This week saw our first team meeting on Tuesday, May 23rd. During this meeting many exciting future plans were shared. Aspirations for a meeting with Congress, weekly tasks, and important roles were just a few of the topics discussed. This week also saw a continuation of work from the previous semester, illustrating that the summer will be a pivotal time for the overall Olustee project.
In the first team meeting the group made proper introductions, but more importantly shared our individual strengths. With this information we all could advocate for what part of the project would suit us best. I have practice with oral history interviews and look forward to continuing them during the summer. I realized the importance of this due to the older age of some of our interviewees. Furthermore, I found myself interested in processing the recorded interviews. Creating transcriptions and aiding in processing are valuable skills that can be applied to future work. I am excited to learn this skill and subsequently help VHP's recorded interviews find their home in the Library of Congress. Also, we discussed the importance of our work for the summer. By organizing the final details, completing necessary research, and trying to gauge the community's opinion the Olustee project will be ready for the fall. The fall semester will include presenting the issue to Congress, and hopefully coming to a solution. Or at the very least this will produce an acknowledgment of the government's failing to recognize the fallen Union soldiers. Within today's political climate, I think this experience will be even more important. It will aid in not only my personal knowledge of how to navigate these matters, but also help the field of history as a whole. By taking a stand in this way and showing the significance of certain events, the Olustee team can support ethical practice of the discipline.
Furthermore, other work completed this week was following up with my previous community contacts. One avenue I approached while trying to learn more about Olustee was contacting historic churches. One church I contacted was the United Methodist Church, and their base in Tallahassee. They had historic records going back to the Civil War. I had reached out to their historian sometime in April with questions about Olustee and Civil War soldiers. Unfortunately, on Wednesday they responded that they did not have any information that could answer the questions I proposed. Next, I sought out a community activist who I had given a Google Form asking about their knowledge of Olustee and the Lake County community. This contact has still yet to respond to me. Then, I called and emailed another contact who was interested in our work with Olustee and in sitting for an oral history interview. However, this again fell through as he has not yet responded. Though these experiences were disheartening in the moment, I understand that they are a part of the process of research. Not every contact will produce the information you need. Additionally, sometimes communication falls through as people are on different schedules. Despite the lack of results, these efforts have only made me more determined to find different avenues for reaching the community. I have now added more churches on my list to contact, will reach out to more community activists, and even follow up with older contacts from the spring semester who were not available at the time. I believe with this determination and renewed creativity I can find significant local information about Olustee.
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