I received the following from a friend who is a census transcriber and this was posted to their list. I have never used NARA but possibly some of you have and this might impact you greatly if the increase for services is as great as this message seems to indicate. There is a URL at the end of the message to click on and go directly to the NARA website. Lynda Marshall > Pasted below in its entirety. > > Subj: [ARSebast] NARA fees > Date: 5/17/2000 7:03:45 PM Central Daylight Time > From: [email protected] > To: [email protected] > > Dear fellow researchers: > I know that many of you have ordered documents from the National > Archives and Records Administration called NARA for short. This is the > federal > agency which has *our* pension records, bounty land records, military > records, > passenger lists as well as other records of importance to a genealogist. > NARA is proposing a rate increase. Not a small one to cover the cost of > living but a VERY LARGE increase! The records most often sought, the > pension records of our ancestors, will have a 400% increase in Sept. unless > we > make our voices heard. > Several years ago, when NARA was threatened with a dramatic funding cut, > they appealed to genealogist to write and express our opinions and > dissatisfaction. We did and basically *saved* them. Now it is our turn > to speak out on this issue too. First visit this site, it is the NARA site > that tells you about the proposed fee increases. Some of you can hyperlink > and others will need to copy and paste the page. Either way, read it > carefully. Yes, it is your typical > government document full of mumble jumble and you have to wade through > all of that. But the new fees are listed. All increases are far more than a > modest increase! > Now is the time we can act together. We can write an email, send a fax > or better yet, a snail mail letter to NARA. In addition, notify you > congressman and any other official you know to express your dissatisfaction > in this > most unfair rate increase. > The time is NOW. The cut off date for getting your opinions in is June > 26, 2000. Although the increase is not scheduled until Sept., we must act > now to get them to rethink this gigantic increase. > Thank you for reading this. Please take the time to write a similar > message to each of the mailing list you receive, and send to them as well as > to > each genealogist that you personally correspond with and encourage them to > do > the same. Together we can be a Million Genealogist On Line Against Fee > Increases!! > With elections not far away, I do not think congress wants to make a > VERY large group of constituents upset!! So go below and click or copy and > see for yourselves what is proposed and then write your letter now, not > tomorrow, not next week. NOW. > <A HREF="http://www.nara.gov/nara/fees-pro.html">Proposed Rule NARA > FeeSchedule-36 CFR Part 1258</A> or > http://www.nara.gov/nara/fees-pro.html > > > > > > >