Members of the history community in Minnesota will gather on December 10, 11 and 15 to discuss the recently approved constitutional amendment and what may happen next.   

What is known:

• The constitutional amendment to increase and dedicate sales tax funds for outdoor and cultural resources passed in the November election with 56% of the vote.

• “Minnesota history” is contained within the constitutional language.  History funding is contained within the “Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.”

• According to the Department of Revenue’s latest estimate, the Arts and Cultural Heritage fund will contain approximately $54 million per year.

• Funds will ultimately be appropriated by the legislature.

• Language within this new section of the constitution states that funding from this fund shall supplement existing sources of funding, but not be a substitute. 

What is not known:

• It is not clear how much money will be allocated to the various areas within the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, or by what mechanism funds will be allocated (i.e. citizens’ council, direct appropriation, etc.)

What can you do:

·        Propose how the funding could be used.  Specifically, what needs are there?

·        Suggest mechanisms by which funding could be distributed (e.g. competitive grant programs, other mechanisms?)

·        Attend one of three meetings (same content, three locations): RSVP to David Kelliher

o       7 p.m. December 10, 2008 at the Nicollet County Historical Society in St. Peter

o       7 p.m. December 11, 2008 at the Stearns History Museum in St. Cloud

o       3 p.m. December 15, 2008 at Historic Fort Snelling Visitor Center near the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport

·        Attend “History Matters Day at the Capitol” on February 16, 2009.

If you would prefer to deliver your thoughts without posting them to this blog, please email David Kelliher at the Minnesota Historical Society who volunteered to compile comments for the Council for Minnesota Archaeology, Minnesota Alliance of Local History Museums, Minnesota Historical Society, and Preservation Alliance of Minnesota.

Other than money, the one thing that historical organizations tend to lack is time.  Instead of focusing on that lack, I thought it might be a good idea to share ways in which we’ve learned how to make efficient use of our time, thus giving us more time for other tasks. How do you save time during your work in local history?

To start your wheels turning, here are a couple of things we do at the Morrison County Historical Society:

- Make a list of things to do for the day or week.  Absolutely critical for me, or I’d never stay focused.

- When going through the mail, sort items out by order of importance. Junk mail goes in the recycling bin immediately. Bills go in the “to be paid” basket. Research requests go to whoever is in charge of answering them.  Etc. Etc. Once sorted, deal with the easy stuff first. The point is to get through the mail in such a way that you are not having to handle unnecessary items more than once. Ditto on this for email.

Okay, your turn to share your time-saving tips. I’ve got a bunch more to prod you with if you get stuck.

Recently the Grants Office fielded a call from a county historical society considering a grant for an exhibit that would include a SMART Board. That recalled to mind the wonderful and nationally award-winning exhibit “Eating Out in Clay County” and the Clay County Historical Society. For that exhibit staff included blank notebooks wherein a visitor could respond to the exhibit as prompted by a question. The SMART Board would allow for the same kind of interaction electronically.

On the web, the Minnesota Historical Society recently began using Write on the Record, or WOTR (pronounced “water”), to enable visitors to annotate digital content, much like a reader of this blog can respond to the blog. For example, a researcher can annotate a database record using WOTR to let other researchers know of potential errors in the original, without altering the original record.

It’s encouraging to see how repositories of public trusts now more openly trust the public to add to the overall record. Your thoughts? What are ways that the public can add content by interacting with a local historical organization’s product?

Is there a county historical society that recently completed a business plan or strategic planning using a consultant? Are there any consultants out there for helping county historical society weathering the current economic downturn? We are looking for someone to facilitate a Board Retreat focusing on meeting tomorrow’ s needs (which need a bit of defining) with adequate funding (sources/plan to be developed). In an effort to keep this blog free of advertising, please contact me off list with names or other specifics. Otherwise, do respond online with your experiences.

Sherry Stirling, Executive Director
Chisago County Historical Society

Related to the History Museums as a Gathering Place discussion, there are always lots of events at historic sites toward the end of October to mark Halloween. Some are labeled as spooky or scary; some as for the family; and some are clearly educational, such as the many cemetery walks that local historical organizations present. History seems to lend itself well to Halloween. What issues should historical organizations consider, in addition to standard considerations, when presenting a program aimed at capturing Halloween attendance? If you have presented a Halloween program, what do patrons tell you is the reason that they came?

The October issue of the Fridley Historical Society’s newsletter, the Record, has some interesting comments from past president Robert Christenson.

 

After visitors to the Fridley History Center who had just attended a Hayes Elementary School event, Robert marveled how blessed Fridley was to have a community history museum. “But are we really using this valuable asset to it highest and best potential?” he asked. The museum is used for storing the archives, creating exhibits, holding 36 special events, 12 board meetings, annual planning meeting, and occasionally is used by other local nonprofits for their events and meetings. But, the Fridley History Center also has lots of amenities like an elevator, a meeting room that can accommodate about 60 people, a kitchen (no stove), three restrooms, two floors of exhibits, and private parking for events. Robert concluded, the building could be more fully used because it “is in marvelous condition and has a large outdoor lawn area surrounding the building.”

 

That prompts the question: how well do people in the community use your facility as a gathering place? What are some other ways that the public might use your space? In what ways does the public currently use your facility?

Donations of large photo collections, particularly those from studio photographers, often come with only a smattering of images identified. What does your organization do to get unidentified photographs identified?

This is a question for both members of the public and for those at local historical organizations. Bearing in mind that demand for electronic access might always surpass financial ability to provide service, tell us more about electronic delivery of historical services. What services currently satisfy what kinds of demands? What sorts of electronic services are not being offered? How important is it for local history organizations to have pages on Placeography, Facebook, YouTube, Flikr, and the like? What technology skills do local historical society volunteers and paid staff want/need to learn?

These are broad questions and asked only as it is good to occasionally reflect on what we as a community are doing well and what else might be needed. The discussion that follows hopefully will be about what is done now and what is wished for in the future. I think anyone involved with local history knows how stretched volunteers and staff are, so we shouldn’t feel a need to restate that. Instead, I’d like to get a sense of where we as a local history community are, and what kinds of technology might be coming that could be used to good advantage marketing our services and making history more accessible. In order to do that, I will invite the many I know that read this blog but have not commented to share your thoughts. You are observers and users of technology, your thoughts will be important to shaping this discussion.

In celebration of Glacier National Park’s centennial in 2010, Glacier National Park/National Park Service & Montana Historical Society are organizing a major exhibit on the Park’s history and “pre-history”, i.e. before its establishment as a national park. The exhibit development team is in the process of identifying objects, souvenirs, artwork, photographs, documents, American Indian (Blackfeet, Piegan, etc.) materials, etc. in public and private collections for consideration for the exhibit which will open at the Montana Historical Society in Helena in November 2009. The Park has been a favorite western destination for Minnesotans over the past 100 years and may have donated materials documenting their visits to local history organizations in Minnesota. Please contact Montana Historical Society Curator of Collections Jennifer Bottomly O’looney, 406-444-4711, if you have questions and/or information to share. Thank you!

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