SCANNED

MEMORANDUM -- ON OPERATION OF ARTICLE V “THE SUNSET PROVISION”

Office of the Registrar  ·  Reissued

Article V of the Charter of Formation and Operating Principles provides for the release of Society holdings into private custodianship upon the satisfaction of two conditions:

  (1)that every party named in the relevant file is deceased, and that a minimum of two generations has elapsed thereafter.  The full text of the Article is not reproduced here.

  (2) Release under Article V is an obligation, not a courtesy.  The Society is fastidious about its bylaws and sees no reason to make an exception of this one merely because compliance has become inconvenient.

Holdings released under Article V pass to private custodians of record. Custodianship is not ownership in the sentimental sense.  The Society expects records to be kept, and keeps its own.

The Society notes, for completeness, that the physical conveyance of released holdings requires the participation of commercial intermediaries.  The Society has retained a Facilitator for this purpose.  The arrangement is both necessary and satisfactory.

Files eligible for release are identified by the Registrar in the ordinary course and digitized for release at the convenience of the Archivist.

[Filed by order of the Registrar]