At recent meetings people have made comments both ways about the number of organizations to which local historical societies can belong. Some have said so many confuse people, but others have said the specifics of the missions of the organizations are helpful in weeding out less-relevant affiations. How do you choose from so many (AASLH, AAM, MALHM, MAM, MOMCC, etc.)? Are there too many? Or, is specialization of mission useful to you?

As a reminder, the 2002 Local History Survey found that 77 percent of Minnesota’s local historical organizations responding to the survey, belonged to at least one professional development organization. The most prefered at that time was Minnesota Alliance of Local History Museums followed by the American Association for State and Local History. Since then the economy forced us all to make some tough choices in 2003-2005. Did your memberships in professional development organizations survive cuts?

Technology support staff at the Minnesota Historical Society spruced up the template for Local History News by clarifying the difference between category and story titles, and making the tagline and image bar specific to local historical organizations. There are a number of behind-the-template upgrades as well. What do you think? Local History News is meant to be a useful service. Are the upgrades helpful? How is LHN useful to you?