Using “Love-Me Binders” as an Example Project

For our final lesson, we will walk through a sample community project focused on the so-called “Love-Me binders,” noted earlier. We will use the ROPA approach in this example, but do not feel compelled to follow every suggestion we provide—this is merely an example of a structure that may work; you should customize any project to the specific community with which you will work.

Love-Me Binders

One of the most interesting findings from the VFP focus groups was the existence of a recordkeeping approach called Love-Me binders. These binders are collections of personal records collected by active-duty service members to keep track of their military careers as well as to support their applications for promotion or accessing benefits after separation. We heard our participants mention Love-Me Binders from the start of our data collection. Veterans reported creating these binders early on in their service, long before they became veterans:

The daily journal that I kept especially when I was deployed, I use that to help when I was going through the process of getting a certain percentage based on different things that were wrong with me from being deployed twice and the regular day-to-day in the Army. I was able to go back to exact dates and times when certain events happened which aided in that process because on the flip side, the Army didn’t keep very good records of what I did and didn’t do and what went on.

This participant’s example showcases how veterans’ personal records became an individual fix to an institutional problem of poor record-keeping practices in the armed forces. After all, the U.S. military has been rigorous in keeping track of its performance in pursuit of its strategic goals. However, these robust practices of information creation, processing, and circulation have not been applied to keep track of the professional careers and well-being of their own service members.

After the participant’s service ended, the documentation on his Love-Me Binder paid off because his records allowed him to access health benefits to treat a service-related disability.

So, that was a huge help to me when it came to getting my percentage for my disabilities that I have including my PTSD I think at a greater rate just because I did have those records myself. I wasn’t reliant on what the Army remembered or what I could remember from memory. So, that was really instrumental for me.

Participants reported a variety of strategies for the long-term preservation of their Love-Me Binders. Some would keep personal records in actual binders, whereas others preferred filing cabinets, and yet a third group used footlockers. Importantly though, these record-keeping strategies were mainly used for physical records.

By far, the DD 214 certificate is the most common type of record veterans keep in their Love-Me Binders. This certificate offers a summary of a person’s military career, including awards, type of separation (honorable, general, or dishonorable, among others), and the reason for the separation.

We didn’t talk about the DD 214 like one time, and I feel like that’s the absolute most important thing for any veteran ever. And I’m pretty sure all of us only have a paper copy of it. And if you only have a paper copy of it and you lose it when you’re moving, it’s like a pain to get another one and –

That’s a super pain.

You need that for everything and the fact that you only get a paper copy when you leave the Navy and that’s it, it’s like a huge problem and then I think that’s the top of the pyramid.

Other commonly cited documents included discharge papers, health records, school certificates, awards, annual review reports, travel orders, and PCS orders. Veterans explained how they relied on Love-Me binders as sources of information for practical and emotional reasons. Not only does the information in Love-Me binders allow veterans to access benefits through the VA, but their binders also serve as documentary proof of an intangible heritage that some veterans hope to pass down to their children:

I’d like to keep just so when my son gets older, he can see it and be like, ‘Wow, my mom’s a badass.’ I mean, I’m gonna remind him as long as I live that I’m a badass but just so he can see all the stuff we have. My husband’s grandpa, he still has stuff from when he was in, and he actually went through it with him not too long. So, it’s just kinda nice to go back and look and see what you’ve been through and all the experiences you had while you served.

This story underscores the pride that veterans place in their service. Part of the veterans’ quest to give meaning to their lives is to pass on the memories of their time of service as a legacy to their children. Love-Me binders are thus an important tool for veterans to realize this meaning-making goal.

With this in mind, let’s explore how we can build a community project focused on the preservation and digitization of Love-Me binders. For this project, our repository, let’s call it the Sagamore Historical Society (SHS), would like to hold a workshop on preserving and digitizing the binders. Participants who attend would work through 3-4 stations: a welcome area, a brief presentation with Q&A, a physical preservation station, and a station digitizing their binder contents. Participants would take home a flash drive with their digitized binders and have the option to opt into including their binders (or portions thereof) in a digital archival collection.

Before the event

Following the ROPA guidance, the first steps involve building a project team that includes a mix of community members, professionals, and volunteers. A minimum would be a Community Coordinator, Event Coordinator & Collection Coordinator—but more team members would be ideal for spreading the workload. Other positions are needed to complete the work required, including Cultural Competence Workshop Facilitator, Outreach Specialist, Social Media Specialist, Translators and/or Sign Language Interpreters, Station Captains for the event, Digital Preservation Specialists, and Online Access Specialists. You may not need all of these roles, but it is important to map out which ones you will need early in the planning process. Descriptions of each position and its responsibilities can be found here. When considering the different roles, you should be sure to consider inclusion and that each team member understands their cultural background and biases. The SHS would host a pre-planning workshop specific to understanding veterans and military culture.

Assuming you have the project team in place, the next step is formalizing a timeline, including activities before the event, during the event, and after the event. ROPA provides timeline documents as charts or lists. A significant part of the planning process focuses on logistics. For our example, the SHS would begin planning about eight months before the event. We would try to hold the event at either the local American Legion or VFW and partner with other local VSOs to promote the workshop. Interested participants would need to complete a registration form and schedule what time they would like to arrive. The arrivals would be staggered to allow for timely flow between stations. The first station will be a welcome area where participants will check in, be provided with any required paperwork, and be offered a complimentary beverage while they wait. The project team would recruit someone to give the main presentation, which would include a general overview regarding the importance of personal military records, preservation, and what will occur during the rest of the day. At the third station, the participants will be able to have their binders examined by a preservation expert (a staff member or volunteer from SHS) who will give them advice on the condition of their binder and its preservation. The expert will then direct them to the next station based on the condition of their binders. The final station will allow the participant to use either a flat-bed scanner or a drum scanner to digitize their binder’s content into a PDF document. Volunteers will assist them with the scanning process and create basic metadata for their files. The files will be saved on a flash drive and returned to the veteran—if the veteran decides to donate the records, they can do so at the final station or decide to do so in the future.

All of these elements would need to be properly planned with a good floor plan, signage, and volunteers to assist with the process. Each station will need different equipment to facilitate its work, and we would need to consider the number of available volunteers when deciding how many participants we could reasonably help during the day.

During the Event

Once the event begins, all the hard planning work will pay off and allow the veterans to become the main focus. As the ROPA guide notes, “Once it gets going, a participatory archiving event often feels like a reunion! As Contributors go through the stations to submit their Items, they may reconnect with old friends and neighbors or mingle with new acquaintances. Someone may notice a recently contributed Item being projected onto a wall that brings back memories or makes them feel a strong community connection. This is the magic of the in-person nature of a participatory archiving event. Leave space for these community interactions as you guide Contributors through the process of submitting their Items. Direct participants to seating areas where they can watch and listen to other Contributors submitting their items.”

After the Event

The steps following the event are just as important as those before and during it. We would review the information gathered during the event regarding how veterans heard about it and their experience at the event. This information is extremely useful when considering hosting another event in the future. Likewise, we would gather feedback from our community partners and the volunteers who worked the event. Finally, the coordinators should reach out to all of the participants to thank them for attending and provide any additional resources or information that may assist them in the future.

End of Module 4

Congratulations, you’ve reached the end of the final module. Before finishing the training, click the link below to test what you’ve learned so far.

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