Bringing Life to History: Creating an Oral History Program

The most critical part at the start of this project is to determine the goals and scope of your oral history project, and determining who will be involved.

1. If this is a group or community project rather than a personal one, create a working group of individuals interested in the project who will provide the guidelines and support for the various pieces of the project, and define the goal and scope of the project. Carefully decide on a projected budget, as there may be financial costs associated with the research, recording, and archiving, even if much of the work is by volunteers.

Goals:  What do you wish to accomplish with this project?  Who is the intended audience? How will it be made available? Do you plan to publish the interviews online or not, and will you make the media files available or the transcripts?

Scope: Define the parameters of the project: is it finite or ongoing? Who will be interviewed, and what information will be collected?

2. Decide who will have the major responsibility for the research and writing, and who will oversee the budget. This may be a single individual or a group of people. If your budget allows, you may consider the possibility of hiring someone to research and write the history, rather than using volunteers. If you decide to hire someone, and your working group does not have a particular person in mind:

• Contact individuals who may have written other church histories in your conference to see if they are interested.
• Check with a local or regional historical associations or museums for recommendations.
• Contact individuals who have written local or regional histories, who will have a strong knowledge and interest in the community.
• Check with a local college or university library or history department to see if they know of someone who might be interested.

3. Develop a plan for executing the project to ensure that the work is done. Create a project timeline and assign tasks.

Congratulations, you are on your way!