Meeting11.7.08

Farmington MCHP November 7, 2008

Attending: Taffy, Theresa, Cindy, Wendy, Tyler, Melanie, Kristie, Stephanie

Next meeting date set for January 9 at 3:30 p.m. at the Library. • 3:30-4:30 regular meeting • 4:30-5:30 ExhibitBuilder training (new exhibit presentation tool on MMN)

Communication. To streamline the discussion and make sure that everyone sees the information they need, most of the team communication should now go through the Wiki. This will allow all of us to read through discussions and comment. • Urgent or private discussions can, of course, still go through email. • Theresa said that we can have a “digest” of the day’s post sent to us via email. • Let Stephanie know how the wiki works for you. Is this a good, convenient tool?

Organization & team needs. Taffy share her outline for the agriculture theme. It was a very organized look at the work and included due dates. It was suggested that this was a useful model for organizing the work for the group and that each theme coordinator create a similar work plan. These should allow us all to see what the work priorities are, the status of work and the target dates for completion.

From these outlines, tasks and topics can easily be identified when new volunteers come on board. The ‘parking lists’ are topics to be explored as the group has time (or help) but are ones that the group is saving for future work.

Along with creating the outlines/work plans, everyone was asked to think about where they want to be in January and to begin to put target due dates on their tasks. This will be revisited at the January meeting but can also be reported on in the Wiki.

Updates. Theresa: The UMF kids were very enthusiastic after their visit to the Historical Society with Nancy. There is interest in Jacob Abbot and in the history of UMF/Normal School/etc.

Cindy: The 2nd graders are working on the inventors for Chester Greenwood day and are creating a calendar of local inventors as a fundraiser. There is a timeline going up on their classroom wall. They are also looking at early settlement of Farmington and will create a claymation film. There is interest in this going up on the MCHP-Farmington site. The kids discussed several questions they had about Farmington’s history as a starting point in their work.

Wendy: The middle school classes are learning about primary sources and learning to work with original materials. They are beginning work on an historical fiction activity and will create “primary” sources related to what they read. They each listed three questions they had about Farmington’s history as the starting point to their MCHP work.

Melanie: Mentioned a visual bookshelf for the site. It would allow users to see the sources that address Farmington history and where they can be obtained. Melanie took photos of the fairgrounds museum. They had a lot of collections (especially tools) and these are likely to be useful to the agriculture exhibits. (FYI: we’ll want to work with the fairgrounds museum people to become a CP to MMN so their collections can go online). She got two copies of a history of the fair and a video tour of the museum. Put out a request for who could write the text for the mapping points. These will be necessary to display info in the maps and need to be done for each of the identified topics. Cemeteries could be included as well, but this is a “parking list” task and open for volunteers.

Tyler: working on the maps including the UMF history/expansion over time, schools and mills. He is currently compiling all of the GPS points and historic data. Mapping will begin after this database work is done. Working with Stephanie to see just how the mapping will work in the MMN site. NEED: information associated with each point needs to be assembled. The group should decide: • Which sites to include • Info needed to explain each site. • Taffy will get National Historic Register information to Tyler.

Taffy: Working on mills research which has grown larger than she anticipated. She has a long list of sites with dates and has been placing them on Google maps so that she knows the locations.

Press. Group decided on a monthly press release that highlights either an activity or an item from the collections. Melanie will coordinate. Stephanie will deliver the pertinent MHS/MCHP info.

Funding. Stephanie needs all receipts for spending so far.

It was suggested that Nancy make a list of archival supplies needed at the HS and that an order be placed asap. She will be reimbursed for the $70 or so dollars spent so far.

Group designated $250 to be spent on photography supplies: a tripod with a level and a photo box with lights. Melanie will work to determine if the current camera is sufficient.