Hey Bill,
You do bring up some valid points. I believe this issue will be addressed in some manner at the Winter Get Together. But, I don&#039;t believe we are anywhere close to making a final decision. My reasoning for this is it takes an enormous amount of planning and organization in order to move forward and be acceptable to those who can help us financially. Those who would sponsor this project need info. Would you help an organization which told you they needed several million dollars to make a project work, but couldn&#039;t give you a breakdown on what the money would be spend for? Nobody else will either! We will need to acquire a person or persons with the necessary expertise to put together a package that can win the approval of those who are able to finance this project. In addition, this person needs to know who to approach, and who is a waste of time. Someone of this profession would out of necessity, be in continuous contact with those who wish to help on projects such as this. Basically, what we will need is a professional grantwriter, a consultant who can and does make these sort of projects viable.
Another good issue you bring forward is the ability to make the museum self supporting. This is a necessity. In the environment of our hobby, there would not be sufficient demand for this. Thus, it will be necessary to create a demand thru promotion. This is where we will need both an experienced staff, and an endowment fund. I know of a top notch administrator who has exhibited Indian pottery, in the desert, successfully, he even has a tractor show every year to great success, in New Mexico. It is not so much as what the museum exhibits, as how the museum is promoted. A successful administrator will know how to make that work. But, this is way down the road from what we are looking at now. We are now in the crawling stages, in time we will run, but, not today! This project will take lots of time, a museum is much more that just a building with some exhibits inside, it must be structured as a business, complete with all the necessary tools to succeed.
I have addressed these issues to President Terry Allen in the past. So, he is aware of the size of this undertaking, and is addressing it in a competent manner!
It is good to have members such as yourself, who THINK! Asking tough questions can be a good thing, it helps to eliminate future mistakes. One thing our Officers and Directors can always use is good input from the members, thus they can determine the will of the members.
See all Y&#039;all at the Winter Get Together in Wentzville, Mo March 28-29, 2003
Later, Andy