Book excerpt: The second book in the five-volume Community Oral History Toolkit walks you through all the planning steps to travel from an idea to a completed collection of oral history interviews. Informed by an extensive survey of oral historians from across the country, this guide will get you started on firm ground so you don’t get mired in unforeseen problems in the middle of your project. Designed especially for project administrators, it identifies participants and responsibilities that need to be covered, and details planning needs for everything from budgeting to technology, and from legal issues to ethics. Planning a Community Oral History Project sets the stage for the implementation steps outlined in Volume 3, Managing a Community Oral History Project.