Greetings!

I hope you’ve had a chance to look through the current issue of THE AMERICAN BAHA’I. It’s exciting to see our young project featured along with two long-standing efforts, in San Francisco and Atlanta, to build and maintain archives for the purpose (quoting staff writer Layli Miron) of “preserving the legacies of spiritual ancestors for present-day and future learning.” This issue’s theme of celebrating the 100^th anniversary of the establishment of our National Spiritual Assembly and the focus on these varied projects reminds us again of the importance of collecting, organizing, preserving, and sharing the history of our precious Faith at local, national, and international levels.

There’s a quotation from the Universal House of Justice on the Timeline page of this website that seems at least as timely now as when it was written in March of 1985, to an individual believer: “Then will the generations look back with heartfelt appreciation, for the sacrifices made by Bahá’ís and non-Bahá’ís alike, during this most turbulent period in human history.” (The Universal House of Justice, Messages 1963 to 1986)

This speaks to me of this particularly “turbulent period” and of our deliberate, systematic efforts to work steadily with likeminded collaborators and organizations. That outward orientation is, I think, itself a matter of great historical significance. In the introduction to THE AMERICAN BAHA’I piece on preserving local Bahá’í History, national Bahá’í Archivist Ed Sevcik says, “Recordkeeping requires attention and care. As the Guardian knew, most of the records of human activity in past eras have been lost. But each and every one of us can play a role in helping to preserve the long-term memory of our community: its development, identity, and ever-changing relationship with the wider society.”

In addition to needing your stories, memories, information, and general input, we need your help in a particular way at this time. Could you please help spread the word that our Project needs to find a new team member (living anywhere in the USA or Canada) to learn the nuts and bolts of our website and gradually take over as webmaster? The role doesn’t demand much time at this point—the site is up and running smoothly, with just the inevitable glitch now and then. The website was developed using WordPress, so we need someone who understands WordPress, knows how our site is constructed, and can be responsive when there are technical questions to answer or troubleshooting to be done. This is an individual initiative with no budget, but some modest compensation isn’t out of the question. We just need to find someone with the technical skills and experience and a little flexible time to spare. If you are interested or know someone who might be, please email us at ibh@iowabahaihistory.org or call us at # 331-444-3927.