This newsletter is sent
via Blind Copy to Historical Societies and interested parties from the
Association of Historical Societies of New Hampshire. If you do
not wish to receive this, simply hit Reply and respond, "Please
remove." Recipients are encouraged to participate by writing to
lindaday@historicalsocietiesnh.org.
--Linda
Day, Association of Historical Societies of NH
Up
Front:
Greetings, One and All.
I recently counted up this distribution list, and through this newsletter
you reach over 300 of your peers representing over
150 different NH historical organizations! Isn't it nice
to know that you are not alone?
I've been toying with the
idea of a motto for the Association: New Hampshire's
Historical Societies--See 'em and muse! Get it?
"Museum"--"muse-see-'em." Too subtle? Every time I come back from
Massachusetts, I envision a billboard greeting me. Listen, you've got to
have a dream; if you don't have a dream, how you gonna have a dream come
true? (I didn't just make that up, either.)
At this writing, I see well
over 100 messages & notes waiting for me, for the newsletter.
Consequently I hope to put out two or three issues in quick succession, just to
clear the waiting list. There will also be special-interest compilations
on Insurance and on Quilts. Please do not get scared and think you will
hereafter be inundated by e-mail from AHSNH. This is just a push to clear
out the backlog.
Thank-you, everyone, for you
continued support, both of the Association and of this
newsletter.
Contents:
1. Share your success: Seeking Panel
Speaker
2. Check your labels: from
AHSNH
3. Barn Cmte offers
programs
4. Moyer to New Hampton, "Milking
It?"
5. Genealogy Conference in
Nashua
6. Remick Farm is Sweet on
March
7. Aviation H/S hosts Architects
8. Concord Model RR Club has
kid-friendly experience to share!
9. Pod-Casting Mentor already
volunteers!
10. Ashland seeks feedback on Boards,
Docent Training
11. Deerfield presents Coloring Book
Project
12. Odds & Ends (spinners, April event,
train cookies, nationwide listserv)
1. Seeking
Panel Speaker:
We are planning a conference for April 12, at
which we would like to have a panel discussion on best practices for "keeping
the numbers up" (volunteers, members, bringing in young people, etc.). If
your society has a trick or two up its sleeve, why not give us a name of someone
who would be flattered to be approached? Please share your suggestions
with Jennifer Goodman, jg@nhpreservation.org Thank-you.
(Ed. Note: This call for speakers is
timely. I received the following note from one of our readers:
"Linda, I enjoy reading these
messages and find lots of good ideas in them. The problem in our society is that
we have so few active members and those of us who are still engaged already do a
lot. It's overwhelming to even think about incorporating new ideas no matter how
good they are.")
2. from
AHSNH:
Regarding (paper)
newsletters we receive from you: Please ask the
person who sends out your newsletters to double-check the address labels.
The name of our association is too long for most labels.
When our name takes up 2 lines it bounces the city-state-zip off the
bottom. About 3 have made it through anyway--which restores my faith in
the postal service! How anyone can connect a Main Street address with
Concord, NH, must be a modern-day miracle! At any rate, changing our name
to AHSNH ( or Assoc H/S NH) will ensure the
entire address fits on the label. Thank-you.
And thank-you to all who are
paying dues. I have (finally!) gotten stamps, so the
Directories are at last en route. We appreciate your
support! It's gratifying.
3. from
the Barn Cmte (N.H. Historic Agricultural Structures Advisory
Committee):
At the (Nov) meeting of the
Barn Committee, we decided to explore reaching out to NH historical
societies and other relevant organizations (e.g., heritage & historic
district commissions) with an offer to make public
presentations on the history of NH barns, advise on
preservation of historic agricultural structures, and the
various "tools" and sources of information
which are now available for barn owners and others. This would
include information about the new state tax incentive mechanism
which is intended to encourage the preservation of old barns and related
buildings.
