Mr. Haberstich:

First of all, I think we should both start by apologizing to everyone on
Museum-L for this thread that has become tiresome and at times silly.  For
those of you who have this same sentiment, by all means go to the next post.

Mr. Haberstich, there are a couple of points I would like to make about your
post.  First of all, I'm not foolish enough to believe that the Reno County
Museum has answers to the question of establishing relevance that the
National Museum of American History does not.  If I inferred or implied that
we did, I apologize.  I have spent several days in NMAH and enjoyed visiting
the facility.  I will go back anytime that I am in D.C.

The Reno County Museum is a county museum, much like many other county
facilities in the country. We have a full time of staff of 2 (we will be
adding another soon), and a part time staff of 5.  We have a temporary and
permanent exhibit gallery, and a children's interactive area that we recently
completed.  As yet, we are not on the Web, but plans are in the works.  We
are not the prime attraction in Hutchinson, Kansas--the Kansas Cosmosphere &
Space Center is the #1 tourist attraction in the state of Kansas.  And we do
not outdraw the Kansas State Fair either.

Like many other county museums, we have slowly--and at times
painfully--evolved from our charter as the Reno County Historical Society in
1961.  The first professionally trained staff did not come on board until
1986.  I am relatively new to the facility, having accepted the position just
7 months ago.  If I am guilty of boosterism, I'll accept that.  Arrogance??
 Sometimes, perhaps, because I am proud of what we are doing with our
staffing and budget constraints.

And, I probably did wake up on the wrong side of the bed on June 1.  However,
I thought the purpose of the list was to share information, philosophy,
successes, faiures, etc.  I think we have a right to argue points.  My point,
on reflection, did cross the line between personal an professional. But, I
also thought your comment about relevance and the young audience was
wrong-headed.  Maybe I am young but instead of whining about competing with
the Terminator I wondered why you seemed so accepting of the situation.  I
would think that your next thought should have been (and it might have been
--maybe you didn't share this with us??) "what can I do about this?"  I know
that we "museum people" aren't going to win this competition--if in fact it
is a competition--every day, I just want to make certain that we establish
museums as the integral part of the community that they can and should be.
 Here again, we compare apples and oranges. The situation is vastly different
between Hutchinson and Washington.

I never meant to imply that I possesed "the secret" to community involvement.
 I'm curious that you feel I made some "implicit boast" that we could do
things at the Reno County Museum that you could not at NMAH.  Where did this
idea come from?  I also did not mean to imply that we had solved our own
difficulties in this area.  But, we are trying.  We have a long way to go and
I sincerely believe that we are doing a "pretty good job"--not great--but we
do have a vision of our future.  We are involving our community with the
museum in number of ways.  We are installing an off-site exhibit on the
history of baseball in Reno County at the local mall.  Most of our artifacts
come from local donors--most of which have never been to our museum.  We have
several events planned with the exhibit including a Townball match between
two teams that are sponsored by local businesses.  We are bringing in Dottie
Key--a former player for the Rockford Peaches of the Women's Professional
Baseball League--to speak at the exhibit (as well as at Fun Valley--another
of Hutchinson's regional attractions that attracts several major tournaments
each year.)  In all, hundreds of people previously unassociated with the
museum are involved in one way or another with the exhibit.  Hundreds in
Washington is small potatoes--for us, it is terrific.  We have added other
programs like Family Night that have dramatically increased our on-site
visitation. Much like you, we struggle with the question of how to sustain
their interest and keep them coming back.  We are taking a labor intensive
approach by offering a variety of activities--music, living history,
lectures, exhibits, a classic car show, workshops, etc.  We are doing more
off-site and collaborative programming than ever before at our facility.  To
some degree, it is working.

That is some background on the Reno County Museum.  I would like to say a few
things more about your post.

As far as stating that I reached a new low with my "you ought to know this by
now" comment--maybe so.  Guilty as charged.  I am fairly certain that many
out there in Museum-l land are relatively tired of your condescending
attitude (i.e.--the post in regard to the fellow who wanted to know what R.A.
meant.  You wrote:  "But did you know that most dictionaries have lists of
abbreviations? "R.A." is in mine. Keep one on your desk; you'll find it even
faster than e-mail.")  Does the phrase "If you live in a glass house, don't
throw stones" apply here?

You still are welcome to visit Hutchinson and pass out as many "signed
statements" testifying to my failure to establish relevance as you like.
 However:  Reality Check.   Why would you even facetiously make such a
promise/threat, whatever it was?

I invite you to reply--however, let's get this off museum-l.  We seem to be
losing many of our colleagues of late--probably because of this sort of crap.


Jay Smith
Executive Director
Reno County Museum
Hutchinson, Kansas
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The opinions expressed here are my own and do not necessarily reflect those
of the folks who authorize my paychecks.
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