Message-ID: <003001c8f73d$5c7b4f70$0301a8c0@Jensen> From: "Don Jensen" <dnjkenosha@wi.rr.com> Subject: Re: Question for Town & City Historical Societies Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2008 15:53:49 -0500
Kathy Grace, who knows the "other side of the fence," has offered the
most useful and accurate -- albeit most discouraging -- words that have
appeared here on the subject.
When it comes to public monies, it is generally a zero-sum game. It is,
indeed, a matter of choices and, indeed, it may be a choice between
replacing a village truck this year or offering funds to a historical
society. And even those public officials, like Ms. Grace who really
know and appreciate the value of historical preservation and local
historical societies find themselves hard pressed, as she suggests, to
vote for a historical society subsidy in the present economic climate.
No, the only answer is the electorate! The voters and taxpayers are the
court of first and last resort. If you can turn out 20 people, 50
people, 100 people, 200 people, depending on the size of your community,
at the town/'village/city/county board meeting where the budget is being
discussed, their presence and their voices, sincere, firm even angry,
demanding that the board include such monies in the budget, THAT will
work.
You have to build a constituency of local voters/taxpayers who insist,
as they insist on plowed streets and police protection, that their
government also support local history with tax dollars.
The trick is to build that constituency, to get a large part of the
community to feel it is important to support the local historical
society. That can take years to do. Maybe in some cases it is
impossible to do. And even in the best scenarios, even when you, as a
society, are doing everything possible to make your society/museum
indispensible to your community, you may not convince enough people that
you are ESSENTIAL to reach critical mass. This is why institutions of
all sizes and character around the country are finding that when push
comes to shove, it seems there aren't enough tax dollars coming their
way.
Yes, one has to look at other revenues and a small organization does
have options.
But what of those already doing as good a job as can be expected in
raising other revenues? What happens when you already are sponsoring
events bringing in $25,000 to $30,000 annually, already are soliciting
gifts and bequests, already have built a sizeable endowment over a
century, only to find it dwindling to shortfall every year and a zero
balance likely within five years. What about those organizations
already are receiving grants and getting some, though now insuffient tax
monies. For us, the picture looks bleak!
--don jensen