Saving our heritage
Did you know Rabobank
hasa Company History
Department? Probably
not.The Word hopesto
change this by introducing
this relatively new and
veryunique niche within
the organization.
Department pro file
Stefan de Boer (left) and Jan van der Meer - custodians of the archive
When researchers for Rabobank's
special centenary book 'The co-
operative alternative', published in
1998, were sourcing information, they
discovered that the job at hand was
more difficult than they had originally
imagined. Unlike numerous other lead-
ing banks which had set up corporate
history departments in the early 90s,
Rabobank had no structured archive
from which to retrieve the historical
information the researchers needed. A
lot of important and interesting material
had been lost or destroyed. Since 1 999
however, Rabobank has boasted its own
Company History Department.
The department consists of two people:
Stefan de Boer, Company Historian and
Jan van der Meer, Archivist. Helping
them out is a handful of enthusiastic vol-
unteers - mostly retired employees. So,
what does the History Department do?
This question is not new to De Boer. 'It's
always difficult to explain the need for a
History Department: people don't really
understand the nature of our work or
the ultimate goal,' he says. 'Our task is
to help people see why historie material
is relevant and interesting. We also try to
use the bank's historical information to
help with policy planning. You can learn
24 I h The Word I
