Abstract • Arrangement • Access Restrictions • Biographical Note • Index

COLLECTION GUIDE

ABSTRACT
This collection is not intended to be a manuscript or archival collection. Instead, it is intended to illustrate the process involved in and necessary to foster citizen action, participatory government, and community building by providing personal and Domestic Agenda Foundation records that were collected or created by Jean Ford. Ms. Ford, founder of the Clark County Library District (1965), relocated to Nevada in 1962. In 1972 she was elected to the Nevada State Assembly for District 15 where she served two consecutive terms. In 1978, after a two-year hiatus, Ford was then elected to a four-year term in the State Senate. Afterwards she became increasingly involved in community projects and education. This collection was created by Ford to help enable individuals or groups to access government at all levels and to participate in collaborative citizen - government approaches to local, state, and federal governance and decision making.

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ARRANGEMENT
The files are organized alphabetically by personal name, name of office, or by subject, then chronologically. Files can contain a variety of materials, including correspondence, memos and reports.

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ACCESS RESTRICTIONS
There are no access restrictions to the materials, and the collection is open to all members of the public in accordance with State law. However, the researcher assumes full responsibility for conforming to the laws of libel (Nevada Revised Statutes 200.510-200.560), privacy, and copyright, which may be involved in the use of this collection.

SCOPE AND CONTENTS NOTES
The Jean Ford Collection contains various videotapes, books, serial publications and records pertaining to politics and government, leadership, self-improvement, volunteer and community organization, political action and women as leaders and politicians. Many of the published materials have excerpts and notes in the record files. These books are not addressed further in this index but are, instead, indexed in the on-line public access catalog. The records are separated into two series: Leadership, and Government and Politics. Each of these two series are further divided by sub-series and arranged alphabetically by folder title. Items in each folder are arranged chronologically.

The Leadership Series consists of four sub-series, which are housed in cabinets 1& 2. They contain news clippings, personal papers and notes covering a broad spectrum of issues pertaining to: augmenting one's abilities in organizing and managing community groups, leadership principles, negotiating; public speaking; and public relations. The first sub-series, Executives - - Training of, consists of articles, news clippings and records intended to provide tools for career enhancement. Leadership follows and contains all the general files under the topic of leadership. Self-improvement, like Executives - - Training of, uses news clippings, articles and records to provide information and examples on how individuals can improve their skills and competence in specific subjects. Women is the final sub-series in the group and includes articles, brochures, and news clippings on women and leadership.

The Politics series consists of five sub-series and is housed in cabinets 3 & 4. Campaign Management is the first sub-series and includes forms, articles, and news clippings intended to demonstrate successful approaches and concerns of a political campaign. Domestic Policy Association - - Public Agenda Foundation follows with records, notes and publications. Of specific note is National Issues Forum, 1989-1995, which contains the bulk of the records. General files are located in the sub-series Politics & Government. These records cover a wide variety of topics including fund raising, public duties and power. Volunteer and Community Organization includes news clippings, notes and various government office and political group publications. Women is the final sub-series in the group and includes articles, brochures, and news clippings from groups such as the League of Women Voters and the National Women's Education Fund, among others.

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BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Education

B.A. in Sociology, cum laude, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX

Master of Public Administration, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Work and History Experience

Community Involvement

Cofounder and Past Chair: Nevada Women's History Project

Past Political Appointee: Nevada Commission on Tourism; Nevada State Park Commission; Western Regional Advisory Committee, National Park Service; Gender Bias in the Courts Task Force; Nevada Future's Commission

Publications

Ford, Jean and James W. Hulse. "The First Battle for Woman Suffrage in Nevada: 1869-1871 - Correcting Expanding the Record." Nevada Historical Society Quarterly Fall (1995).

Ford, Jean, Water, Shaping the Future of the West: paper presented to UNR Honors Program. Reno: Nevada, 1992.

Ford, Jean, John Cobourn, Dr. Wayne Johnson, et al. Nevada's Water Future: Making Tough Choices: paper presented at National/Nevada Issues Forum. Nevada, 1992.

Ford, Jean and Mary Forrester. Nevada Legislative Almanac. Ackerman-Rorex Corporation, 1985.

Ford, Jean. "An Insiders View of State Legislative Ethics." In Representation and Responsibility: Exploring Legislative Ethics, Eds. Bruce Collings and Daniel Callahan. New York: Plenum Press, 1985.

Ford, Jean. "Women, Business, and the Law," The Las Vegas Businesswoman's Network (April 1982-June 1983).

Ford, Jean. "Nevada: Access to Information, Part I and II," Nevada Government Today, (Winter 1979 & Spring, 1980).

AQUISITION
Gift of Jean Ford, 1998 (accession number 98-01).

PROCESSING

by Leo Segura, 1998.

Revisions by Carol Corbett, 2000, as follows:

• Developed Jean Ford Special Collections web site.

• Accessioned political campaign "how-to" materials from University of Nevada, Las Vegas Special Collections that are appropriate for this collection; interfiled in Politics and Government and Campaign Management sub-series.

• De-accessioned personal notes, self-evaluations, business records, grant applications, financial records and records of public policy decision-making (such as surveys and questionnaires from forums held through National Issues Forum, except duplicates were retained) from this collection to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Special Collections.

• Separated articles from seminar materials and notes where appropriate to facilitate use by the general public; eliminated sub-series "Resumes", as it contained only one item.

• Removed duplicates from collection; filed in separate drawer for public to take as needed. Numbered folders to facilitate re-filing.

• Reformatted finding aid; eliminated date notations from subject file entries to eliminate excess verbiage and facilitate use by general public; included finding aid on web site.

• Created book bibliography for inclusion in this guide and on web site.

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INDEX