The records have been divided into correspondence, administrative material, an activities file, reports, publications, clippings, and miscellany. Correspondence, 1942-1970, includes letters exchanged with school principals, members of the board of education, the superintendent of schools, and the Wisconsin Congress of Parents and Teachers, Inc., as well as internal correspondence between the council's presidents and board members. Their arrangement is chronological.
Within the Administrative Material category, the Agenda, 1964-1970, lists items. of business discussed at both general and executive board meetings of the Madison council. The Annual Reports are detailed reviews of the activities of the council for the school years ending in 1946 through 1950 and in 1952. They include reports and recommendations of council officers and committee chairmen, and brief reports on the activities of each member PTA. Also included is a 1964 annual treasurer's report. In addition to the 1966 Bylaws of the council, an earlier version is included in the 1947-1948 yearbook. The Directories and Yearbooks, 1938-1971, vary in content from year to year. Usually, they list council officers, committee chairmen, and members of the advisory board. For some school years, calendars, listings of each local unit's officers and committee chairmen and other related information are included. (Directories for the school years 1963-1964 and 1964-1965, which are missing from this collection, can be found in the pamphlet file of the State Historical Society Library.) The Material from National and State Parent-Teacher Organizations consists of a 1965 “Capsule History of the National Congress of Parents and Teachers”; and instructions, forms, and other material from the Wisconsin Congress of Parents and Teachers, Inc. The Minutes, 1938-1971, cover monthly meetings of the council's executive board, as well as meetings of its general membership. They are arranged in a single chronological sequence. The Roll Call Records, 1938-1969, are lists on which council secretaries noted the attendance and absence of the representatives of member PTA's at monthly council meetings. The records of the School of Instruction, 1938-1951, 1965 and 1966, are announcements, programs, and other materials pertaining to the leadership training workshops conducted by the council each year for council and local officers and committee chairmen.
The Activities File, 1948-1968, reflects the council's involvement in such programs as children's art festivals, the Junior Great Books Program, and several series of television programs on human relations, education, and the relationship between adolescents and their parents. The Committee Reports, 1947-1970, are the written results of studies conducted by various council committees. Of special interest are “A Review of the Nursery School Program in Madison,” September, 1947; “A Study of the Program for the Education of Gifted Students,” March-April, 1964; “Questions and Answers about Madison's Special Education Services,” January, 1967; and “Report of the Committee on Disruptive Behavior,” April, 1970.
The Publications, 1946-1970, are scattered issues of bulletins and newsletters published by the Wisconsin Congress of Parents and Teachers, Inc., Madison Public Schools, and the Madison Area Council of Parent-Teacher Associations. The Clippings, 1965-1970 and undated, are accounts of council activities taken from Madison newspapers. They are arranged chronologically. The Miscellany, 1944-1971, include Founders' Day banquet programs, report forms, a Madison Public Schools statement of policy on rental of school buildings, and copies of 1969 legislation relating to sex education in public schools.
