Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2012 03:44:17 -0500 From: Russ Hanson <russhanson@grantsburgtelcom.net> Subject: Family Heritage Center -- How to spend $50,000 =?UTF-8?Q?effectively=3F?= Message-ID: <1b509a30d1b4b24378f525b2ec3aa047@mail.airstreamcomm.net>
We have been offered a $100,000 grant to add a Danish Heritage Center (or
Family Heritage Center) to our small museum and library by a family with
roots in our community. They are interested in assisting people who want
to learn about their family history and genealogy as well as local history
in our primarily Danish settlement. They gave some direction that making
local information available on computers by digitization was to be
included. This would include digitizing local records from govt, churches,
cemeteries, as well as photographs, and whatever else has local research
value.
About $50,000 will go for the physical building addition, a rectangle of
about 20x24. This is a one-time grant with no continuing support in
future years. What would you do with the rest of the money to make a
family heritage center that also can have some storage and is to be shared
by the museum and library, to get the most use out of this additional
space. We would like it to be as multipurpose as possible, yet meet the
heritage center criteria.
We need to specify the items we would purchase. The local County
Genealogical Society uses the museum for assisting with genealogy research
for the area. We already think that digitizing computer/scanner/camera
equipment, some computers (laptops probably), subscriptions to online
genealogy services, storage shelving, tables, chairs, are the basics. We
are not sure if there would be money available for a person in what is left
to do work, but do have volunteers that could scan and photograph and index
items.
A pleasant task--to figure out how to spend $50,000. Of course, we need
to have the details ready ASAP to get the money ASAP! Any suggestions from
your experiences or dreams would be welcome. Remember, we are trying to
accommodate both the library and museum. We do already have meeting room
space, and enough space for the library and museum function (although both
groups are short on storage-- the grantors are not keen on spending their
money on a storage closet named after them!).
-- Russ Hanson riverroadrambler@gmail.com