Guidelines for Participating Institutions

a. Unique access. African institutions have unique access to local information, oral history, and written sources unavailable to researchers elsewhere. This puts them at the forefront of the DACB endeavor.

b. Institutional support. Those who write for the DACB-whether faculty or senior students-need the support of their administration as a whole. For example, church history courses can be re-designed to include the writing of a DACB biography as a course requirement.

Responsibilities of Participating Institutions

1. Selecting a liaison coordinator (LC). In each participating institution, a faculty member volunteers to be responsible for organizing the project in his/her institution and for maintaining contact with the New Haven office.
2. Responsibility for accuracy. Each participating institution is expected to verify that stories are as accurate and complete as possible before sending them to the New Haven office.

a. Each story accepted for inclusion in the DACB will be identified with the supervisor and the liaison coordinator, the participating institution, and its author in a short paragraph following the story itself.
b. Stories submitted must conform to the standards laid out in the Instructional Manual for Researchers and Writers.

3. Forwarding biographies to the DACB office in New Haven. Each DACB liaison coordinator will see that the completed stories are sent to the New Haven office via e-mail (preferred method) or postal mail.
4. Maintaining active status. Follow instructions for maintaining an active status (see last section, #4), which includes sending in stories on a regular basis and communicating with the New Haven office.
5. Active institutions will be included in the register of participating institutions on the DACB Web site. In addition, once a year, an updated copy of the entire DACB on CD-ROM will be mailed to all active institutions via the liaison coordinator.

• Supplement our existing list of potential subjects by providing us with five to ten new names, including a few brief facts (as many as are available) such as dates, church affiliation, sources, and region of ministry. Send these names by e-mail or postal mail to the New Haven office within the first six months to activate your participating institution status.
• Maintain active communication with the New Haven office (once a year at a minimum).
• Encourage colleagues and students to research and record the stories of Christians (lay and clerical, indigenous and foreign) who have made a significant contribution to the birth, growth, and vitality of a church or churches in your nation.
• Collect all completed stories.
• Send the collected biographies to the New Haven office.
• Provide DACB information on request to those interested in participating in the project.
• In cooperation with other local participating institutions, form an association of respective national branches of the DACB. Thus, for example, liaison officers in Kenya would comprise the Kenya Association of African Christian Biography (KAACB), while their counterparts in Ethiopia would comprise the Ethiopian Association of African Christian Biography (EAACB); etc.

• We encourage liaison coordinators to apply for the Project Luke Fellowship, one academic year at OMSC in New Haven, Connecticut, in accordance with the terms outlined in the Project Luke application form. Liaison coordinator applications will be given priority.
• Where institutions are unable to cover the cost of mailing the biographical studies to DACB offices in New Haven, liaison coordinators will be reimbursed for the cost of postage or internet cafe usage.
• Liaison coordinators will be identified on the DACB Web site.

1. Initial sign up. Fill out the form below and mail it or e-mail it to us with your signature. We will respond by sending you a packet of materials to start you off as a participating institution.
2. Activate your participating institution status. To to this, supplement our existing list of potential subjects by providing us with five to ten new names (outstanding Christians or church leaders whose stories should be written) including a few brief facts (as many as are available), such as dates, church affiliation, sources, and region of ministry. Send this list by e-mail or postal mail to the New Haven office within the first six months or by the following April 30, in order to receive an updated version of the DACB on CD-Rom and other materials which are sent out yearly in June. At this time your status will be upgraded from "New" to "Active" (in our files and on the Web site). Active participating institutions automatically receive DACB news and updates from us.
3. Set up the project. When you receive your DACB resource materials from us, in the Instructional Manual for Researchers and Writers, read the section entitled "Procedures for Implementing the DACB Project at Participating Institutions" and follow instructions for setting up the project at your institution.
4. Training. We strongly advise liaison coordinators (and any other faculty involved in the project) to watch the PowerPoint presentations on the training CD and to thoroughly familiarize themselves with the Instructional Manual and the DACB database itself. You can also use the presentations to introduce students to the project.
5. To maintain the participating institution's active status, the liaison coordinator must

a. Send a brief report on the institution's DACB activities by April 30 every year. This can be done by e-mail or by postal mail. Please allow ample time for delivery.
b. Send stories to the New Haven office or regional coordinator by the end of the first year of active status (i.e. 12 months after sending in the list of potential subjects). If we do not receive any stories, the participating institution's status will revert to "Inactive."
c. Be prepared to send some stories to the New Haven office every year. If we do not receive stories every year, the participating institution's status will revert to "Inactive."