The Piquant Problem of Marketing Charettes

By Michael Bouman

The museum services program I manage is about as misunderstood as Dr. Pepper used to be! Two weeks ago I conducted one of the best charettes of my life at the Bates County Museum, and in the first couple minutes of discussion realized that the board president had done me the favor of expressing a reservation about the content of the day's work. He said he felt proud of the incredible amount of work the board had done and thought they had gone far beyond anyone's hopes or expectations. Therefore, he said, he might be something of a nay-sayer if what we intended to do was devote ourselves to a critique of the museum.

Thank God for candor when it comes in time to address concerns! I told him we believe in approaching museum improvements from a base of affirmation. We don't come into town with guns blazing. But how would I overcome that fear in marketing the program? I don't think it would help to say this: Apply for a Charette -- We Promise Not to Damage You.

I am gladly accepting applications for this special, tailored museum service. In 2009 the service will work more like a consulting relationship spread over several months. We're helping museums identify specific things to convert to fundable projects -- things that can make an immediate difference in effectiveness.

I loved the two days I spent with the people in Butler, Missouri. They have indeed, accomplished a great deal. More important, they have a store of talent and imagination that can accomplish even more, one step at a time. See the new video tour they just posted on the Border War Network site at YouTube!

Border War Network Does YouTube

In Warrensburg, the Johnson County Museum just produced a video tour "on the fly" in about an hour's time. They did it as a demo of how readily an amateur with everyday equipment can create something interesting. Wow!

The Missouri Kansas Border War Network is an association of history organizations in a zone where the legacy of damaged lives infuses life today. People's great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents were in the crosshairs of the national conflict that would erupt into the Civil War. The museums in the area are collaborating on a project to tell the stories of that era from many perspectives, and to become better museums in the process.

The Border War Network has a "gallery" on YouTube, and you can see the Johnson County video there. It's home-made. It can be improved with practice. But the main thing is that it gives you an idea of the look of the place and the kinds of local stories they have there.

Civil War Podcasting at the Border War Network

They've achieved liftoff! I mean the twenty history organizations who are learning the ways and means of digital recording, oral history interviews, and podcasting. I'm so impressed! First, look at the map that shows the location of each site in the network. When you hover your mouse over any site, you see its name. Click on the site and up pops a description of the place with contact information. Click on Stories and you go to an index of all the podcasts the network has produced in the last couple of months.

Here is one that I think is a great example of how quickly this network creates know-how. Click on the podcast about "Sarah Osborne, Civil War Soldier." The announcer on this podcast is Candace Walker, Education Director at the John Wornall House Museum in Kansas City. A week before she made this podcast with Melva Hargett, Candace didn't know what a podcast was and hadn't been to a meeting of the Border War Network. I told Candace about the podcasting project and she made a bee-line to Harrisonville for some training. Yikes! Look at how fast things turn around when a group of people form a win-win project for themselves!