Society for Industrial Microbiology records - Scope and Content Note
This collection of records of the Society for Industrial Microbiology covers the years 1949 – 2001 and includes correspondence, memoranda, minutes, financial reports, audits and budgets, constitutions and by-laws, incorporation documents, ledgers, membership lists and directories, brochures, photographs, publications and other records of activities. Documents are arranged into series based on the administrative organization set forth in the society’s policy manual.
Series one, Board of Directors contains the records generated by the President, Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer arranged by creating officer. Files of the President include correspondence, both incoming and outgoing, beginning with the origin of the Society. Presidential correspondence covers the wide range of activities and interests of the society including committee assignments, awards issues and other administrative concerns. There is only one folder of Vice-Presidential material from 1975-1976. Among the Secretary’s files are the agendas and minutes of the board of directors meetings for 1954, and from 1960 through 1992 inclusive. Files also include correspondence pertaining to administrative activities such as elections, mailing list approvals, business calendars, the certificate of incorporation, constitution, by-laws and revisions, and rosters of officers and committee members. The bulk of the financial records falls under the Treasurer. Along with correspondence files dating as early as 1949 are audit reports, budgets, finance committee reports and ledgers for cash assets, income and disbursements, and receipts.
The second series, Business Secretary, is arranged into two series: Business Office and Membership. The sub-series Business Office contains correspondence, income and expense statements for a variety of Society activities and the Policy Manuals. All documents of the Business Secretary, whether the office was in a private home and or after the National Office was established, are organized together by subject and then in date order. All membership records (which became the responsibility of the Business Secretary after the creation of that position) are together and organized first by subject and then in date order. The sub-series includes applications from 1957, brochures, member lists and printed directories.
The third series, Committees, contains correspondence, memos, reports and rosters of many of the Society committees among them the Archives Committee, the Awards and Grants Committee, the Education Committee and the Summer Institute Committee. The materials show the extent of the interests of the society and the development of their activities. For example, the Summer Institute Committee files outline the inception of the Summer Institute courses and contain materials on courses taught from 1965 – 1970.
Series four, Meetings, contains correspondence, memoranda, minutes, reports, forms, proceedings, and photographs. There is a block of correspondence from 1960 pertaining to a conference and some related to the Summer Institute dated 1968 – 1971. There is not a complete record of annual meetings and copies of minutes are extent only for the years 1950 – 1985. There is a smattering of reports from the annual meetings running from 1960 –1981 and some photographs from 1981 – 1990. There is a variety of proceedings, programs, papers and reports from workshops, symposia, conferences and joint meetings organized by the society. Of these a few are from 1960 – 1961, with the bulk of the papers coming from the 1980’s and early 1990’s. Also included are records from local chapter meetings. These contain the correspondence, memos, agendas, minutes and reports of five of the local chapters. The earliest of these is the Washington chapter with papers dating from 1951 – 1960, followed by Chicago with papers beginning in 1959 and extending to 1973. The remaining materials date from the 1970’s – 1990. These give a brief look at the workings of local units.
The series Publications is made up primarily of printed works published by the Society. These include a nearly complete run of the SIM Newsletter, runs of both society journals, copies of meeting programs and abstracts, conference papers, and various special publications. In addition, there is a smattering of documents such as contract agreements with the society publisher from the period 1959 – 1962 and some correspondence from the editor of the society newsletter dating from the mid sixties to the late seventies.
In the final series, Affiliated Organizations and Ephemera, are a small number of files relating to other affiliated societies and the records documenting the relationship between SIM and Northwestern University, where the SIM archive had been previously housed and maintained.
