diff --git a/docs/presents/design.txt b/docs/presents/design.txt
index 9bd987df0..4ee1dc1e4 100644
--- a/docs/presents/design.txt
+++ b/docs/presents/design.txt
@@ -120,6 +120,29 @@ public class ChatProvider
 This function will simply wrap up the arguments and pass them to the
 invocation manager for delivery to the appropriate client.
 
+* Server configuration
+The Cher server binds a properties file into the configuration name space
+under the key "cher". This properties file lives in
+rsrc/config/cocktail/cher/server.properties and is loaded from the jar
+file in which the Cher server code is provided.
+
+Values specified in this properties file can be overridden by a mechanism
+that will be provided by the configuration utilities used by the
+server. This is accomplished by placing a properties file earlier in the
+classpath than the one supplied with the cher code. The values in that
+earlier properties file will override the ones in the standard file.
+Values not supplied in the override file will be retrieved from the
+standard file.
+
+Derived server classes should place their server properties into the
+classpath with a path along the lines of
+rsrc/config/<ident>/server.properties and should bind it into the config
+namespace with their own identifier. If they desire to override values in
+the Cher server configuration, they should provide a
+rsrc/config/cocktail/cher/server.properties in their jar file ensure that
+their jar file occurs earlier in the classpath than the Cher server jar
+file.
+
 * A note on thread-safety
 Distributed objects are designed only to be accessed from one thread. On
 the server, there is a distributed object dispatch thread on which 95% of