1. Organizing Agricultural Mission Expenses
Accounting Guide to Jonestown/Guyana Mission set up by Tish Leroy
RYMUR 89-4286-C-7-h-4a – C-7-h-4b, C-7-h-11
As Peoples Temple in Guyana developed, its first administrative controls came from accounting for expenditures of clearing land, building structures, planting crops and establishing a working farm. The Temple’s residence in Georgetown proved essential as well in obtaining materials for Jonestown and working with governmental agencies. Tish Leroy set up an accounting structure for Guyana (as had been done in California) to reflect the Agricultural Project. The records of this structure now help to identify people and groups responsible for various activities. Though undated, the persons listed suggest it would have been prepared in mid-1977.
2. Organizational Chart developed from Roller Journals
Agricultural Mission: Jonestown, Guyana 1978
Working with information from Edith Roller’s Journals of January – when she went to Guyana – through August 1978, we have assembled an organizational chart to help understand all the places, activities and people she mentioned. This chart comes through inferring how it all went together, without having seen the exact nomenclature adopted or used in the next July 12, 1978 Chart (below).
3. Organizational Chart dated July 12, 1978
Jonestown Organizational Chart
August Steering Follow-up
Jonestown Governmental Responsibilities
What emerged by July is laid out in the July 12, 1978 chart. It was assembled from what fit together as shown in a photo of parts “laid out on sheet or muslin cloth.” Date on photo 7/12/78.
August Steering Follow-up called for finalizing the Functions of Steering Committee and organizational changes, which produced Jonestown Governmental Responsibilities and defined three parts under Jim Jones serving as Executive Officer:
Administrative: Triumvirate of 3 Chief Administrative Officers (CAOs) were listed as Johnny Brown (Jones), Carolyn Layton and Harriet Tropp. They supervised the activities of 8 “Assistant CAOs” – department heads – to supervise 30+ areas of day-to-day living activities.
Legislative: Committees were responsible for planning, analyzing and prioritizing with input from the various Assistant Officers. The Steering Committee seems to have replaced the Planning Commission.
Judicial: Peoples Rally consisted of the community as a whole, responsible for counseling, discipline, praise
4. Expanded Organizational Chart
Jonestown Organizational Chart, August 1978
Assistant Chief Administrative Officers (ACAOs-Code numerals I to X)
Responsibilities of ACAOs
This chart expands the July chart to include the ten Assistant Chief Administrative Officers responsible for the ten departments. It seems to reflect a concerted effort to enumerate all the activities of running Jonestown and to assign Responsibilities of ACAOs to coordinate all that needed to be done. The code numerals carry over into Security and Housing lists of responsibility relating to departments.
5. Jobs & Skills
Jobs in Jonestown by Department
Jobs in Jonestown by Person
List All Job Descriptions
Skills Inventory
Edith Roller speaks of getting resumes and skills as part of a larger, on-going project. In July ’78 each department was told to List All Job Descriptions, evaluate everyone and assemble a Skills Inventory of all in Jonestown. From these lists come most of the information compiled about jobs in Jonestown: what jobs were there and who did what.
– Don Beck