A Great Conference for Historic Sites Coming Up in April

The Organization of American Historians and the National Council on Public History are combining their annual meetings this year and this double-header is creating a really interesting conference for people who are working to preserve and interpret historic places. Here are just a few sessions that caught my eye (and just a few–there are more than 200 sessions offered over five days):

Museum and Makers: Intersections of Public History and Technology Buffs from Steam Trains to Steampunk
Museums, Historic Sites, and the University: Public History Projects and Partnerships in the American Indian Great Lakes
The Witness Tree Project: Using Historic Landscapes to Explore History and Memory
Toward a Reinterpretation of the Indian Wars at National Historic Sites and Parks
Closing Up Shop: Strategies for Partners and Communities When Historic Sites Close Continue reading →

HBR: If People Are Your Most Valuable Asset, Do You Show It?

The January/February 2012 issue of the Harvard Business Review includes an article on building a team in which author Kevin Ryan, CEO of Gilt Groupe, argues that businesses succeed not because of ideas, but because of its people:

Execution is what matters, and execution relies on human talent. Every company thinks it’s doing a good job of managing its people. They all say, “People are our most important asset.” But most companies don’t act that way. Here’s a simple test: Ask the CEO if he or she spends more time on recruiting and managing people than on any other activity. For me, the answer has always been yes.

He admits this situation can only apply to organizations with more than 50 people because in smaller organizations the CEO has to tackle lots of other important issues to succeed. But Ryan does offer many other provocative approaches for finding and retaining great employees and you’ll want to read the article if you’re an executive director, manager, or boardmember. Here are some highlights:

Some managers prefer that executives check with them before talking with their people. That’s not going to happen here. Continue reading →

Associate Architect Elizabeth Milnarik departs National Trust

Former Associate Architect for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Elizabeth Milnarik has recently left her position to pursue other opportunities in historic building preservation and research. During her tenure at the Trust, Elizabeth gained tremendous experience in the technical aspects of preserving the Trust’s extremely diverse historic structures, varying from a structural and visitor impact study of Charleston’s Drayton Hall (1738), to an invasive investigation into corrosion issues at Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House (1951) in Plano, Illinois. A licensed architect, Elizabeth earned her M. Arch from the University of Illinois and received a doctorate in architectural history from the University of Virginia. In addition to her duties as architect, Elizabeth has also lectured widely on the architectural history of the Trust sites, on American residential architecture, and particularly on the history of public housing in America. She can now be reached at emilnarik@yahoo.com.

Welcoming New Members: Examples from the Field

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As part of my year-end giving, I decided to join four different history organizations (one historic site, three historic preservation organizations). I support the mission of every organization I joined–there’s no attempt to embarrass them here–but I also wanted to see how a new member and unsolicited gift was received. In this tight economy, every organization seems to placing a great emphasis on growing membership and support, so it’s useful to learn what others are doing. Admittedly, this is just a limited experiment, but for each one I downloaded their membership forms from their websites, filled it out, and then sent it in with a check for the basic individual membership level all on the same day in mid December. So far, I received responses from three of the four organizations (and they arrived about a day apart) and here’s how they compared: Continue reading →

Forbes on the Charitable For-Profit Organization

A previous post on organizational hybrids (for profit non-profits) prompted much interest, so here’s the latest from attorney Evangeline Gomez at Forbes on this topic with more legal details:

In recent years, two new types of corporations have been created to address the goals of making money, attracting private investors and addressing societal concerns: the benefit corporation and L3C. A study shows more than $120 billion in potential investments for these socially-minded companies. The emergence of these corporations serve as alternatives to the traditional C or S Corporation structures. [and perhaps the 501c3]. . .

The benefit corporation is recognized in Maryland, California (which also has the flexible purpose corporation), Hawaii, Vermont, Virginia, New Jersey and (as of February 14, 2012) New York. In order to incorporate as a benefit corporation, the corporation must have Continue reading →

The Changing Nature of Careers in Museums and Historic Sites

One of the perennial topics at professional conferences and when I meet colleagues are the challenges of working at an historic site, historic house museum, or history museum. They often center around ever-decreasing resources, board members who aren’t raising money, and the constant attention to financial and personnel management. Nothing new about that, except you’ll notice some additional topics depending on the person’s age.

Generation X (those born 1965 to 1980) frequently mentions that career advancement is stagnant. They’ve been blocked by the previous generation, who were the first major generation of trained museum professionals and have held senior positions at museums and historic sites for twenty years or more. These Baby Boomers will be retiring en masse soon to open up many opportunities, but Gen X may be caught Continue reading →

Preservation Books Takes a Sabbatical

Preservation Books, the publisher and distributor of books, reports, and studies on the management, preservation, and interpretation of historic sites has closed and is sending its inventory to Amazon.com. Here’s the notice on their web site:

It’s a brave new world in publishing and Preservation Books will not be left behind. In order to bring exceptional preservation tools and information to our members, Preservation Books is going on sabbatical and will spend the next six months researching new technologies, testing potential platforms, and re-evaluating how and what we publish.

But what does that mean? We are no longer selling books on www.preservationbooks.org. However, our best sellers and most recent titles (see the full list below) are available through Amazon.com.

Books published by the National Main Street Center will now be sold by them. We’re not sure when this notice was posted so we don’t know when the six months will conclude. We understand there are more shoppers at Amazon.com so that’s a better place to distribute books but we’ll be sorry if the National Trust decides to end the publishing business–it is one of the nation’s leading publishers of books on historic preservation, putting out such popular titles as Housekeeping for Historic Homes and House Museums, The Economics of Historic Preservation, Feasibility Assessment Manual for Reusing Historic Buildings, and Takings Law in Plain English.

Will iBooks Textbooks Extend the Reach of Historic Sites?

iBook textbook on an iPad. Image courtesy of Apple, Inc.

Today at the historic Guggenheim Museum in New York, Apple announced an expansion of their iBooks app to include textbooks for their iPads. Students will no longer have to lug around heavy books, content will be always be current, and it will cost less. As Apple describes it:

A Multi-Touch textbook on iPad is a gorgeous, full-screen experience full of interactive diagrams, photos, and videos. No longer limited to static pictures to illustrate the text, now students can dive into an image with interactive captions, rotate a 3D object, or have the answer spring to life in a chapter review. They can flip through a book by simply sliding a finger along the bottom of the screen. Highlighting text, taking notes, searching for content, and finding definitions in the glossary are just as easy. And with all their books on a single iPad, students will have no problem carrying them wherever they go.

They’ve already partnered with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Pearson, and McGraw Hill to produce textbooks on math and science. With the big publishers in play, what’s in it for historic sites and history organizations? A lot. Continue reading →

Engaging Places

Strategies and ideas to connect people with historic places