The records document CCT's activities from its inception in 1977 through its demise in 1985, with the bulk of the documentation documenting the period through 1983.
The ADMINISTRATIVE RECORDS are comprised of Governance, Office, and Financial records. Although the records begin in September, 1977, the motivation which led to CCT's organization is undocumented here. Documentation about the end of CCT's existence is also absent. The Governance Records primarily consist of handwritten, typed, and mimeographed minutes. These records relate to meetings of the board of directors, although some minutes (although they are not so labelled) may relate to monthly membership meetings. Filed with the minutes are agendas, handwritten notes, as well as memoranda, correspondence, reports, financial statements, and other attachments that were distributed to the board for reference purposes. (Some additional communications to the board may be found in the General Correspondence.) Only two of CCT's annual meetings are represented in this series. Also filed with the governance records are the articles of incorporation and by-laws (including several draft versions), articles of dissolution, and planning documents relating to CCT's overall goals and purposes.
The alphabetically-arranged Office Files include general correspondence, clippings, promotional literature and mass mailings, information about staff activities, and a phone log. Chronologically-arranged general correspondence (mainly 1980-1984) includes incoming and outgoing letters (with the incoming being much more complete) and memoranda, as well as form letters to the membership. The correspondence is probably incomplete, although it does suggest CCT's networking among energy activists, as well as the general scope of its activities.
The phone log is an interesting document to which numerous individuals contributed. The contents vary from minute-like notes on meetings to information about people who called or stopped at the CCT office, as well as listings of the telephone calls made. The early entries (which are written consistently by an unidentified individual thought to be Randy Korda) are very useful, diary-like notations on CCT's beginnings, even documenting an informational tour of eastern states in 1978 in which CCT activists met with representatives of similar groups. Information on staff meetings, however, is less useful, generally consisting of handwritten notes rather than true minutes.
Financial records comprised a large portion of the original collection; the majority of these, however, consisted of routine checks and bills which have been weeded. The remaining, summary records are incomplete, although there are some financial statements, reports to the Department of Regulation and Licensing, federal tax reports, and audits.
The PROJECT FILES are made up of generically-filed materials that document general project activities and separately-filed records about major projects such as the Neighborhood Energy Project, the annual Alternative Energy Festivals, and lobbying for the Rental Weatherization Code. These are among the most useful files in the collection. Not only do they document CCT's most significant research and community work, but they also provide a useful source for examining the manner in which federal, state, and local grant funding promoted public policy in one community and the fatal impact that the Reagan Administration had on one organization funded in that way.
The grant files, which are filed alphabetically by funding source, variously contain applications, correspondence, reports, and notes. Proposals submitted to Madison's Community Block Development Grant program are most numerous.
Information on the Neighborhood Energy Project, CCT's most ambitious project, is disappointing. About its innovative, neighborhood-based, planning strategy there are only handwritten, difficult-to-read staff notes. Other NEP records include draft reports of the first year of the project and public relations materials. (NEP grant applications are filed with the previously-described grant records, while additional correspondence and internal staff memoranda about the NEP can be found scattered in the General Correspondence.)
Also with the project records are files on the annual Alternative Energy Festivals, 1977 to 1981. Included here are correspondence, budgets, public relations materials, and information about vendors who exhibited products or services. The 1977 files contain correspondence of Jon Sesso who, as both a Wisconsin Union employee and CCT member, was a leader in the planning for the first festival. Filed under the category of lobbying are materials about CCT's activities regarding state legislation and regulations. Related to this, but separately filed, are several folders on networking in behalf of the Madison Rental Weatherization Code. For these efforts there are public relations materials prepared by CCT, the Madison Tenant Union, and other organizations; draft ordinances; and minutes of the Madison Energy Conservation Committee (on which CCT member Nancy Korda served) and its Energy Code Implementation Subcommittee. Several folders relate to other organizations with which CCT worked: especially Students for Community Technology, the Wisconsin Energy Conservation Corporation, and S/ERA.
The third series consists of the files of Terry Testolin, a VISTA volunteer who was active in CCT and the NEP during 1980 and 1981. Although documentation of his work is also scattered throughout the collection, Testolin also kept a separate, personal file. Included are notes, ideas, and references material for workshops, conferences, and other activities and interests, both with CCT and with several other organizations. Of special interest is his documentation about the Citizens/Labor Energy Coalition and its work on lifeline utility rates and taxation of oil profits, papers on his work on a CCT fundraiser co-sponsored with the Musicians United for Safe Energy, and information on his local organizing in response to cutbacks in the VISTA program.
PHOTOGRAPHS AND EPHEMERA document Alternative Festivals in Madison, Wisconsin, installation of window coverings, installation of solar panels, and individuals involved with the organization.
