By Daniela Moneta

This January, Julie Ann Morrill flew from North Carolina to work for eight days in the WSA Archives in Phoenix to familiarize herself with the collection. This trip was sponsored by a private grant from members in Subud California. She had been volunteering for the archives since the Subud USA National Congress in Albuquerque where she heard Daniela’s archives presentation and saw the video tutorial made by Howard Moneta, the IT administrator for the archives project. This video is about how to use the Subud Archives Online website and find what you are looking for. Here is a link to that video: https://youtube.com/embed/ZelCFWwpnSI

Julie Ann began six months ago working remotely with Daniela from North Carolina adding digitized newsletters and documents to the archive’s online database. She has worked on many projects since Albuquerque, for example, one was putting digital issues of Subud Voice on the archive’s website. So far 135 issues are available to read online for Subud members who subscribe to the archive’s website.

Along with the digital copies of Subud Voice, she and Daniela sorted the first issues of this newsletter in paper which first came out in June 1987, after Bapak’s passing. This new publication was called Subud Voice Britain and edited by Ilaine Lennard.

The paper version of Subud Voice continued on into the 21st century but soon was distributed electronically and edited by Harris Smart. We have in the archives all the paper issues of Subud Voice starting in 1987 which we organized and scanned so the complete set of Subud Voice can be available and searchable in one place. You may ask why this newsletter and others that the archives collects are so important. Newsletters create a useful framework and a timeline of events that happened in our history. The archives team would like to put all Subud newsletters online, along with documents and other important sources, so that all members can have this information at their fingertips.

In addition to newsletters, books, and other publications, interviews, films and videos, the archive’s team plans to collect and build a database of material for each Subud country. This will provide resources and Finding Aids for evidence of Bapak’s work in this world. These databases will include material from Subud organizations, especially relevant documents about Bapak’s world journeys and the spread and development of Subud. This information is useful for Subud members today and in the future and particularly for those writing the history of Subud in their country or members who are writing their memoirs and need reliable sources for dates of Bapak’s visits, international and national congresses, and reports to use as evidence for a truthful and honest history of our organization.

When Julie Ann was in the archive’s storage facility, she noticed a stack of Subud News India on the shelf along with newsletters from other countries like Sri Lanka, German, France, Britain, Canada, Australia and many more. She began organizing the first ten years of Subud News India, starting with Vol.1, No. 1, first published in January 1965. Julie Ann had lived in India during her undergraduate work as a Global Service Fellow. She then earned her Masters in International Studies and Diplomacy at London University. She was introduced to Subud while in London and was opened in 2002 at the Amadeus Centre. She pursued an AmeriCorps program with Habitat for Humanity following her graduate studies. Seeing the newsletters from Subud India, inspired her to contact the Subud groups in India to see if they had more newsletters, photographs, documents, and other material to show how Subud developed in their country.

Here is Julie Ann washing some issues of Subud India News, many of the issues were glued at the fold area. We soaked them in warm water to get the glue to release, blotted and pressed them until they dried flat so they could be scanned. This is part of the preservation work done in the archives.

The WSA Archives in Phoenix has many of the early newsletters from Subud countries around the world due to the diligence of former Subud archivists like Ruth Jahoda and Melinda Pleshe Wallis, former Executive Secretary for Subud USA, and many other Subud members around the world who have donated historical records to the WSA Archives. This includes material from the organizational and kejiwaan side, sub-committees or groups with specific functions, wings (enterprises, social, and cultural projects, and youth activities), affiliates, partners, and sister entities of Subud. Those who have served in administrative or helper positions, including councilors, are requested to turn over their papers at the end or their term to the WSA archivist in their area or zone.

If you would like to work, volunteer, or learn how to be an archivist locally, nationally, or internationally, please send an email to admin@wsaarchives.org.
The archives cannot collect everything created by the Subud association and its members. We must be selective or we will quickly run out of storage space and will not be able to manage the collection. The following questions should be asked about any item before it is accepted into the collection:

• Does it show how Subud works in the world through the latihan?

• Does it show the growth and spread of Subud?

• Does it show the history of Subud?

• Does it show the work and activities of Subud members?

Record types include: Policies, procedures, strategic plans, reports, organizational and kejiwaan correspondence, minutes of meetings, memorandums, directives, general membership and helper applications, project reports, censuses, group histories, copyright agreements, financial reports (annual and quarterly), budgets, audit reports, publications (books and newsletters), congress papers and proceedings, reports from kejiwaan gatherings, resolutions, digital/electronic records, organizational charts, diaries, photographs, films, videos, audio recordings, posters, and other graphic materials.

Before sending any materials to the archives, be sure to email admin@wsaarchives.org to discuss with an archivist what you have to donate. This will avoid sending duplicates of material we already have. As a quick note, we have all of the recorded talks of Bapak and most international newsletters published by international committees. What we are now looking for are records for national groups and their newsletters. If you have notes to any unrecorded talk that Bapak made we would like a copy as well as any photographs of Bapak attending activities in your groups during his many World Journeys.

To see the Subud Archives Online website, send a request for access to admin@wsaarchives.org and a form will be sent to you. Return the form for access

Article by Daniela Moneta, WSA Archivist
Area III (Zones 7, 8, and 9)