Once you sign in, hover over your name you'll see a new menu choice below it: "Account activity." Clicking on that link takes you to a page that lists the organizations and events you have added or whose pages you have edited. Clicking any of those links takes you to the current page of each. In addition, you can change your password from this page.
The screenshot below shows what this page looks like for one user. To navigate to your Account Activity page, sign in and hover over your name.
This page and functionality was added in response to a request from a user responsible for multiple organizations. We will add features and functions to this page in the coming months. If there is something you would like to see added, send us your suggestion.
Considering a new fundraising event event for your historical society, museum, historic site, or preservation organization? These the five critical questions to answer first:
1. Is the event consistent with our mission? Better still: Does it help us increase awareness of our organization and our mission in our community and beyond? The event whose poster is shown here is a perfect example of just such an event.
2. Can we make money this year? Better still: Does it give us the highest ROI on our time and money invested?
3. Can we make money in future years? Better still: Can we create a signature event, one that we can do year after year and that draws more and more people from our community and beyond--an event where we "own" this same day/weekend/week every year? If so, your ROI next year is likely to grow as the publicity and word-of-mouth from this year bring more attendees, volunteers, and sponsors from your community and beyond. (In the case of the Shaker Village House Tour, the listing explains that it's a "once in a lifetime" opportunity, so while they won't be doing this again next year, they'll surely have more people for this one-time-only event.)
The well-worn adage, "Nothing succeeds like success," is certainly true when it comes to events. Take a chance, work hard--perhaps even struggle along the way--and once your event is live and people are lining up at the door, you'll start hearing, "Are you planning to do this next year? Are you looking for volunteers? How do I become a sponsor?" These people understand now what you've been trying to get them to imagine. They see it working and know that they'll be supporting a good cause. They can join their friends in volunteering and attending. Sponsors want to reach the people you're attracting and show that they support an important institution in their community. And inside of that new sponsor organization there are decision makers who now know that sponsoring isn't a risk. They're not sticking their neck out and taking a chance that the event will fail and their decision to sponsor called in to question.
4. Can we afford it financially? Do we have the physical resources? And if we don't, can we borrow, rent, or buy what we need at a price we can afford to get this off the ground? Closely related: Can we afford it if it doesn't go as well as we're planning? Do we have sufficient insurance to protect our board and institution if someone is hurt? And how do we minimize the chance that something like would ever happen?
5. Can we afford the time? Just as one allocates money, allocating the time of board, staff, and volunteers is an important consideration. And in the case of volunteers, if they say "yes" to helping out with your new event, will they be willing to volunteer for other efforts you have planned?
One way to mitigate the impact on volunteers is by taking advantage of technologies that lower the time required to plan, publicize, and produce the event. The History List is one of the free tools you can use to increase awareness of your event. Adding an event only takes a few minutes. It's cut-and-paste simple, and anyone--staff, interns, volunteers--can add or edit, so you don't need to worry about setting up and sharing one account. Give them this one page guide and they'll have everything they need to add your event to The History List.
A final note: The next time you attend, say, the "37th annual . . ." and wish that only your organization had such a big, successful event drawing people from throughout the region, remember that at least 38 years ago a few committed, hard-working folks debated the idea for a new event for that organization. Whether they walked in with the vision or were skeptical when they first heard it described, by the time the meeting wrapped up they were all committed to bringing to life this new thing that they'd never done and had no assurance would be a success.
Good luck as you and your colleagues create your next event.
You can now add video to the descriptions of your events, exhibits, sites, museums, and organizations. Here's how Old Sturbridge Village is using it to bring to life their annual Redcoats & Rebels weekend, the largest Revolutionary War reenactment in New England.
To embed video content from YouTube or Vimeo, or content from other media hosting sites, such as Scribd (document hosting) or Flickr (photo-sharing), click on the new "Source" button, as shown in this screenshot, and paste in the embed code provided by the site hosting the content. (In the case of Flickr, you can use one of the handy viewer widgets, such as the free PictoBrowser.)
An example of where to find the embed code is at the bottom of this post.
The partial screenshot below shows the code to embed a YouTube video. The other hosted media sites are similar. Look for a "Share" or "Embed" button.
The handout below is available from the National Park Service's tent in the Charlestown Navy Yard, but it's most useful if you have access to it in advance so you can plan your trip.
Description: In this award-winning online game and educational curriculum, “A Sailor’s Life for Me!” users explore the ship, scrub the decks, and fire cannons. Meeting real sailors who served on “Old Ironsides” in 1812 compels users to not just learn history, but experience and explore it. The educational curriculum links directly from the game and includes 120 printable lesson plans and activities for the classroom or home that utilize history, science, math, social studies, art and language arts to explore Constitution and life at sea in 1812.
Objective: Teach the War of 1812 through the lens of USS Constitution and make this history available to all.
Research and development: The staff of the museum spent more than ten years researching the 1812 crew of Constitution. Stephen Biesty did the illustrations. Eduweb did the interactive development.
Funding: The Office of Navy Commemorations and the Institute of Museum and Library Services
Results (with stats through March 15, 2012):
Since its launch in January 2011, the website has had 35,830 visits from 23,345 unique visitors who generated 99,578 page views.
The free iPad app, released in February 2012, has been downloaded 879 times from 59 countries.
