Volunteering for Training

[kevin_standlee]

I have applied for this volunteer position with the city of Fernley's Depot Museum Collections Committee, which was posted just after I became eligible for it by registering to vote in Fernley. I don't know if I'll get an appointment, or what exactly it will mean in terms of my commitment to the Fernley Depot Museum, but it does sound interesting, and I really do hope I can do something to help get the Depot Museum open, given how much expense and difficulty was involved in getting it moved and restored at its current site, and what a waste it is that it was this close to actually opening before the Fernley Preservation Society apparently disbanded after it became clear that the negotiations with the city had fallen through.

Comments

[howeird]

Good luck! In my past are two "specialty museum" success stories. Omak and Okanogan, WA had plans for a history museum which almost fell through, until the local weekly paper donated the work to make the "interpretive" signs - the text which describes each artifact - and some free publicity. I watched those signs get typeset. The museum opened less than a year after that. Astoria, OR had a rather shabby maritime museum, but with help from the local daily paper they eventually built a new building and got things squared with the city.

http://www.crmm.org/

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Lisa and I went to the Astoria Maritime Museum on one of our trips to Seaside. The current version is pretty nice.

[saare-snowqueen.livejournal.com]

Good Luck. I hope they get you. If anyone can make a success of that museum, it will be you.

[delosharriman]

I'm amused at the manner in which the bullet points become ever more general.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

I expect that is intentional and represents prioritization. The Museum doesn't have a lot of space and will have to make decisions about acquisition (and, more painfully, de-acquisition). The more specific priority an item meets, the more likely it is that the Museum will want it.

I've been reading articles about this subject in Trains; keeping your collection focused rather than just accumulating any old bit of rail-related stuff you happen to get is important. For instance, I wish the Oregon Electric Railway Museum in Brooks OR and the Orange Empire Railway Museum (I can't use initials because they're the same!) in Perris CA could work out a trade of equipment that ran closer to each others' territories, and I have never really understood why the Oregon people let themselves be lumbered with that Portugal car other than "it's free if we pay the shipping," even though the shipping was huge.