Sara Markoe Hanson, executive director

of the White Bear Lake Area Historical

Society, greets a young visitor to the Depot

Museum. Visitation has soared since

Hanson signed on as the society’s first

paid staff person.

visibility hasreally helped our fundraising.”

Highervisibility wasalso a goal forthe White BearLake AreaHistoricalSociety when ithired its firststaff person in2001. Executivedirector SaraMarkoe Hansonhad the distinctadvantage ofknowing thecommunitywell: White BearLake is home tosix generationsof her family.She knew the historical society well,too, from her many years as a memberand from a turn on the board.

“This was an all-volunteerorganization for 30 years,” saysHanson.“Every board member hadan area of responsibility. We’ve keptthat model; it helps spread theworkload around.”

That workload has increasedsteadily over the years as the society

Lenny Tvedten laughs when herecalls his first days on the job as theMartin County Historical Society’s firstexecutive director. A retired teachernew to museum work, he had beenhired by the board to work 30 to 35hours a week.“What will I do to fill all that time?” he remembers askingthem. He soon learned he was lucky if he could fit all he had to do into 60 hours a week.

Too much to do – not enough time.It’s a challenge faced by historicalorganizations large and small. But forgroups transitioning from volunteer topaid staff, there are added challenges –learning new roles, setting measurablegoals, defining boundaries, boosting theorganization’s stature in the community.

In the public eyeTvedten had the good fortune to

work for a board that gave him lots oflatitude but also set clear goals. Still, ittook him some time to realize hecouldn’t do it all. “A year later I finallyhired an assistant to work on organizingthe collections,”he says. “I needed todevote more time to networking in thecommunity – writing a newspapercolumn, doing TV interviews about ourevents and programs, lending historicalperspective to discussions at meetingsof the Chamber of Commerce andother community groups. The higher

November - December 2005, Vol. XXXIII, No. 6

Published by the Minnesota Historical Society for county and

local historical organizations and heritage preservation commissions

INSIDEpage 4Reorganizing small museums to better serve the publicpage 82006 workshop dates

‘You’re hired!’ continued on page 2

‘You’re hired!’Shift from volunteer to paid staff takes planning

grew from sponsoring teas, tours andan annual musicale to managing twosites, a burgeoning collection and abroader array of programs – growth

Changing rolesThe catalyst for professionalizing

the society came in 2000 when theWhite Bear LakeChamber ofCommerce movedits offices out ofthe historicrailroad depot,where it hadrented the freightroom to theWBLAHS asexhibit space.“The Chamberwanted thehistorical societyto take over thewhole building,”says Hanson,“butunder thecondition that thedepot would beopen more thanthe few hours amonth thevolunteers couldcommit to. Theboard decided

to take the leap.”“So many things had been falling

through the cracks without a staff

2 Minnesota History Interpreter

that couldn’thavehappenedwithout paidstaff in place.“There’s beena giganticincrease in ourcommunitypresence overthe last fouryears,” notesHanson.“Wenow have strong ties to the localbusiness association, tourism bureauand high school alumni group. Thosepartnerships are essential for ourhistorical society, which reliesentirely on private support.”

person to coordinate all ouractivities,” says WBLAHS boardmember Peter Reis, who helped guidethe society through its transition.“Wedebated whether to make the positionfull-time or part-time but in the enddecided we could afford only a three-quarter-time position so it wasimperative to hire someone whoknew the community. Sara fit the bill.She’s made the most of those hours.”Among the improvements since herarrival: an on-time, lively newsletterthat members can depend on; grant-writing that is essential to anorganization with no public funding;and follow-through on all projects toensure that the society runs smoothly.

Drawing on his decades ofexperience as a business executiveand his work on larger boards, Reisadvised WBLAHS board members ontheir biggest challenge: sorting outtheir new advisory role from thedirector’s management role.“We hadalways been a hands-on board – westill are,” he says.“But we gave up day-to-day duties to concentrate on big-picture issues – strategic planning,policies, the mission.”

Reis also made sure that all thepieces were in place for one of the

‘You’re hired!’ continued from page 1

Board members Dick Hanson (left) and

Peter Reis pitch in on construction of the

White Bear Lake Area Historical Society’s

new storage space at City Hall.

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The White Bear Lake Area Historical Society operates two facilities – the Depot Museum,

pictured, and the Fillebrown House, a 19th-century cottage.

for the collections at City Hall – then drew up blueprints, got theconstruction permit, bought thematerials, supervised delivery to thesite and took instruction at HomeDepot on putting up sheetrock.

