Consumer Federation of America records, 1967-2023

Summary

Creator:
Consumer Federation of America
Physical description:
22.50 Boxes
Language:
English
Latin

Background

Scope and content:

The Consumer Federation of America records document the association's development from 1967 to 2017 through testimonies, newsletters, reports, statements, correspondence, press releases, pamphlets, policy resolutions, and audiotapes. The collection contains minutes from the CFA board of directors meetings, CFA policy resolutions and CFA annual reports (1980–2016). Other reports, statements, and surveys provide coverage of issues investigated, policies advanced, and materials developed to educate the public and media. Areas addressed include consumer safety, financial advancement and protection, consumer knowledge, post-9/11 terrorism insurance and safety, and product safety in general and specifically product safety in children's products and automobiles.

Of special interest is correspondence documenting interactions with prominent political figures including Joe Biden, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, and Bob Dole. Also noteworthy are pamphlets from the association’s annual Consumer Assembly (1980–2015) and pamphlets developed for the CFA project America Saves. A set of audiotapes (2000–2003) offers insight into CFA conferences that tackled issues including food safety, obesity, and bioterrorism. Reports document court cases and petitions. The collection contains the association's voting records (1971–2008).

CFAnews and Consumer Federation of America annual reports are available online. See Series 8 for online access to annual reports and series 9 for online access to CFAnews. Series 12 provides access to archives of CFA's website from 2007 to 2023.

Biographical / historical:

The Consumer Federation of America (CFA) is an association of non-profit consumer organizations that was established in 1968 to advance the consumer interest through research, advocacy, and education. Today, nearly 300 of these groups participate in the federation and govern it through their representatives on the organization’s Board of Directors.

Acquisition information:
Consumer Federation of America officially donated the records on July 6, 2015, and the materials received accession number 2015-16.017.
Processing information:

Student assistant McKenzie Combes processed and described the materials in 2015–2016, completing the work in March 2016.

Arrangement:

This collection is arranged into 12 series by type of material: 1) Official & Board Minutes; 2) Correspondence; 3) Statements; 4) Reports; 5) Testimonies; 6) Surveys; 7) Press Releases; 8) Annual Reports & Policy Resolutions; 9) CFAnews & Voting Record; 10) Conference Tapes; 11) Pamphlets; and 12) Web Archives.

Accruals:

Consumer Federation of America will send Annual Reports and Policy Resolutions each year. Date ranges should reflect this. Additionally, the website is crawled at least twice each year and will be reflected in the date ranges.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
General note:

Published

Dacs citation:

Preferred Citation: [Item title], [item date], Consumer Federation of America records, Box [number], Folder [number or title], Richard L. D. and Marjorie J. Morse Department of Special Collections, Kansas State University Libraries.

Subjects

Click on terms below to find related finding aids on this site. For other related materials in the Kansas State University Libraries, search for these terms in the Catalog.

Subjects:
Consumer movement

Contents

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Restrictions:

All materials are open for research.

Terms of access:

The researcher assumes full responsibility for observing all copyright, property, and libel laws as they apply.