Board of Directors, 1967-1989

The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund (FSC/LAF) was led by a board of directors that made all major policy decisions, controlled the budget and finances, and determined short- and long-term priorities. It also selected the executive director. The members of the board of directors were elected by each state association to whom they responsible for representing.

The Board of Directors files date 1967-1989 and feature materials documenting board strategy and operations, including correspondence, meeting minutes and reports, organizational historical summaries, organizational charts, articles of incorporation and by-laws, among other types of administrative documentation for the organization. The bulk of the files generated for the board of directors are minutes and reports from quarterly meetings to discuss strategy and programmatic goals of the cooperative movement. Included in the board of directors meeting materials are executive directors’ reports that entail financial, department, and program updates. Within this group of files are annual meeting reports which include planning meetings and a final report after each event. Early records show meeting minutes by the FSC/LAF’s temporary board in 1967 through the transition to its inaugural board during the same year. Included in meeting materials are reports by the Southern Cooperative Development Fund (SCDF), a subsidiary of the FSC/LAF that provided financial assistance to member cooperatives and credit unions in the south. The Southern Cooperative Development Fund (SCDF) shared board members with the FSC/LAF. Other board materials include the articles of incorporation and amendments. These materials include copies of the original articles of incorporation along with amendments, printed copies of articles and bylaws, presumably used by board members and staff, and a proposed amendment in 1972 to the by-laws for the creation of the Forty Acres and a Mule Endowment Fund (FAaAM), which was established due to the inconsistency of government funding, and in an attempt to raise five-million for capitalization and operational need.

Correspondence files dated 1969 to 1988 are written by executive directors Charles Prejean and Ralph Paige in the form of memos to Federation staff and the board of directors about board meetings updates. Other correspondence written by the president of the board to the Federation staff details organizational updates or changes.

Other board materials include various reports, statements, committee reports, board training and workshops, and audit reports (1969-1981). These materials include information about organizational changes, projects and programs, contracts, policy making, and legal responsibilities.

The main personages and correspondents include Charles Prejean, Ralph Paige, Father A.J. McKnight, Bill Farmer, Lewis Black, William Harrison, G.L. Twitty, Bill Busby, and Al Ulmer, detailing organizational updates or changes between 1969 to 1988.

Of note, at the August 17, 1979 board meeting, Charles Prejean informed the board that a community group, Sumter County Board of Education, had requested a Congressional Delegation by U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) auditors to investigate misuse of FSC/LAF funds. Files on this investigation span from 1970 to the early 1980s. The FSC/LAF’s activities were reviewed and no irregularities were found.

Of note, between 1981 and 1986 the Federation of Southern Cooperatives merged with the Emergency Land Fund (ELF) to later become the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund (FSC/LAF). This merger shifted the programmatic direction of the FSC/LAF from the previous decades’ work of cooperative building and agricultural training to Black land loss prevention.