Handing over the reinsThe McLeod County Historical

Society has tried it both ways. Thesociety opened its new museum in1988 with a full-time director. But fouryears ago budget problems forced theboard to make a tough decision: closethe doors or stay open with volunteerhelp instead of paid staff. Boardmembers decided to keep themuseum going themselves.

A small team of board memberscommitted to doing the bulk of the managerial work, opening themuseum two days a week. Additional,behind-the-scenes volunteers put inmore hours maintaining the buildingand tending to the society’s archives.

“We’re all retired,” says MCHSpresident Elizabeth Schwarze,“but we

President Elizabeth Schwarze (center)

hosts a meeting of the McLeod County

Historical Society board. Some members

do double duty as the museum’s

volunteer staff.

consider this work our jobs. We’veaccomplished a lot for a small museum.We strengthened the library, updatedour exhibits, did two MAP assessments– one on our overall operations andone in collections management.

“We’re getting tired, though,”she says.“So we’re making plans to hire a full-time director again inearly 2006. That will get us back todoing what we’ve been too busy to tend to – going to workshops,raising funds, drumming up support for the organization beyond Hutchinson. We want to hand over the day-to-dayresponsibilities, get some youngerfolks involved and return to being just regular volunteers.”

For more information on managing thetransition from volunteer to paid staff, callSara Markoe Hanson, executive director ofthe White Bear Lake Area Historical Society,651-407-5327; and Elizabeth Schwarze orGerard Stifter, board president and treasurer,respectively, at the McLeod County HistoricalSociety, 320-587-2109.

November - December 2005 3

board’s crucial new responsibilities –regular review of the director’s jobperformance. “To do that, you need ajob description for the director with aclear definition of duties,”he explains.“You need a good work plan – a list of goals and objectives to measureagainst. And you need a policy thatspells out the procedure for the jobreview. Too many boards overlook thisimportant step in ensuring that theorganization’s goals are being met.”

Seeing resultsHanson ticks off some of the

WBLAHS’s accomplishments:membership has nearly doubled,attendance at events has soared andthe collections have grown 300percent. To deal with that volume ofartifacts, she has instituted collectionsmanagement practices – catalogingobjects, identifying photographs,developing collecting guidelines.

But she couldn’t do it without herhands-on board, including Reis, whotook the lead in finding storage space

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Mahnomen County Historical Society board members Jerry Kochmann (center) and Joanie Kramer consult with Tim Glines of the

Minnesota Historical Society before making changes to their museum space.

Reorganization of the Koochiching County Historical Society made room for special

exhibits like this one featuring the society’s collection of photographs by conservation

activist Ernest Oberholtzer.

arranged by theme – prehistory,American Indians, the fur trade,boundaries.“Koochiching County is only 100 years old,” says

Seven years ago, when EdOerichbauer tookover as executivedirector of theKoochiching CountyHistorical Society inInternational Falls,he found “a typical small-town museum –everything we hadwas on display. It wasa real jumble of stuff.”

Working slowlyas funds becameavailable, Oerichbauerset out to bringsome order to theplace. “I hauledeverything out ofeach gallery, one room at a time,and started over,” he explains.“There were 6,000 square feet ofexhibit space and only 300 feet ofstorage space. I remade 2,000 squarefeet of the space into storage, put upshelving and stored some of the

4 Minnesota History Interpreter

collections away for the time being.”He also reorganized the society’sarchives and library.

Now museum exhibits are

AROUND THE STATE

A new sense of orderMuseums redo small spaces to better serve their communities

she reports “even though the itemshave been here for 20 years.”

A place to meetA combination of new space

and reorganized old spaces gave theMartin County Historical Society anopportunity to improve service to its community. Using reserve funds,the society in 2003 created aresearch library in the addition to its museum, a former Catholicconvent.The library centralizes the newspaper collections, boundvolumes and microfilm. It also serves

The Martin County Historical Society’s

library doubles as meeting space and a

workroom for students doing research.

AROUND THE STATE

Oerichbauer,“but there havebeen 10,000 years of humanhabitation here. So we try totell the story of the wholeregion, including neighboringnorthwestern Ontario.”

Community response to his monumental reorganizationhas been strong. ReportsOerichbauer,“Visitors now say this museumis amazingly good fora small place likeInternational Falls.”

Drawing repeat

visitorsThe Mahnomen

County HistoricalSociety was alsolaboring under a lackof organized museumspace when it soughtadvice from theMinnesota HistoricalSociety’s Local HistoryServices staff. Theproblem: a somewhatrandom arrangementof artifacts, witharchival materials scatteredthroughout the display space. Thesolution: improved traffic flow, withresearch materials centralized in onearea, and changing exhibits near theentrance to entice visitors to return.

