We have many rings of stakeholders, and actively engage all relevant parties in defining the needs, developing questions, collecting data, and writing historical narratives.

Within our forums and the community, we proactively listen for what is being said and not said. We listen more than we talk.

We seek to be sensitive to power dynamics by recognizing that there are inherent imbalances in any group of people, both internal and external to our work.

Questions get us from point A to point B. Sometimes questions are bothersome, but they are often useful in elucidating hidden narratives.

Community is complex. Collecting and writing history is complex. We have no illusions that this process is straightforward or easy.

The work of collecting, documenting and writing community history happens in small steps, and from the outside looks slow. However, historical knowledge is built cumulatively.

Though most historic material is in physical formats, our primary means of collecting is through digitization. We aim to digitize collected materials using best archival practices.

Post-custodial stewardship emphasizes digital repositories and crowdsourcing, allowing community control of records.

Understanding and engaging with the past should not be left to academics. Creating an accurate historical record requires everyone's active participation.