The records in this collection span the years 1975-1993, with the bulk of the material dating to the later half of the 1980s. The records document everyday activities of Wisconsin Citizen Action – canvassing (fundraising activity), personnel operations (staff meetings, contract negotiations, board meetings, etc.), and the organization's financial health in the form of budgets and fundraising reports. Although WCA had offices in several locations throughout the state, activities at the headquarters (Milwaukee office) are the most well-documented. The collection contains some files devoted to the issues with which WCA was involved, but most information concerning their activities is found within meeting minutes and convention materials. On a broader level, the records document the progressive agenda in Wisconsin and the nation during the 1980s. WCA was a social-action organization committed to a broad spectrum of liberal issues. Issues that factor prominently include energy reform, national/single-payer health care, and union rights. While the majority of the collection is text, it also includes three audio tapes and 29 photographs.
The WCA collection is divided into seven series: ADMINISTRATIVE, PERSONNEL AND FINANCIAL, CONFERENCES, ISSUES AND ACTIVITIES, KASTEN VS. GARVEY AND FEC COMPLAINT, PHOTOGRAPHS, and AUDIO RECORDINGS. These series do not reflect the original order of the records which was changed to provide better intellectual control and access to the collection.
The ADMINISTRATIVE series is the largest series in the collection. It contains general administrative records as well as a subseries of meeting minutes. The minutes are from meetings of Citizen Action Board 1984-1987, Citizen Action Directors 1985-1993, Milwaukee Steering Committee 1983-1984 and 1988, Wisconsin Citizen Action Staff 1985-1993, and Wisconsin Action Coalition Board 1984-1988. The Citizen Action Board and Citizen Action Directors meetings are small runs of minutes from meetings of representatives from all of Citizen Action’s state chapters. The minutes from the Milwaukee Steering Committee is contained within four folders. This committee directed the activities of the Milwaukee WCA chapter. The WAC Board meeting minutes is a larger run of minutes from the Wisconsin governing board. The Staff Meeting minutes are the most complete run of minutes. The Wisconsin staff met about seven or eight times per year, less at either end of the time span. These minutes document the general administration of WCA as well as much of its political activity. The minutes show what issues the organization focused on in a given year and lay out their activities surrounding those issues. Also contained within this series are the founding documents for Wisconsin Action Coalition in 1982. In addition there are also several miscellaneous memoranda that concern the administration of the organization.
The second series is titled PERSONNEL AND FINANCIAL. In order to accomplish its goals, the WCA had to do a lot of fundraising. This fundraising, called canvassing, is a labor-intensive activity that involves maintaining a staff who go door to door passing out educational material and soliciting donations. Canvassing therefore intertwines human resources and financial records. A heading entitled “Canvass” takes up the bulk of this series. It contains records related to canvassing activity – staffing in each office around the state, policies and procedures, and records of money raised. Due to the nature of the job, canvassing tends to have a very high employee turn-over rate. The materials here are representative of the personnel files in many other organizations that employ this kind of fundraising. There is much documentation of canvassers quitting or being asked to leave for a variety of reasons.
A second heading is “Finance.” It contains annual budget reports and accounting statements. The Finance series holds a wealth of knowledge about WCA’s financial well-being, but it is rather dense and may require some background understanding of accounting and other personnel files.
The third heading is “1984 Lay-off.” This material documents the organization's 1984 contract negotiations and subsequent lay-offs. The records show WCA in crisis, and the consequences of its precarious financial position.
Lastly, there is a group of material in the Personnel and Financial series that documents activities that concern the over-arching health of WCA as an organization. These materials deal with matters of membership development and planning.
WCA attended many regional and national conferences; the CONFERENCES series contains records of these. The records document WCA's involvement with Citizen Action and other social organizing groups on a national level. There are records of nation-wide Citizen Action conferences and state-wide Wisconsin Citizen Action conferences. WCA also participated in the Midwest Academy, a conference for Midwestern progressive organizations. Records from these conferences illustrate how decisions were made regarding which issues to focus on; they also document the collaborative nature of political organizing in the U.S. This series runs from 1975-1991.
The ISSUES AND ACTIVITIES series consists of files that explicitly document the activities WCA participated in or organized to further their social activism goals. This series is not as large as one would imagine given the nature of this organization. It documents activities such as election campaign plans, a Folgers boycott, and lobbying activities. One significant event that is well documented here is Lobby Day, WCA organized this annual rally and march for several years. Materials date from 1980-1993.
The KASTEN VS. GARVEY AND FEC COMPLAINT series brings together materials related to WCA's activities in the senate race and the ensuing legal action against them. The first subseries, “Campaign,” contains items pertaining to WCA's work to help Garvey oust Kasten from his U.S. Senate seat in the 1986 election. These items include research on Kasten's voting records, materials promoting Garvey and materials documenting WCA's activities. The second subseries consists of the records of the legal action against WCA. Most prominent here are the letters between the Federal Election Commission and the office of LaFollete & Sinykin, lawyers for WCA. The series spans from 1985-1988.
The PHOTOGRAPHS series is divided into subseries mirroring the organization of the manuscript portion of the collection. It contains 29 photographs taken at various WCA functions. Events that were photographed are Staff-Board Retreat, January 17-18, 1991; Wisconsin Action Coalition convention, 1986; Wisconsin Action Coalition convention, 1987; Lobby Day, 1987; and Anti-Kasten Truth Dive, August 18-22, 1986. The pictures show the diversity of people involved with WCA. Unfortunately none of them are labeled so the identities of the individuals pictured are unknown. Recognizable figures in the photographs include Heather Booth – Director of Citizen Action (WAC convention 1986), Russ Feingold – U.S. Senator (WAC convention 1987) and Edward Garvey – U.S. Senate Democratic candidate (WAC convention 1986).
The AUDIO RECORDINGS series consists of three cassette tapes. Two tapes are recordings of a panel in 1978. The third is a radio commercial that aired during the Kasten vs. Garvey campaign. There are four versions of virtually identical advertisements on the tape. These advertisements include one directed against Kasten meant for a Wisconsin audience.