Over the past five years, Committee members
have made such presentations to various groups around the state. For
further information, you are invited to contact,
4. from New
Hampton: Clean Milkers with Judith Moyer
March 9 Clean Milkers, Prompt Delivery: New
England Home Milk Delivery, 1860-1960, Judith
Moyer, Ph.D., University of New Hampshire
The New England milkman is one of the figures of nostalgia
walking in our memories. This talk with slides traces the development of home
milk delivery in New England. Why did we have milkman (and woman) and why have
they (almost) disappeared? Oral history excerpts fond memories and popular media
tell it all. Programs made possible in part though a grant from the
New Hampshire Humanities Council.
Gordon-Nash
Library, Main Street, New Hampton; 7:00
p.m.; Information:
603-744-9961
5. Genealogy
Conference:
Full day (8-5); $30 (+$10, bag lunch).
Coming to Nashua in March, date still unknown. 1st in a series of State
conferences designed for the budgeted historian and genealogist. Bag
lunch; roundtable talks. Many lectures. Paul J.
Bunnell, FACG, UE ; 45
Crosby St., Milford, NH 03055; BunnellLoyalist@aol.com; 603 672-6616; http://bunnellgenealogybooks.citymaker.com
6. from Remick
Farm, Tamworth; Maple Sugaring Event:
TAMWORTH,
NH: Saturday, March 18, 2006
from 1PM to 4PM, Special Event: Maple Sugaring, Remick Museum, 58 Cleveland Hill Rd, at the end of
Tamworth
Village. Admission is free,
donations gratefully accepted. Call (603) 323-7591 or log on to www.remickmuseum.org
for more information.
7. from
AIA NH:
March 30; Tour of the
New Hampshire Aviation H/S, Aviation Museum of
NH, followed by dinner and a presentation on the restoration of the 1930's
terminal and aviation in NH.
8. from Concord Model Railroad
Club:
[Ed. Note:
Following my remark, "'family-friendly.' (By family-friendly, I think
we meant to imply 'kid-friendly.')" in an earlier newsletter, I
received the this note. Emboldening is mine.]
Hi Linda--I usually just skim through your emails, but seeing the section about
kids, caused me to slow down and read. I think it is important
that we look at ways to involve kids, for both education purposes and to help
grow our respective organizations.
I'll offer
some ideas from our experiences at the Concord Model Railroad
Club.
1) Offer "junior"
memberships to give young people a chance to belong to the
organization. Our junior members need adult sponsor who promises to attend
meetings with them, who will be responsible for the junior member. You
want to protect yourself from possibly becoming a baby-sitting
service.
2) Encourage
families to participate. We have several club members,
myself included, who routinely bring kids to meetings. At the same time, a
kid's interest may bring adults into our organization as
well.
3) Design your
exhibits to be kid-friendly. Set things up so the kids
will have fun and be successful.
Remember that you're competing against video
games, etc.
--and on the topic of a rating
system... some events may only be appropriate for certain age
groups. You may want to consider if events are "kids only" or "kid +
adult" etc. Using balloons as your logo, perhaps for "kids only" events,
you have a kid holding a balloon, with the appropriate age number on the
balloon. If an adult is needed for the event, add an adult holding the
kid's hand. (See attached example
of what I would envision for an event
geared for adults plus children over 7)
--Jon Miner -- http://trainguy.dyn.dhs.org(Ed. Note: Jon has
attached an example of the stick figures he refers to. This may or may not
make it into your mailbox; my Outlook program is not quite as up-to-date as some
I have used.)
9. from New
Ipswich, a Pod-caster Mentor:
Hi Linda, I just wanted to post a quick reply to your
call for podcasting expertise. I am working on a podcasting project
at Fitchburg State College (where I teach) this spring and would be glad to
be a
resource. Maybe next summer we could have some sort of
colloquium on podcasting?
It is pretty simple--all you need is an
iPod and a recording device to do the
basics. Then you upload the voice file to Apples
iTunes podcast site, where anyone w/an iPod (or a computer) can download
and listen. I am going to podcast our Women's History Month events
this spring, and am experimenting w/recording my classroom lectures and
podcasting them for my students.
Don't be put off by the jargon. Here is a quick
glossary:
iPod=music player, sound player,
video player (some models), picture player (some models), made by Apple
Computer. You listen to it w/headphones, or plug it into a speaker of some
sort. Cost is around
$300. See www.apple.com.
