story request:
LAFF stories -- Recollection Collection project
Life After Ford Foundation (LAFF)
Requester: Louis Bickford
Deadline: No Deadline
Tell your story

We are collecting recollections about working at the Ford Foundation. Please join us!

These recollections will be archived and shared among LAFF members as a way to contribute to the institutional memory of the Ford Foundation and help us get to know each other better. Although our method is different than Oral History, and each submission is quite short (approximately three minutes), we hope that these submissions will become one of many collections stored at the Rockefeller Archive Center (RAC) that will become a living archive of our shared experiences at this remarkable institution.

The process is exceptionally easy and only takes about 10-20 minutes. We ask you to respond to a few open-ended questions/prompts about your experiences at the Ford Foundation. There is no preparation necessary. Please register using the link provided and record yourself (audio) responding to these questions and, if you have any, upload a photograph or two of yourself, your colleagues, your partners .. whatever makes sense. All you need is a working microphone and a quiet space to make the recording. You can re-record as many times as you want, and you do not need to submit the recording if you change your mind.

We are hoping that we will collect many recollections, reflections, or stories from LAFF members. This is a collaboration between LAFF and Memria.org, which was founded by a LAFF member for the purpose of helping organizations collect, curate, and distribute stories and reflections. If you have any questions or concerns, let us know: louis@memria.org.

Please feel free to answer any of the questions below ... there is no need to answer them all. 


The purpose of this project is to share personal reflections among LAFF members and others and to archive these audio accounts. Stories may be edited and published, and compilations may be created of audio content. We may choose to share the stories on the public LAFF website or circulate them on the LAFF Facebook page. If you do not feel comfortable with these stories being shared, you should not participate. And please consider that the content you record might be heard by others over time. 

Tell your story
Tips for telling a great story
  • Tell your story as if you were talking to a friend or a relative. Make it personal.
  • Add photos! It is best if the first photo you add is a nice image of yourself so that people can see you as they listen to or read your story.
Tips for audio recording
  • You can re-record as many times as you want. Take a couple of practice runs until it feels more natural talking into your computer.
  • Try not to use a pre-written script so that your story sounds as natural as possible. It is ok if it is not perfect.
  • Try to speak as clearly as possible, and get as close to the microphone as you can.
  • Try to find a quiet place with no background noise. It is even better if the room has carpet. This will reduce the amount of echo on the recording.
Interested in sharing your story for this project?

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