“We put out brochures andnewsletters by the entrance andpinned up thank you notes fromschoolchildren,” says Joanie Kramer,MCHS board member and themuseum’s volunteer curator. Thechanging exhibits contribute to themuseum’s fresher look.“People arenoticing things for the first time,”

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November - December 2005 5

as a workspace for visiting schoolgroups and a meeting space for localcommunity organizations.

Executive director Lenny Tvedtenrecruited board volunteers to helpwith his next reorganization project.“We’re redoing our museum displaysroom by room, removing things thatdon’t fit the themes,” says Tvedten.“Our attendance is higher since we’vemade all these changes. And that hashelped our fundraising. We just held a successful raffle to raise funds for an elevator, which will improveaccessibility. That should boostattendance even further.”

For more information on these ways of doing the most with what you have, call Ed Oerichbauer, executive director of theKoochiching County Historical Society, 218-283-4316; Joanie Kramer, curator of the Mahnomen County Historical Society,218-935-5490; and Lenny Tvedten, executivedirector of the Martin County HistoricalSociety, 507-235-5178.

more offices, a galley kitchen and a permanent exhibit devoted to thehistory of Stevens County.

The last pieces of the puzzleFor future growth, tracks have

been laid in the new wing toaccommodate stackable, high-densitycollections storage as needed.“Ouraim is to be creative about using thespace,” says Hokanson.“We plan tolease part of the new wing to theUniversity of Minnesota, Morris for the West Central Regional ResearchCenter. And [MHS outreachconservator] Bob Herskovitz hasoffered to help us maximize use ofnonpublic areas of the old building.”

The new museum has just abouteverything – everything but a newname.“For the time being,we’re stillcalling it the Stevens County Museumand Historical Society,”says Hokanson.“But we’re offering naming rights on theaddition’s new exhibit gallery. If a donorsteps forward with the last $300,000 forour capital campaign,we’ll name thegallery in their honor.”

For more information call SCHS directorRandee Hokanson at 320-589-1719 or e-mailinfo@stevenshistorymuseum.com

When it came time for theStevens County Historical Society tofind larger quarters for its museum, thesociety had to look no further than itsown back yard. With plenty of land forexpansion, the board decided to buildan addition onto the existing museumfacility. The catch: that facility was thehistoric Morris Carnegie Library, a 100 -year-old Classical Revival building onthe National Register of Historic Places.

To ensure that the addition wouldcomplement the 1905 brick-and-stoneoriginal, SCHS board and staffproceeded slowly and deliberately.They consulted with Charles Nelson,then the Minnesota HistoricalSociety’s historical architect. Theylaunched a $1.3 million capitalcampaign. They hired a firm withexperience renovating older buildings.And they devised a long-range plan toguide them through the expansionproject in manageable phases.

This fall, four years after theirplanning began, the Stevens CountyHistorical Society dedicated its newaddition with a weekend of festivitiesthat drew members and the public,families, young people and seniors.“This has raised community awareness

6 Minnesota History Interpreter

AROUND THE STATE

of our building and all our programs,”says SCHS director Randee Hokanson.

Room for everything“The addition triples our space and

gives us room for things we never hadbefore,”explains Hokanson.“There’s aworkroom for artifact intake andcollections care. There are staff offices,ample collections storage and space forvolunteers. And now we have anexhibit hall for changing exhibits withroom for group lessons. We’reespecially grateful for the new elevator,which makes the building accessible,lets us move artifacts more easily andgreatly aids exhibit construction.”

Now that the addition is open forvisitors, SCHS staff have turned theirattention to renovating the old librarybuilding.“The City of Morris paid for anew roof and ceiling that allowed usto retain the historic domed interior,”says Hokanson. And a State CapitalProjects grant-in-aid from theMinnesota Historical Society funded a new HVAC system. With climatecontrols in place, the first level willhouse the archives and a researchroom. On the second level will be agift shop, community meeting room,

Mirror imageStevens County museum addition preserves local landmark

Designed by Steve Gausman of Short Elliott Hendrickson, the addition to the historic Morris Carnegie Library triples the space of the Stevens

County Historical Society. The new street-level entrance, pictured at left during construction last winter, is a mirror image of the original

portico. Artist Lisa Johannes, whose 1998 painting Sunrise graces the library dome (right), will return to paint the ceiling of the new rotunda.

