At our recent Annual Meeting, I joked that I didn’t see the bus coming, when I found myself elected President of the Fenton Historical Society. In truth, I DID see the bus coming and stepped in front of it willingly.
In our six decade history, many of our presidents were well-respected, even revered, members of the community. Any concerns I had about accepting the position were about proving myself worthy of the position. I’m not worried about whether I can navigate; our current board includes two past presidents to help guide me.
My immediate goal is to do no harm. Beyond that, I’d like to find ways to increase our membership, to add to our income, and to reach the community through services and event offerings. In other words, to build on the work of my predecessors.
I’m blessed with a steady Board. We don’t always agree on items, but we are respectful to one another. When I started on the Board three years ago, we were faced with serious challenges in finding a suitable Executive Director and a quality curator. We found both, and enjoyed a brief period with our curator. She had family obligations that pulled her away to another state. Our Executive Director, Jane Babinsky, did such a great job of pulling us forward that another non-profit “stole” her from us. We were lucky, though: our former Executive Director happened to be available and was interested in returning. We welcomed Joni Blackman with open arms, and know she will keep us moving forward.
The Fenton has a very small staff of dedicated employees, supplemented by quite a number of volunteers. Our office manager, Andrew Kolstee, is responsible for any number of tasks, including this newsletter. Andrew also operates the Gift Shop and manages our accounting, when he’s not seeing to technology jobs. Barb Cessna and Matthew Tsitso work mainly at the Hall House Research Center.
We can always use volunteers, regardless of “qualifications”. Our volunteers answer phones, perform genealogical research, clip newspapers, catalog (people, places, and things), pack items for storage, etc. You don’t have to have specific talents, but you need a willingness to work. Some projects are quite interesting, and some are rather tedious, but all are necessary. For example, one of the more tedious projects is to paste obituary clippings to sheets of paper. The pages are then scanned, then printed, then put into work notebooks. The delicate originals are then put away, and the scanned copies are available to researchers. Without someone pasting the clippings to pages, we would simply have a pile of newspaper clippings, useful to no one.
Of course, if you DO have special talents, like the ability to do research, or to write articles, or accurately do filing, or enter data into computers, that’s “mo’ betta”.
Our membership is (slowly) growing, which helps our income. As we offer more programs, membership should continue to increase. We have some business sponsors who provide important funds to keep us in operation. Individuals donate to The Fenton, too. All donations are gratefully accepted. We also write grants to help fund special projects, as well as operating expenses.
It’s important for me to recognize the work of our immediate past president, Janet Wahlberg, who served during a difficult three years. Beyond the scope of her Board position, Janet has worked as a tireless volunteer. She will now be the Vice President, and I know I will rely on her expertise.
We’re moving forward into what I believe will be an area of continued growth of the Fenton Historical Society, and it’s exciting!
