost

to provide the current level of service will require at least one person who has the skills and the attitude for the job.  A properly qualified volunteer could do this job provided they had other income resources to support themselves

Obviously physically locating the archives and the archivist in the same location is a requirement.

Once these two issues (and the financial requirements) are resolved items like digitization and e-access can be addresses.

I  would like to drag the idea of developing a special funding source/resource for the archives across the forum to see what ideas might occur.
One that occurs to me off the top of my head is to dedicate the proceeds of future "raffle rifles" toward that goal. 
 
Any other ideas or suggestions

Lucky for us we live in an age of communication where large amounts of information can be efficiently stored and distributed. Several years ago Rudi sent me some copies of an old German language publication that outlined various California schuetzen vereins, I was able to translate some of the documents and Rudi translated the rest, after it was completed I put the original document as well as the English translation on a CD. CD’s can easily hold copies of original documents as well as pictures, it takes time and work to transfer documents to disc, but after it’s done you can store or use them easily.

Bob