| Save
Our Security. Records, 1982-1997
3.2 c.f. (8 archives boxes)
Abstract
Records of Save Our Security (SOS), a nonprofit coalition of national,
state and local organizations that was formed in 1979 by Wilbur
J. Cohen to counter efforts to weaken the Social Security system.
The work of Save Our Security included research, publishing, lobbying,
and public education on social insurance issues. It dissolved in
1997. Included are the minutes of the governing and advisory committees;
correspondence; financial records; publications; and congressional
testimony presented by Cohen, Arthur S. Flemming, Robert M. Ball,
other members of SOS, and representatives of related organizations
such as the Study Group on Social Security and the National Senior
Citizens Law Center. Also included are publications, correspondence,
curricula, and field reports and surveys documenting two educational
projects: the Appeal to Conscience Project, which educated the public
about the need to raise Supplemental Security Income (SSI) to the
poverty level and the Nelson Cruikshank Study Project which attempted
to integrate social insurance issues into high school curricula.
Earlier organizational records may be found in the papers of Wilbur
J. Cohen and Elizabeth Wickenden also held by the SHSW Archives.
Presented by Save Our Security, September, 1997. M97-243.
Processed by John Doff, Intern-1998
Location 2m/30/E2-3
History
Save Our Security (SOS) was established in 1979 as a nonprofit coalition
of over 200 national, state, and local organizations, primarily
labor unions and advocacy groups for the disabled and the aged.
SOS was formed in response to efforts to weaken the 50 year-old
Social Security system, and it was devoted to protecting and improving
all aspects of Social Security and health care: Old Age and Survivors'
Benefits, Disability Insurance, Medicare and Medicaid, Unemployment,
and Supplemental Security Income (SSI). Save Our Security was founded
by Wilbur Cohen who had served on the Committee on Economic Security
that drafted the original Social Security Act. He served as head
of the SOS until his death in 1987.
Save Our Security was divided into two parts: the SOS Coalition
itself and the SOS Education Fund. The two parts shared a common
staff and many of the same committees, but they carried out different
duties. The Coalition was in charge of coordination of the lobbying
and advocacy work of its member organizations, while the Education
Fund was in charge of research, publications, and outreach.
The Coalition informed and coordinated the activities of its member
organizations who contributed to SOS in proportion to their size.
It worked for increased benefits, improved paperwork and management
of the Social Security Administration, equitable benefits for "Notch
babies," and protection of the Social Security trust funds
from budget cuts.
The SOS Coalition and the Education Fund shared an executive director,
assistant director, and a clerical assistant. This small staff,
along with the chair, executive vice chair and the treasurer, handled
the basic administrative and financial functions of both organizations.
The Coalition and the Education Fund had separate executive and
advisory committees, although committee membership often overlapped.
The most active committees were: the Committee on Supplemental Security
Income, the Women's Issue Committee, the Disability Committee, the
Committee on Independent Agency and Administration, and the Medical
Care Committee.
During the 1980s the SOS Coalition focused on lobbying and advocacy
before congressional committees concerning proposed cutbacks in
Social Security and Medicare. It also proposed expansion of disability
and Medicare benefits, and it fought to secure benefits for those
persons born in the "notch" created by the Social Security
Act of 1974.
In 1987 SOS drafted a bill of rights for beneficiaries and contributors
to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and Supplemental Security
Income. This bill of rights focused on streamlining and making understandable
the complex bureaucracy of the Social Security Administration. By
1990 all of the provisions in this bill of rights were adopted by
Congress. In the 1990s the SOS Coalition turned to protecting the
Social Security
Administration from yearly budget debates. It also called for the
expansion of Medicare and Medicaid and ultimately for Universal
Health Coverage for all Americans.
After Wilbur Cohen's death in 1987 Arthur S. Flemming, Secretary
of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare during the Eisenhower
Administration, took over as chair of SOS. He served in that capacity
until his death in 1995. At that point Robert M. Ball was chair
of the organization until its demise in 1997.
The SOS Education Fund's mission was to educate the public about
the importance of Social Security programs. The Education Fund was
founded as part of SOS by Wilbur Cohen in 1979. It provided support
services for the Coalition through research and publication. Among
its publications were: Social Security in the USA: A Discussion
Guide to Social Insurance with Lesson Plans; Social Security:
Crucial Questions and Straight Answers; Social Security:
The Compromise and Beyond; Supplemental Security Income;
and Unfinished Business: Adequacy and Equity for Women in the
Social Security System.
Beginning in 1987 the Education Fund administered two large projects:
SSI, An Appeal to Conscience and the Nelson Cruikshank Social Insurance
Study Project. The SSI, Appeal to Conscience, project was designed
to increase public awareness of SSI. It elicited the help of social
workers, clergy, and recipients of SSI in order to raise awareness
of the need for increased SSI payments. The people recruited for
this effort spoke out in public forums about the state of SSI and
about life under SSI.
The Nelson Cruikshank Social Insurance Study Project was designed
to "advance the education of young people about social insurance
concepts" and to teach the history of social insurance. The
project hoped to increase awareness of social insurance's place
in history and in the lives of Americans, and it developed materials
for use in secondary, college, and adult education classrooms. The
project also included the production of a video for use in the classroom
or other public forums.
The SOS came to an abrupt end in early 1997. Prior to this time
SOS had been experiencing financial difficulties, and in the end
it was unable to meet its small payroll. In January, 1997, Save
Our Security was declared inactive.
Scope and Content
The records of the Save Our Security Coalition and Education Fund
provide evidence of the organization's work on many social insurance
issues during the 1980s and 1990s. The early years of SOS are not
covered in this collection, but useful papers can be found in the
papers of Wilbur Cohen and Elizabeth Wickenden, both of which are
held by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin Archives. The
bulk of the SOS records cover the organization's work from 1984
to 1995. Documentation of its final years is limited, perhaps due
to SOS's financial difficulties.
