# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_1975_S407
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

408 SPECIAL AND SUNDRY MATTERS

2. The 125th anniversary of the birth of Franz Pieper (1977).

3. The 100th anniversary of the birth of Theodore Graebner
and the death of F. C. D. Wyneken (1976) and of the birth of
Karl Kretzmann (1977).

4. The 75th anniversary of the death of J. M. Buehler and
E. R. Baierlein (1976) and of Friedrich Lochner (1977).

5. The 50th anniversary of the incorporation of Concordia
Historical Institute (1977).

The Past Is Prolog

A number of proposals for future action have already been
listed in the section “Task Force for Self-Study.” One of the
most pressing needs is for an expanded building. Because the
Board of directors has already allocated $300,000 from the 125th
Anniversary Thankoffering Fund for this expansion, we hope
we can report at convention time that excavation has begun.
A three-phase plan is being implemented to spread the project
over a number of years, with additional stacks and office space
given first priority.

The projected budgets for 1976 and 1977 already include the
future staff needs as outlined in the task force report. The
continual increase of requests for reference and research
services places heavy demands on our present limited staff, so
that often there is a delay of several months in completing
research. The care needed by the collection (appraising, ac-
cessioning, organizing, filing, repairing and restoring, preparing
finding aids, etc.) also requires trained staff and additional
funding.

In the future we hope to aggressively gather additional
resources from synodical agencies and individuals that ought
to be transferred to the archives. We also hope to expand our
program of oral history, which includes recording the thoughts
of those involved in making current decisions in the Synod, the
retrospective evaluations of individuals working in parishes and
in experimental and special ministries.

The financial needs of the Institute continue to be uppermost
in the minds of all who have been called to serve the Synod’s
historical-archival ministry. Inflation has hit operational as well
as technical services.

During the past years the Institute has operated with the
following funds:

Type of Income 1972 1973 1974 1975
1. Synodical treasury ____ 62,800 64,355 70,047 65,000
2, Membership and other __ 11,759 11,271 13,467 17,565
3. LLL Microfilm support ___ 1,800 1,800 1,800 1,800

Total 76,359 77,426 85,314 84,365

Projections for 1976 and 1977 indicate the following mini-
mums:

Type of Income 1976 1977
1. Synodical treasury 102,437 120,782
2. Membership and other 20,705 24,000
3. LLL Microfilm support 2,000 2,000

Total 125,142 146,782

A Special Appeal

We urgently appeal to the following for both financial and
historical support:

1. To individuals to become Institute members and enjoy
reading in the Quarterly about the Synod’s 128-year history;

2. To all congregations to become sustaining members of the
Institute ($10 per year), to develop their own parish archives,
and to develop a historical conscience by placing the Quarterly
on the shelves of the parish library;

3. To all professional workers in the church to become
members of the Institute and benefit personally from the
stimulation such membership provides;

4. To all District offices to subscribe to the Quarterly and
place this unique publication on the tables of their waiting
rooms and libraries;

5. To local men’s and women’s groups to subscribe to the
Quarterly and place it gratis into the community or city library;

6. To all welfare agencies to subscribe to the Quarterly and
make it available to their residents;

7. To individuals of means to become life members ($300 or
more) and to remember the Institute’s special needs with larger
gifts, endowments, and contributions for specific projects.

Special Resolutions

The Institute proposes to the Anaheim convention the fol-
lowing three resolutions:

1. To Provide for Archives Copies of
Certain Synodical Publications

WHEREAS, The Statistical Yearbooks of the Missouri Synod
and the Proceedings of synodical conventions are essential
resources for preservation in the archives of the Districts and
the synodical colleges and seminaries: and

WHEREAS, Resolution 4-07 of the New Orleans convention
provided that convention Proceedings be sent only to congrega-
tions of the Synod and to voting and advisory delegates: and

WHEREAS, Resolution 4-11 of the New Orleans convention
provided that the Statistical Yearbook be sent only to congre-
gations of the Synod: and

WHEREAS. Bylaw 11-25 e provides for deposit of two copies
of the Proceedings of the synodical convention and of the Sta-
tistical Yearbook in the synodical archives; and

WHEREAS. These provisions will not supply the necessary
copies of these resources for District archives and synodical
college and seminary libraries: therefore, be it

Resolved. That Bylaw 11.25 e be amended to read:

e. Concordia Publishing House shall supply the
Secretary of the Synod with two copies of each
Statistical Yearbook and of all proceedings printed
by it of the Synod and of the several Districts for
deposit in the Synod’s archives. In addition, it shall
deposit one copy each of the Statistical Yearbook and
the Synod’s Proceedings in the archives of the Dis-
tricts and the libraries of the synodical colleges and
seminaries.

2. To Change Bylaw 5-31 k

WHEREAS, The present Bylaw 5.31 k states that the records
of the “final decisions” made by the Commission on Adjudica-
tion or the Board of Appeals “shall be preserved in a locked
file in the custody of the President of the Synod”; and

WHEREAS, That Bylaw presently specifies that “any such
closed files shall be opened only with the approval of the Board
of Appeals’; and

WHEREAS. The Concordia Historical Institute, the Depart-
ment of Archives and History, has been designated as the
depository for such historical records in Bylaw 5.41 a; and

WHEREAS, Synodical boards and commissions “shall transfer
correspondence, records, and other papers from their respec-
tive offices to the archives when they are no longer of current
operational value” according to Bylaw 15.51; and

WHEREAS. The Institute is better equipped to provide se-
curity and a seal to such records as determined by the Synod
than the headquarters offices or a separately designated storage
area; and

WHEREAS, The official transactions of any synodical board
or commission ought to become available for historical examina-
tion at some designated point: and

WHEREAS, Even records and resources of extremely sensi-
tive and delicate cases ultimately do become available for re-
search: and

WHEREAS, It would be highly desirable that the official
records as stated in Bylaw 5.31 k also be made available under
certain circumstances after the lapse of a long period of time;
therefore be it

Resolved. That Bylaw 5.31 k be amended to read:

k. All files of cases in which a final decision has
been rendered by a commission or board on the
synodical level shall be preserved in locked files in
the custody of the Concordia Historical Institute. Any
such files shall be opened only with the approval of
the Board of Appeals during the first 50 years from the