Podcast=a file (can be voice, image, video)
available via the web. Can be downloaded to an iPod for viewing,
listening.
iTunes=a software program from Apple that allows
you to maintain a database of music, sound/voice files, video, etc., on
your computer and synchronize these files with your iPod. iTunes
can be downloaded from apple.com and is available for Mac and PC
platforms. iTunes has a music store where you can purchase music for
99 cents/per song, as well as books, videos, etc. You can also use
iTunes to upload and maintain a podcast
project.
That's it for now. Hope this
helps.
--Susan
Susan Williams, President, New Ipswich
Historical Society; susan@waterloom.com
(Ed.
Note: Isn't this exciting?!)
10. from
Ashland, Boards & Docents:
... We are considering
the possibility of creating a board of directors to take care of the business of
the society. I would love to hear from other societies that may
have boards pertaining to the positives and negatives, as they see
them, of having a board (as opposed to) bringing up every decision to
an ever-narrowing number of members that attend the meetings.
We also
need a docent training program. Do we need to reinvent
the wheel for this or is there some kind of template that we might employ?
I realize that the information for each museum is different but is there
standard material that should be covered in docent training and
is there any training format?
Any input
will be greatly appreciated.
(Ed. Note: As
always, you may respond directly to Sandy. I request that you cc to this
e-ddress so we may all benefit from your help, but it is certainly not required
that you do so.)
11. from
Deerfield:
While downsizing recently (a
near-hopeless task for those of us with A.D.D.) I came across something that may
help draw the community in, to turn a phrase. In 1982 the Deerfield
Community Kindergarten published a coloring book entitled,
Coloring Deerfield.
I don't know how they compiled
it, but it inspired this idea: Have 3rd- to 5th-graders draw pictures of
life/history about town. Keep the images simple, outline-like,
black-&-white. Each picture may have a caption of a sentence or two
that explains it. Have each artist sign their name. Let the cover
page be on colored stock, with a date and a caption indicating it is a
collaboration between the H/S and (whoever).
Then reproduce, collate, staple, and distribute. They
may be distributed free-of-charge as a gift from the H/S or they may be sold for
nominal amount (something children can afford) with the proceeds to support a
historical field trip for the school. Well, or the project the H/S may be
currently focussed on.
Be sure to keep one copy in case it becomes an annual
endeavor. You will be able to follow the history of children's images of
your town.
12. Odds &
Ends:
Does anyone know anything about a
Spinners' Guild, or about a group called Canadian
Wheels? I think they are (both) people who use spinning
wheels...
In lieu of our Spring workshop, the AHSNH will be
co-sponsoring with the NH Preservation Alliance and the Belknap Mill Society a
2-day conference to be held in Laconia. Keep your eyes
open. April 11-12.
Is there anyone in Laconia or vicinity who would
put an afternoon into compiling a list of accommodations in
case someone wants to come from a distance & stay over? Send name,
address, phone (+/or e-mail), and rough cost estimate to lindaday@historicalsocietiesNH.org
and I will publish them when I put out more details about the conference.
(or, perhaps members of historical societies in the area will accept houseguests
from Mon. evening thru Tue morning, at, say $49/person? Then we can
really get in touch with each other!)
There are five or six H/Ss in NH that have a
focus on trains, railroads, train stations, and such. Land O'Lakes is
offering a "Polar Express Train Cookie Cutter." Each
cutter requires $6.95 plus 2 UPC codes from any Land O'Lakes product.
Offer expires 06/30/06. If you are interested send your name, address,
& phone # to Land O'Lakes Polar Express Cookie Cutter Offer; POB 83687;
Stillwater, MN 55083-0687
If you are interested in a listserv reaching the
nationwide historical community, write to FS-LIST@yahoogroups.com The "FS"
stands for "Field Service," and refers to professionals who go about helping
(for a fee or not) smaller organizations--something we are interested in
establishing here in NH. There is no fee for participating. The
FS-LISTSERV was the original inspiration for this newsletter, which is not a
bona fide listserv.