10/28/2019

The Value of Knowing Your Association's History

Don’t negate looking at the past for ways to move forward

If you took the time to go through your association’s archives, what might you find?

One association found a vintage movie. When the Cedar Shake and Shingle Bureau was sifting through old file boxes in advance of its centennial in 1915, staffers made a peculiar discovery: A 1935 industrial film, The Home of the Wooden Soldiers, promoting the brand of shingles produced by the association’s members.

The movie boasted a couple of well-known, Hollywood Walk of Fame-caliber actors, Charlie Murray and Lila Lee (as “the wife who realized her fondest desire,” according to a promotional poster). The movie and accompanying documentation surfaced among stacks of old membership forms. “There were lists of actors and rates, and film reels. I was going, ‘OK, this is not a membership agreement,’” says CSSB CEO Lynne Christensen. The association ultimately donated the film and related materials to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Associations Now.