Guide to the Board of National Missions General Department for Program and General Services Associate General Secretary Records

Record Group 301.1 consists of the office files of the associate general secretary of the GDPGS, Alexander E. Sharp. These files include a large amount of material documenting Sharp's previous service as Board of National Missions (BNM) administrative secretary from 1949 to 1960 and a small amount of material documenting BNM activities from 1914 to 1949. No attempt was made to separate this pre-1960 material from the official GDPGS records. Included are correspondence, reports, and minutes. These files were created in two distinct series that overlapped chronologically, and this arrangement has been maintained.

The first series, Uncoded Subject Files, contains files dating both before and after the creation of the GDPGS but not coded and labeled as GDPGS files. Subseries 1, General Files, primarily documents Sharp's tenure as BNM administrative secretary. Included are records of the BNM executive council of the national staff, 1952-1962; files documenting Sharp's involvement with BNM work at the local church level from 1950-1954; and materials pertaining to the BNM's Division of Missionary Operation. Also included in Subseries 1 are files documenting the work of the Interboard Commission on National Missions and Christian Education (IBC), the governing body that oversaw field staff representing both the BNM and the Board of Christian Education. (The BNM staff were responsible for general administration and financial arrangements involving IBC field representatives.) Additional information about IBC mission work at the synod and presbytery level is in Subseries 2 of the Uncoded Subject Files. Subseries 3 includes BNM budget information for 1949-1961. Subseries 4 consists of a small correspondence file arranged alphabetically by correspondent's last name.

The files in Series II, Coded Subject Files, were labeled as GDPGS files and assigned the codes listed in parentheses in the above subseries list. However, they contain material documenting both Sharp's work as BNM administrative secretary and as GDPGS director. The Coded Subject Files contain substantial documentation on BNM mission work in Alaska, New Mexico, and the Southern Mountains as well as records pertaining to Sharp's general administration of the GDPGS and its five divisions. The files of the Office of Church and Community Cooperation in Subseries 1 contain detailed reports on BNM work in northern New Mexico, 1959-1962.

Also within series II is additional material on New Mexico. This can be found in the Embudo Hospital files in Subseries 5 and scattered in other folders in other subseries. Other topics with substantial documentation include: New Church Development-Building Aid, 1941-1962; Committee on Mental Health, 1957-1961; and Inner-City Committee, 1954-1958. The files in Subseries 5 documenting BNM schools and hospitals are particularly detailed‚ especially for the College of the Ozarks, 1956-1962; Embudo Hospital, 1951-1962; and BNM institutions serving Native Americans and African Americans. The correspondence file in Subseries 2 contains letters regarding Sharp's resignation as associate general secretary in June 1962.