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Services for Minnesota’s local history organizations are featured at www.mnhs.org/lhs.

November - December 2005 7

T

BULLETIN BOARD

for local historical organizations.Go to www.mnhs.org/lhs and see for yourself.

Check it outChanges to MHS web site put Local History Services at your fingertips

he Minnesota Historical Society’sweb site has been upgraded to provideadditional information and resources

In the section “Networking” you’llfind ways to stay in touch with yourhistory colleagues.“In the Field” letsyou know how to take advantage ofMHS outreach services, includingworkshops (turn to page 8 of thisissue for the 2006 schedule).

One new feature is “TechnicalHelp,” a compilation of sources andlinks in four categories: management,preservation, research andinterpretation. A work in progress,this section will be added to overtime. Subscribers to the listservMNLOCALHISTORY are encouragedto comment on the resources listedand suggest additions.

For those needing assistance with, or information about, historicpreservation, see the revised web sitefor the State Historic PreservationOffice at www.mnhs.org/shpo.

W For both copies, use theMinnesota Historical Society address: 345 Kellogg Blvd. W.,St. Paul, MN 55102-1906.

2. Subscribe toMNLOCALHISTORY.

This list service, e-mailed weekly to subscribers, is an electronic meeting place to share information and exchangemessages. Join now by sending an e-mail with the text SUBSCRIBE MNLOCALHISTORY tomajordomo@state.mn.us.

Stay in touchhat are the two best ways to

share your news with your colleaguesin Minnesota’s county and localhistorical organizations?

1. Put the Minnesota HistoricalSociety’s Local History Servicesoffice on your newslettermailing list.

We use your news for Interpreterstory ideas. Also, make sure that your newsletter gets mailed toSerials at MHS. That copy becomespart of the periodical collection inthe Reference Library, where it’saccessible to researchers.

Networking

Share ideas and best practices with your historycolleagues.

Technical Help

Resources for running a history museum, fromadministration and facilitiesmanagement to collections care and interpretation.

In the Field

We’ll bring workshops and onsite consultations to yourdoorstep with the latest word on history museum operations.

“W

Minnesota History Interpreteris published bimonthly by the HistoricPreservation Department of the MinnesotaHistorical Society. Unless otherwise noted,photographs are from the Local HistoryServices office.

Material from this issue may be reprinted with the following credit line: Reprinted withpermission from Minnesota History Interpreter,November - December 2005, Vol. XXXIII, No. 6,published by the Minnesota Historical Society.Do not reprint material taken from anothersource without permission.

On request, this publication is available inalternative formats: audiotape, large print orcomputer disk. Back issues can be found online at www.mnhs.org/about/publications/interpreter.html.

Readers may submit news for publication. Send to Interpreter Editor, MinnesotaHistorical Society, 345 Kellogg Blvd. W., St. Paul, MN 55102-1906.

For address corrections, e-mailmichele.decker@mnhs.org or call 651-296-5434. For other matters call Tim Glines at 651-296-5460 or e-mail timothy.glines@mnhs.org.

Britta Bloomberg, Head, Historic Preservation DepartmentTim Glines, Manager, Outreach ServicesDavid Grabitske, Grants and Field ProgramsAssociateMary Ann Nord, EditorKate Raver, Layout

mnhs.org

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2006 workshops announcedorking Together: Community Collaborations.”

That’s the theme of next year’s local history workshops,scheduled for five venues around the state:

March 24 Wright County Historical Society, BuffaloApril 7 Historic Hormel House, AustinApril 21 Stevens County Historical Society, MorrisApril 28 Forest History Center, Grand RapidsMay 19 Kittson County Historical Society,

Lake Bronson

Workshop sessions will offer plenty of winning ideasfor teaming up with other local organizations – chambersof commerce, educators, librarians, preservationists,genealogists – to maximize all of your community’sresources. It’s a sure-fire way to build your audiences andbring greater value to your customers. Watch for moreinformation in the January-February 2006 Interpreter.

TCAP grant changes for 2006

wo changes in eligibility criteria for the ConservationAssessment Program (CAP) in 2006 will allow moremuseums to participate:

• The number of days per year a museum must be open to the public will change from 120 days to 90 days.

• A second assessment will be available to organizationsthat participated in CAP before 1999.

CAP, a program for small to mid-sized museums,provides assessments of the museum’s collections,environmental conditions and historic buildings by aconservation professional. Applications – available atwww.heritagepreservation.org/programs – will beaccepted on a first-come, first-served basis until thepostmark deadline of Dec. 1.