The Save Our Security Records are divided into three series: Coalition
Records, Subject Files and Education Fund Records.
The records of the Coalition are further divided into: General Information
and Administrative Records, Publicity and Press Material, and Financial
Records. The records of the Education Fund are divided into: Education
Fund Records, Appeal to Conscience Records, and Nelson Cruikshank
Study Project Records.
The General Information and Administrative Records of the Coalition
Records consist of membership and leadership information, agendas
and minutes of committee meetings, and general correspondence. The
agendas and minutes of committee meetings document the work of the
executive committee, 1984-1996. The work of these committees consisted
of establishing agendas for SOS, and the minutes of these meetings
are therefore useful for understanding the directions that SOS followed.
However, minutes do not exist for every executive committee meeting.
The minutes of the advisory committee are more complete but only
for the years, 1984-1990. The other committee meeting minutes and
agendas in the collection provide a glimpse into the issues concerning
the Coalition in the 1980s and 1990s. The general correspondence
consists mainly of letters to congressional leaders about social
insurance. It also includes information concerning the Coalition's
ability to remain viable after the death of Wilbur Cohen.
The Financial Records consist of budgets and fundraising reports.
These documents provide little information about the financial problems
of SOS. Other folders entitled Financial Correspondence and IRS
Correspondence are more useful in that regard, however. The IRS
Correspondence, in particular, is useful for examining the final
year of SOS's active history.
The Publicity and Press Material includes an incomplete run of SOS
publications including Action Alerts and the SOS Bulletin, the official
SOS membership newsletter. Action Alerts were occasional papers
focused on particular social insurance issues and they were intended
as information for members of Congress. The other papers in this
section consist of press releases, position papers, and an interesting
document created by the Coalition to serve as a style manual for
congressional testimony.
The Education Fund Records series consists of general information,
meeting minutes and agendas, general correspondence, brochures,
and financial records. The general information consists mainly of
in-house outlines about the fund's activities and proposals for
future activities. While the Education Fund shared some of the same
committees as the Coalition, the meeting minutes and agendas in
this part of the collection represent those committees with exclusive
jurisdiction over the fund. The general correspondence consists
largely of letters about the consultants and researchers hired to
aid the fund. These consultants did the research and often produced
the position papers that informed the Coalition's overall efforts.
The main activity of the Education Fund was publication of brochures
and leaflets on issues concerning Save Our Security. Much of the
funding for the Education Fund came from the Coalition and therefore
from the SOS
membership. However, the Education Fund also sought grants for special
projects and, on paper, it was a separate 501c(4) organization.
The financial and fundraising reports in this section exclusively
concern the work of the Education Fund.
The Appeal to Conscience Records consist of general information,
meeting minutes and agendas, brochures, correspondence, financial
information, and reports. The general information on Appeal to Conscience
consists of material for funding proposals. The Appeal to Conscience
campaign established coalitions in 12 cities across the United States,
and the meeting minutes and agendas filed here come from the joint
meetings of these local coalitions. The brochures in this part of
the collection consist of updates on the success of the project
and a survey concerning public awareness of the issues pertaining
to SSI. The correspondence consists mainly of the outgoing letters
from the Education Fund to local coalitions, but it also includes
some incoming correspondence from the local groups about their work.
The financial records consist of financial information for grant
proposals and the progress reports required by funders. Also included
here are some of the grant proposals produced by the project. The
final section in these records consists of progress reports and
information from the local coalitions. Of the twelve coalitions
(Los Angeles, Fort Lauderdale, Chicago, New Orleans, Prince Georges
County (Maryland), Portland, New York, Memphis, Houston, Colorado,
Maine and Washington State, New Orleans, Chicago, and New York provided
the most information.
The Nelson Cruikshank Study Project Records consist of meeting minutes,
correspondence, grant proposals, drafts of school curricula, reports
on curriculum implementation, and records of a film project. The
meeting minutes contain information on administration and funding
of this ambitious project which sought to create curricula for schools
that integrated information on social insurance into American history
and social studies courses. The correspondence in this section deals
mostly with establishing workshops to train teachers. The grant
proposals outline the scope of this project and provide an overview
of the curriculum of the goals of the study project. The most useful
portion of these records are the materials used in the teacher workshops.
Unfortunately, only draft curricula exist. The bulk of the material
in this part of the collection concerns workshops entitled "Teaching
and Learning about Social Insurance Project." These workshops
were designed to provide Social Studies teachers with ideas on how
to integrate social insurance issues into their curriculum, and
they were run by teachers who had successfully achieved that goal.
The most useful portion of this part of the collection are the surveys
completed by the teachers about student response. The teachers were
also asked to submit curriculum materials and course outlines they
created and the collection contains the numerous surveys, course
outlines, and curriculum materials. It also includes the reports
of workshop facilitators in California, Florida, Georgia, Indiana,
Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Washington,
and Wisconsin.
The final portion of the records of the Nelson Cruikshank Study
Project are the records of a film project on Social Security. The
records include marketing research, budgets, and minutes of planning
meetings. Unfortunately, the finished film is not included.
The Subject Files consist of clippings, congressional testimony,
and publications, from SOS and from other social security advocacy
groups, arranged alphabetically by subject. There are also substantial
files on health care, the Older Americans Act, Supplemental Security
Income, and allied advocacy groups, including the National Senior
Citizens Law Center and the Study Group on Social Security. Finally,
there are files on the reforms of the Social Security Administration,
staff and service issues at the SSA and financing Social Security.
The testimonies by Ball, Cohen, and Flemming are among the most
valuable documentation in the papers. |
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