MAAA | Programs | Prof. Development | Texas | HELP

The Deaf Smith County Museum is a local history museum dedicated to preserving the pioneer heritage of the county. Exhibitions include a half-dugout, country store, chapel, school room, Indian artifacts, and early day farm implements. The museum was opened in 1967 and is supported by the county government.

Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4

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Year 1:
Apron Strings: Ties to the Past

Goals:
By focusing on exhibition development and design, the Deaf Smith County Museum was able to recognize several areas for improvement. They hoped to provide a variety of interactive features in conjunction with the HELP exhibition and to expand the exhibition presence outside the museum’s walls. Working alongside Dr. Paul Katz, they also aspired to increase museum attendance during the exhibition’s tour.

Accomplishments:
The Deaf Smith County Museum was highly successful in achieving their goals. They incorporated several try-on aprons into the exhibition, which was a new activity for this museum. Aprons from the museum’s collection were displayed on hangers in the middle of the gallery, allowing visitors to look more closely at items that were different than the try-ons. A game (with prizes) drew visitors throughout the museum and taught them more about aprons, and aprons were “salted” through other permanent exhibitions.

The museum also worked cooperatively with the county library, and the museum director herself took materials related to Apron Strings directly into the schools and to adult groups. A multitude of aprons and artifacts (such as a stove and washing machine) were loaned from community members for an ancillary exhibition, and other aprons were donated to the permanent collection as a result of the HELP exhibition.

Improvements:

• Incorporation of interactive elements to exhibition installation

• Collaboration with the county library

• Active involvement of the museum director in off-site educational programming

• Recruitment and training of new volunteers

• Establishment of an “educational collection” of objects to be used in traveling trunks

• Use of games to encourage more visitor participation at exhibitions

• Outstanding local publicity for exhibition, resulting in marked increase in visitorship

Year 2 Goals: Rags to Riches: Handcrafted Rugs
Year Two goals for the Deaf Smith County Museum focus on marketing and public relations. These goals include: expanding the number of people who know about the museum’s activities; marketing directly to schools and more intensively to local and regional residents; developing a Web site; and building on the previous year’s lessons in expanding visitor interest in Rags to Riches.



Year 2:
Rags to Riches: Handcrafted Rugs

Goals:
The Deaf Smith County Museum’s marketing and PR goals in year two of HELP focused on marketing more intensively to local residents, marketing directly to schools, and increasing youth interest in museum activities. They planned to reach these goals by advertising in area newspapers, developing an invitation to be mailed out in promotion of their monthly luncheons, creating advertising posters for the exhibition to be displayed in local businesses, and visiting local schools to talk about the exhibit and promote museum tours. They also wanted to develop a Web site for the museum to more thoroughly publicize their events.

Accomplishments:
The museum was very successful in its marketing efforts. They worked to advertise in area newspapers they had not previously approached. They stretched their marketing plan to the Amarillo area, where 300 exhibition brochures were distributed. They also worked on tracking visitors to evaluate the effectiveness of these new efforts. The museum distributed brochures to local schools with information about the rugs exhibition several months before the opening to provide enough time for teachers to work it into the curriculum. Director Paula Edwards was most proud of being able to attract so many school groups to the exhibition so close to the end of the school year. They also were able to supplement the exhibition with pieces from their own collection, and they invited a local weaver to give a demonstration at the exhibition opening.

Improvements:

• Created a new Web site for the museum with frequent updates to the e-mail list

• Developed hands-on element to the exhibit by purchasing weaving kits for visitors to try out

• Purchased DVD/CD/VCR to be placed in gallery with exhibition

• Learned how to hang exhibitions on center

Year 3 Goals:
In year three of HELP, the Deaf Smith County Museum will focus on fundraising as their next area of training. They have already set a number of goals aimed towards raising awareness within the community and museum board of the museum’s fundraising needs. They intend to create a gift form to be distributed to potential donors to the museum. They also would like to see their board more involved with fundraising and the future of the museum in general. They intend to hire a consultant to educate and raise enthusiasm among board members. They also plan to incorporate a fundraising element into their annual spring luncheons.

Goals:

The Deaf Smith County Museum worked with consultant Scott Cooksey this year on their third area of training, fundraising. Scott encouraged director Paula Edwards to use her captive audience at the museum’s annual “Ladies Luncheon” as a target group for fundraising, and worked with Paula and her board on the goals process. They also made the ambitious goal of beginning the process of a feasibility study on putting an elevator in the building.

Accomplishments:

In the past, the museum hadn’t given much attention to fundraising and Paula made great strides in year three. The Ladies Luncheon was an enormous success. They simply put a membership information card at each place setting and were able to raise over $1000 in donations and 15 gained new memberships. Paula utilized consultant Scott Cooksey to train her trustees on their development responsibilities and opportunities. In turn, she incorporated her newfound knowledge to create memorial and honorary gifts to the museum. Their exhibition was equally successful. The museum conducted oral histories in conjunction with the exhibition, interviewing local WWII veterans. The rest of the community thoroughly enjoyed it and were eager to share their own stories.

Improvements:

• Created memorial and honorary gift to the museum

• Organized board training seminar with Scott Cooksey

• Created memorial and honorary gift program

• Began hosting VIP receptions

Goals for Year 4: This Contest is for Real Hands: Rodeo Photographs of the 1930s

In the final year of Texas HELP, the Deaf Smith County Museum will turn their attention to the last area of training, volunteerism. Preliminary goals have been set with new consultant Norma Seals. Their goals are centered on recruiting and retaining new volunteers. They intend to write up a volunteer job description, improve volunteer record keeping methods and introduce a volunteer appreciation day each fall. With the dedication of the staff and board of the museum, they will no doubt be successful.

Goals:

The Deaf Smith County Museum focused their attention on volunteer management in the final year of Texas HELP. As most of the museum’s active volunteers also serve as the museum’s board of directors, the training focus provided many benefits to the museum. While working with her HELP consultant Norma Seals, director Paula Edwards set several important goals for the museum. She wanted to identify new volunteer positions and find new people to fill them. Additionally she set out to write new volunteer job descriptions, improve volunteer recordkeeping, and develop an annual fall volunteer recognition event.

Accomplishments:

Paula came up with a fantastic idea to recognize the efforts of her museum volunteers. She used her $500 HELP grant to place a full-page ad in the local newspaper listing the names of her volunteers for the past year and requesting new volunteers for the coming year. She also identified a number of new projects for her volunteers to work on and created an organized system for keeping track of volunteers’ hours. In utilizing these these volunteer management tools, Paula was able to identify two new volunteer opportunities within the museum and is working on recruiting volunteers.

They hosted their final HELP exhibition, This Contest is for Real Hands: Rodeo Photographs of the 1930s, and added a local component by displaying the prize saddles, awards, and belt buckles of local rodeo champions. They expanded the exhibition to include items from the museum’s collection and created a "chuck wagon" scene.

Improvements:

• Organized and improved volunteer recordkeeping

• Attracted a new volunteer to the gardening committee

• Created volunteer job descriptions

• Recruited and oriented three new board members

• Began working on the museum’s 40th anniversary exhibitions