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 [log in to unmask] _____________________ The opinions expressed here are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of the folks who authorize my paychecks. _____________________