Museum on Main Street Update---February 24, 2004

Greetings all!

We wanted to take this opportunity to bring everyone up-to-date on some of
the plans and recent developments with Museum on Main Street.  We expect
this to be the first of many occasional updates on the project:

1.  We're pleased to announce the following 2005 and 2006 tours for the
Museum on Main Street exhibitions:

2005
Produce for Victory: Ohio
Barn Again!: Connecticut, Maine, Minnesota, Idaho
Yesterday's Tomorrows: Washington
Key Ingredients: Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota
Between Fences: Illinois, Mississippi, Washington, Nevada, New Mexico

2006
Produce for Victory: Hawaii, West Virginia
Key Ingredients: Montana, Louisiana, Idaho, Kentucky, Minnesota
Between Fences: Kansas, Missouri, Utah, Alabama, Tennessee

2.  Please mark your calendars for the following national planning meetings
for MoMS:

-Orientation Meeting (for Program Officers new to MoMS)          May 13/14,
Las Vegas
    States involved: WA, MI, WY, HA, NM, AZ
-Key Ingredients National Planning Meeting
    June 3/4, Annapolis/DC
    States involved: IL, KS, MO, NE, SD
-Between Fences National Planning Meeting
    August 5/6, Chicago
    States involved: IL, MS, WA, NV, NM

More details will be forthcoming, but please keep in mind that all meetings
are scheduled Thursday/Friday, with the agenda running all day on Thursday
and until noon on Friday.  So plan on traveling to the meeting on Wednesday,
and home from it on Friday afternoon or evening.  In addition, we have
budgeted to cover the costs for your state scholars to attend the national
planning meetings as well (Key Ingredients and Between Fences), so please
alert them to the dates/locations of the meetings.

3.  Site Selections.  You may have noticed in the booking letters that went
out for the 2006 tours, that we're asking state coordinators to discuss
their final site selections with their MoMS contacts before confirming them
with the local venues.   By discussing in advance special considerations
that might arise with local sites that are a-typical of a MoMS venue, we
hope to optimize your state tour--for the benefit of your Council as well as
for the benefit of MoMS.  Site selection has and will remain the decision of
the state councils, we just ask for the opportunity to talk through your
selections with you before you finalize your decisions and notify the
venues.  This will give you the opportunity to develop and articulate any
special considerations or conditions that you may want to place on venues
that are different from a traditional MoMS host (larger community, more
experienced organization, repeat community, etc).  We appreciate your
cooperation with this--let us know if you have any questions or concerns.

4.  Community Assistance Subsidy:  We've created  guidelines and suggestions
for ways to maximize the Community Assistance Subsidy (CAS) for your MoMS
exhibition (roughly $3,000 each state for the 2nd and 3rd year of your
tours, total $6,000 per state--pending adequate Congressional funding)  The
guidelines are available on the MoMS website at www.museumonmainstreet.org.
Go to the Administration section and select the State Coordinators Notebook
for your exhibition tour.  CAS Guidelines/Suggestions are listed under the
Budget section.  If you have any further questions about use of the
Community Assistance Subsidy, please feel free to contact us.

5.  We're pleased to announce that Teresa Goforth has joined the MoMS team
as an exhibition trainer for Barn Again!.  Teresa served as the director of
Courthouse Square Museum in Charlotte, MI, when it hosted Barn Again in 1999
and she is currently the director of the Michigan Museums Association.
She'll be working with myself and the state coordinators in Connecticut,
Maine and Minnesota on their upcoming Barn Again tours and will be attending
their state program planning meetings.

The addition of Teresa to the MoMS team enables me to focus more attention
on issues related to the national planning for MoMS, and I'll still be
working with Ohio, Illinois and South Dakota on their tours. And, of course,
we still have Brian's invaluable assistance in helping coordinate the
following state tours: WA, KS, MO, NE, MS, WA, NV, NM.

Finally, as you all have learned, Brian Crockett, who co-founded MoMS along
with Carol Harsh ten years ago, has announced that he is stepping aside from
his national planning responsibilities with MoMS to devote more time to
other projects.  But we'll still benefit from Brian's wit, charm,
intelligence and experience on the state tours listed above. It's not easy,
but I trust you'll join us as we accept and respect his decision to focus
his energies and talents elsewhere and work to build on the strong
foundation that he helped establish for MoMS.

That's about it for now.  In the coming weeks we'll be sending updates on
additional items under development including enhanced resources for
marketing/public relations and developing local exhibitions,  the 10th
anniversary celebration for MoMS at the Federation meeting this fall (hmmmm,
cake!) and, of course, progress updates on the new Between Fences
exhibition.

Best wishes to all. Hang in there, spring is almost here!

On behalf of your MoMS team-

LuAnn Kern
[log in to unmask]
www.museumonmainstreet.org



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