MAAA | Programs | Prof. Development | Texas | HELP

The Childress County Heritage Museum chronicles the history of the city of Childress and the immediate region, referred to as the “Gateway to the Panhandle.” Housed in the town’s historic post office, the museum displays late 19th-century furniture, maps, photographs, and many story-filled local artifacts, as well as an exhibition honoring area servicemen and women.

Year 1 | Year 2| Year 3 | Year 4



Click image for slideshow

Year 1:
This Contest is for Real Hands: Rodeo Photographs of the 1930s

Goals:
With technical assistance in the area of exhibition development, the Childress County Heritage Museum aimed to accomplish several goals. They wanted to introduce a three-dimensional aspect to the exhibition and expand it with the addition of local artifacts. A multimedia aspect was also important, as was moving the exhibition “out” of the museum by involving the library and allowing community organizations to borrow educational materials that accompanied the exhibition. Staff also hoped to encourage visitors to This Contest is for Real Hands to view the rest of the museum.

Accomplishments:
The Childress County Heritage Museum was not successful in several of its exhibition goals; however, the museum excelled in making some difficult administrative changes—instigated in large measure through their participation with HELP. In an effort to restore the museum’s dynamic place among the community, the museum’s board of directors established newfound ownership over the museum’s administrative practices. Using the advice of outside consultants, the board decided on a new direction for the institution, making some key staff changes along the way.

While Childress’ HELP experience was unusual and unexpected, it resulted in positive advancement for the organization and a fresh beginning for the museum’s participation in year 2.

The Childress County Heritage Museum succeeded in its goal to create three-dimensional components to the exhibition by displaying a mannequin, a prize saddle, and a child’s saddle that a young visitor could sit on, providing an interactive element to the exhibition. From the museum’s collection, a contemporary poster, four rodeo posters from the 1920s and 1930s, and four cowboy caricatures added to the local aspect of the exhibition.

Improvements:

• Hosted traveling exhibition from out-of-state source for first time.

• Engaged board of directors in the promise and importance of changing exhibitions.

• Recruited and hired a new museum director.

Goals for Year 2: Apron Strings: Ties to the Past
Using marketing as their technical assistance target, the Childress County Heritage Museum has set forth the following goals for Year Two of HELP: increase local and regional awareness of the museum; effectively market to existing supporters and visitors; revive local interest in the museum; and develop a consistent means of gathering and utilizing feedback from museum visitors.



Year 2:
Apron Strings: Ties to the Past

Goals: The Childress County Heritage Museum underwent a change of directors in year two. New director Shawna Murphy joined the staff in October 2003. The museum had already written its goals for their new area of training in PR and marketing. They planned to increase awareness of the museum and its activities, develop a Web site, and produce a four-color brochure. They wanted to increase the effectiveness of their marketing efforts and target existing supporters and visitors of the museum. A third goal was to revive local interest in the museum, which would be reached by developing two new exhibits, writing bimonthly new stories, and instituting a membership drive. Finally, the museum also wanted to involve children and their parents in museum activities. They planned to create interactive children’s exhibits and restore the post office window in the museum into a play area for children.

Accomplishments: The museum purchased a copy of the museum database Past Perfect and busied themselves entering over 900 items from their collection. They also combined their four mailing lists into one master list and sent out invitations to the Apron Strings: Ties to the Past exhibit/holiday open house. They solicited memberships from businesses for the first time with great success, identifying a strong new target market.

Improvements

• Added comment and e-mail section to guest register in order to better track visitors

• Began sending monthly updates on museum activities to the local paper

• Organized a spring membership drive

Goals for Year 3:

Year 3:
Grand Ole Opry

Goals :

After suffering a major financial crisis in the winter of 2004/2005, the Childress County Heritage Museum’s goals became simplified. They were focused solely on raising emergency operating funds in order to keep the museum’s doors open. With staggering electric and gas bills totaling $2000 a month, the museum was forced to take a very hard look at its overall operations. The board, with the support of the community is working on instituting changes that will ensure the long-term viability of the museum.

Accomplishments:

The museum was able to take a dire situation and learn something positive from it. The Grand Ole Opry exhibition was well received by the community and the museum developed a new Army Air Base exhibition with the help of former HELP consultant, Dr. Paul Katz. Through the new exhibit, the museum received several new artifact donations and loans. They continued with the popular kindergarten class program and the kindergartners participated in a quilt making exhibition, working on the quilting themselves.

Improvements:

• Began “Our Museum Matters” column in local paper

• Doubled volunteer base

• Applied for grants to replace the outdated heat pumps and windows

• Hosted a V.I.P. luncheon catered by board members with music by local children

• Received a number of donations from local residents

• Applied for a grant from the Amarillo Area Foundation to replace old windows and the antiquated heating/cooling units.

Goals for Year 4: Keep ‘em Flying: Everyday Life in a WWII Fighter Squadron

The Childress County Heritage Museum will finish out the HELP program by working with consultant Norma Seals on volunteerism. Considering that the museum currently has only one part-time paid staff, they will be relying more heavily on volunteer hours than before. Their goals for this year include conducting an inventory of their volunteer needs, and writing a volunteer description taking those needs into account. They also plan to work on a volunteer training and orientation program and begin hosting annual volunteer recognition banquets.

Goals:

In year four of Texas HELP, the Childress County Heritage Museum worked with consultant Norma Seals on their final area of training, volunteerism. This was a timely issue for the museum who over the course of the HELP program has experienced unusually high staff and board turnover.

Their goals in volunteerism included developing volunteer job descriptions to make better use of volunteer time and talents and identifying ways to acknowledge and reward the work of long-time museum volunteers. Plans to accomplish these goals include taking an inventory of the museum's various needs in order to construct job descriptions, creating a volunteer orientation and training program to formalize volunteer opportunities, and to implement a volunteer recognition program.

Accomplishments

The Childress Museum made good progress on their goals in volunteerism. They inventoried the museum’s needs and developed job descriptions for seven separate volunteer positions. They formally developed a volunteer recognition program and hosted a luncheon in their honor. As part of their program, gifts were given to volunteers (their choice of shirts or windbreakers with the museum’s logo embroidered on them) as tokens of appreciation.

The museum also made strides in improving exhibition design this year. The unveiling of their Army Airbase exhibition was timed to coincide with hosting their HELP exhibition Keep ‘Em Flying! Everyday Life in a WWII Fighter Squadron. Both exhibitions used WWII and military artifacts from their collection, as well as items borrowed from the community.

Improvements:

• Attracted two new volunteers

• Wrote seven volunteer job descriptions

• Initiated an annual volunteer appreciation luncheon

• Implemented volunteer “thank you” gifts