History Center is Making Progress Towards Self-sufficiency

Last week Monday, the History Center met with the Quasi-Governmental Agency Committee (which I am a member of).  Our County Administrator, Josh Schoemann, summarized the meeting this way:

The Washington County Historical Society (WCHS) also presented to the committee regarding the initial findings of a feasibility study they did for their organization and the future of the Old Courthouse Museum.  They indicated to the committee that this study proved to them that it is feasible to investigate a strategic reframing of the organization, directed toward a new relationship with the County.   WCHS also laid out a rough timeline for the next step in the process, developing their Strategic Plan which will help to create a proposal for working toward financial independence for the ad hoc committee’s consideration.

While I have in the past been critical of the History Center, which formerly called itself the Washington County Historical Society, I am seeing positive movement from them.  

I am in a unique position to speak on this issue.  When I first went to college, I was giving strong consideration towards becoming a high school history teacher.  While I ultimately decided to pursue other career options, my affinity for history never subsided.  I took 21 credits of History classes, all as electives, while in college.  After graduating college, I continued to explore history through various activities including museum visits.  Once of my favorite museums is a recently-renovated private museum in Wheaton, Illinois, called Cantigny (website is https://cantigny.org/), and specifically their First Division Museum (website is https://www.fdmuseum.org/).

Our History Center and Funding

Our History Center receives a lot of County Funding, while our neighboring counties do not fund our History Center nearly as much.  We give (through a grant) more than $134,000 to our History Center.  In contrast, neighboring counties give their Historical Societies funding in the range of $10,000 to $25,000,  In those neighboring counties, their historical societies do all of the same history preservation and education that our History Center does.  We also give the History Center use of the County's Old Courthouse building for free (technically, we rent it to them for $1/year but we never bother to collect the rent since the point of renting something for $1 per year is to essentially be free).

The funding arrangement seems destined to change.  Prior to my being elected, the County Board (while chaired be Herbert Tennies) decided to implement priority-based budgeting.  That process led to the identification of several programs that were over-funded, including the History Center.  During the 2016-2018 County Board session, we decided to remain consistent with the policies relating to priority-based budgeting (policies put in place while Herbert tennis chaired the County Board).  Consequently, we will be working to transition he History Center to a model that is much more self-sustaining and much less dependent on funding from the County tax levy.

Culturally, our history center has in the past been resistant to change, overly dependent on County funding, and overly adversarial towards the County Board.  Fortunately, that seems to be changing, which is excellent.

I look forward to continuing to watch this change, as the History Center works to become more vibrant, more self-sufficient, and more partner-focused in its relationship with the County Board.