Mormon History Association
Invitation to Establish Local Chapters

The Mormon History Association invites the establishment of local chapters. It asks that the following conditions be met:

1. Officers and members should endorse the Mission Statement as follows:

MHA MISSION STATEMENT
The Mormon History Association is an independent non-profit organization dedicated to the study and understanding of all aspects of Mormon history. We welcome all who are interested in the Mormon past, irrespective of religious affiliation, academic training, or world location. We promote our goals through scholarly research, conferences, awards and publications.

2. Each chapter should devise and submit for MHA Council review and approval a set of bylaws relating to officers, membership fees, and activities appropriate to their situation. They can become authorized chapters only after MHA Council approval. They must provide to the Executive Director and Council semi-annual reports on their activities.

3. Each chapter should have at least twenty committed members.

4. Chapters should meet for some kind of Mormon history-related activity at least quarterly. These could include reporting to one another local research or memory on the history of the restoration movement in their area; identifying and marking Mormon history-related historic sites; sponsoring guest lectures; planning tours to visit historic sites; and identifying and collecting historical photographs, diaries or other documents relating to local Mormon history.

5. For the United States and Canada eighty percent of chapter members must also be members of the MHA.

6. For all other parts of the World at least ten percent of chapter members must also be members of MHA (with MHA membership offered to chapter members at a $5.00 discount).

7. Local chapter leaders are not authorized to obligate the Mormon History Association financially, legally, or otherwise, nor are they official spokes-persons for MHA. In all statements and obligations, local chapter leaders must make it clear that they represent only the local chapter and not the parent organization.

The MHA recommends the following for local chapter activities.

1. The archivist of a well-established local college or library should be contacted to see if they would be willing to establish an LDS history collection so that the materials will be preserved and be available for research. Documents and photographs collected for preservation should initially be communicated to the archivists of the church to which they relate. If the church wishes to keep the documents in a central archive copies should be made and deposited in the local archive before sending them on. If the church does not wish to keep the documents in a central archive they should be deposited in the local archive, with acquisitions being reported to the MHA and to the central church archive.

Original documents and papers created by the chapter as part of chapter activities (bylaws, minutes of meetings, financial records, and related items) are to be sent to the central MHA Archive at the Utah State Historical Society in Salt Lake City, but copies should be retained for the local archive

2. When possible, at least one member of the local chapter should attend the annual Mormon History Association meeting and plan to report to the MHA Council on their branch activities and on the annual meeting to their branch chapter members. MHA will waive registration fees for an attendee officially representing a branch chapter from outside of Canada and the United States. We hope, as MHA resources permit, to establish a fund that will help to pay for the travel of branch representatives outside of North America to attend MHA annual meetings. We also hope, as funds permit, to be able to send MHA officers on visits as speakers and advisors to local chapters.

(Adopted November 16, 2002)