The material in this series comes from the General Welfare Division of the General Board of Church and Society. The series contains administrative records, newsletters and scrapbooks from the Geneal Board of Temperance, the predecessor to the General Welfare Division. There are also records pertaining to the Department of of Alcohol Problems and Drug Abuse, the Depart of Population Problems, and the Department of Law, Justice and Community Relations. Each of these departments had wide-ranging portfolios and were active in a variety of issues. Some of the issues relate to United Methodism's historic stance on drug and alcohol abuse, as well as issues surrounding population and hunger in the 1970s and the division's involvement in Kent State slayings legal defense, Wounded Knee and other societal issues of the 1960s and 1970s.

This series contains the records of the Commission on World Peace, predecessor agency to this division. The material contains general administrative and correspondence files; records of conferences and workshops conducted by the staff; special projects of the Division and conscientious objector files. Also included are the relating to the various seminars conducted by the Division and the Board of Church and Society at the United Nations.

This series holds the minutes of the various boards and divisions. Included are the minutes of the board meetings along with committee reports and also the various levels of staff minutes of the agency. The second major section deals with the administrative functions of the board and primarially deals with the various general secretaries's files.

The records of the General Commission on the Status and Role of Women (COSROW) encompass its beginnings as a general agency and continues up to the early twenty-first century. Its primary role is advocacy for women both within and beyond United Methodism. Over time advocacy would be expanded beyond just women roles and acceptance as leaders. Responsibilities in their defined mission include workplace and sexual harassment, equitable leadership roles and benefits in relation to gender and race, legislation to General Conference such as changing language usage in the Book of Discipline to codify improvements for women and social issues relating thereof. These are but a few examples of its advocacy work for the denomination.

In order to support, empower and educate the denomination on all levels within COSROW’s defined responsibilities can be found in the Advocacy, Audio-Visuals, Connectional Ministries and Printed Matter series. Here the researcher will find a plethora of avenues by which COSROW fulfills its mission through multimedia, mailings, newsletters such as the Yellow Ribbon and The Flyer, correspondence, creation and submission of petitions to General Conference along with organizing and informing delegates, worship resources reflecting various women’s concerns and expressions, pamphlets, workshops and monitoring seminaries and all the boards and agencies throughout the connectional structures within the larger church.

COSROW is highly organized in the sense of resourcing and utilizing its membership both on the general church and annual conference levels. The creation of a talent bank in which to draw upon not only for its own qualitative work but also to network skilled individuals is but one of the creative ways COSROW optimizes its impact on the church despite its small staff. The records illustrate how the role of monitoring became a defining part of its work. Social justice issues related to women and children are amply documented in the files. The genesis of using non-gender specific language issue to promote inclusiveness within United Methodism can be traced here as well.

The Financial and Administration series reflects how COSROW ran its organization and implemented its mission on a daily basis. Minutes of the various committees, reports on the work and funding of the commission, along with membership records and the General Secretary’s office files make up the primary documents in this series. A researcher will notice multiple files on the same topics. The reason for this duplication rests upon the original organizational structure the commission utilized for an egalitarian General Secretariat rather than a typical top-down corporate management structure found in other United Methodist agencies. Later COSROW adapted the latter structure out of necessity. On another note it should be noted that COSROW often recorded their meetings in various media platforms which became the official record.

This series contains general administrative records of the division. Also included are committee records and records from various departments and special programs. This would include the programs on economic and racial issues, religion and race (which later became its own agency), church and government issues, and urban concerns. Also included are the records of the Law of the Sea Project (shared with Global Ministries), the Committee for Congressional Reform and records related to specific programs conducted by the Division in Washington, D. C.

This collection contains the records of the various departments in the reorganized structure of the Board of Church and Society. Departments in this new division focus on human issues and the church's response to those issues. This includes many of the previous departments spread between the former divisions. This includes such programs as the drug initiative, social and economic justice; human rights; and peace and world order.