Your past support has made progress.
Bolstered by your voices, the DC Archives Advocates and the Council’s Archives Advisory Group testified at the oversight and FY23 budget hearing, resulting in the following concrete results:
(1) The executive’s announcement that they are moving forward to design a new State Archives facility at UDC, including hiring a designer
(2) Hiring of an excellent new State Archivist
(3) Testimony by the Mayor’s Senior Advisor that she is in favor of more money for the project (at least $100M to be exact)
Help us build on these wins in the FY23 budget by sending this letter to your Councilmember:
Dear Councilmember [NAME],
[Describe who you are and why you are interested in the archives, e.g. “I live in Ward X, I am a native Washingtonian who is interested in his community; I am my family’s genealogist; I am Professor of X at Y, who studies… etc.]
I am very pleased to see that the Mayor and Secretary of the District of Columbia have hired Dr. Lopez Matthews as the first State Archivist for DC. Dr. Matthews knows DC, and his experience in archives management at Howard University makes him the perfect choice as design begins for a new State Archives at the University of the District of Columbia.
I am writing to you to ensure that Dr. Mathews has the resources he needs to make our archives as accessible to the public as those in other states. This work includes managing the massive planning and moving process, and ensuring that plans for the new facility incorporate archival best practices. The DC Council can help Dr. Matthews by adding the following requirements to the FY23 Budget Support Act:
Authorize the State Archivist to manage the new facilities project, as the specialist Client Agency.
Increase the budget of the Archives/OPR to fund at least twelve new full-time employees to prepare for the move.
Specify that the architectural design team must begin its design from the program outlined in the December, 2015 programming study, minus library co-location elements.
Enlarge the capital budget to account for the inflation that has occurred since the project was originally priced in 2015, and commit those funds this year before design begins (at least the $100M that the Senior Advisor testified in favor of).
Require DGS to coordinate the design with the University of the District of Columbia so this project can advance items in their 2020 campus plan.
Establish an archives building advisory board with a diverse membership of users and experts, following the model of the MLK Library renovation.
How to contact your Councilmember:
Send the email to any or all of the five at-large members:
Chairman, At-Large: Phil Mendelson, pmendelson@dccouncil.us
(Oversees the Archives) At-Large: Anita Bonds, abonds@dccouncil.us
(Oversees Facilities) At-Large: Robert C. White, Jr., rwhite@dccouncil.us
At-Large: Christina Henderson, chenderson@dccouncil.us
At-Large: Elissa Silverman, esilverman@dccouncil.us
Only send the email to the ward councilmember who represents you. Don’t know your ward? Find it with this tool, your ward is the first number, i.e. ANC 6B05 = Ward 6, Charles Allen.
Ward 1: Brianne K. Nadeau, bnadeau@dccouncil.us
Ward 2: Brooke Pinto, bpinto@dccouncil.us
Ward 3: Mary M. Cheh, mcheh@dccouncil.us
Ward 4: Janeese Lewis George, jlewisgeorge@dccouncil.us
Ward 5: Kenyan R. McDuffie, kmcduffie@dccouncil.us
Ward 6: Charles Allen, callen@dccouncil.us
Ward 7: Vincent C. Gray, vgray@dccouncil.us
Ward 8: Trayon White, Sr., twhite@dccouncil.us
Not a DC resident? Your voice still helps, but please only email Anita Bonds and Robert White.
We have never been closer to a DC Archives that is accessible to all. Thank you for your support in this moment.