How many of this blog’s readers have emergency disaster plans for their museums? If you do, where did you start? How did you create a plan that covers every eventuality? Or does your plan just cover the most likely disaster scenarios?

Mary Warner

The U.S. Dept. of Transportation in July reported that Americans drove 10 billion less miles in May 2008 than in May 2007. Metro Transit in the Twin Cities reported this last April that mass transit ridership hit 19.2 million fares for January-March, 2008, the highest number since the same period in 1984. Whether or not these mark a permanent trend is hard to say, but I think it is fair to guess that travel methods are being adjusted in ways that local history museums need to pay attention to.

There’s a lot to be said for putting programming where people are bound to be. For example, if most people drive a car to work, how might you reach commuters? By now many in Minnesota’s local history community have probably noticed changes in travel patterns. Can you provide a specific example to show how your organization is placing programming where people are bound to encounter it?

At the Martin County Historical Society, our programming consists of PowerPoint presentations during the summmer months on various topics and school tours. We are now looking to expand on our current programming to potentially year round adult and youth programming. Our PowerPoints usually bring in a dozen or more people on the average. I’m thinking that the idea of “if you build it, they will come” could fit well into developing programming. In a strategic planning questionnaire, we asked our members to tell us what they’d like to see at our facility. The list included how-to workshops, guest speakers, summer youth/adult programs, holiday/festivel celebrations, and other.

My question is: what types of programming do other organizations offer? Are they well attended? Do you offer these programs (youth or adult) year round or just seasonally? What ideas have you tried in the past that did not pan out?

Dustin Heckman

Did you ever want to ask a question on this blog? Have you noticed the more thorough discussions center around questions from those working at local history museums?

If you have something to discuss with Minnesota’s local historical organizations about the profession, standards, best practices, and more, send your blog to David Grabitske or Melinda Hutchinson. They will work with you to post for you. Remember, the blog is brought to you by the Minnesota Historical Society, so there will be just a couple guidelines to follow for webwriting. And, this blog will not post advertisements or solicitations. Sharpen your electronic pencils and send in your questions. Your colleagues look forward to hearing from you.

Minnesota has roughly 1,800 townships, the most local unit of government. Each of those townships over time has kept record of its proceedings and details that describe the history of each one. They often contain genealogical data useful to family history researchers, and information about roads and bridges that consultants need to complete reports for state and federal projects. These records have a tremendous potential for researchers on numerous projects.

However, these records are often the most endangered in the state. Many local historical museums report finding township records in haymows, under kitchen sinks, buried in the back of closets, in remote township halls subject to arson, and even sent to the dump. The large number of records would require much work for one organization to preserve them all. Therefore, several local historical organizations are helping to preserve township records.

The Renville County Historical Society in Morton has undertaken a project that could serve as a model to many organizations. It applied for and received a grant from the Minnesota State Grants-in-Aid program for the first phase of a project to microfilm all township records in the county through the year 2000. This way the information contained in the township records will be available to the public during regular hours in its research library. RCHS followed the example of the Milaca Area Historical Society that microfilmed several township record sets in its area. When RCHS is complete, it may be the first county with a complete set of microfilm records for its townships.

Another way that local history museums have preserved township records is to enter into an agreement with the State Archives to be the repository for local government records. For more information about these agreements, contact Charlie Rodgers at the State Archives.

In what ways are you working with township supervisors to promote the preservation of their official records?