Recently there have been two articles in the national press about the troubles that museums are having. In the other thread on Heritage Railways Wake Up Call, we all do a good job of point out the differences between Great Britain and here. And Erik mentions how other museums are having the same problem as our railroad museums and tourist railroad operations.

I have never been one just to wring my hands and say poor me. I would rather recognize the problems head on and figure out a solution. Twenty years ago, I faced a similar problem as I am facing now. I was hired to be the Project Manager of the Main Street Project in Laramie Wyoming. I had vacant buildings There were building owners and merchants who weren’t talking to each other. The retail dollars that the downtown brought in was declining, that lead to more businesses closing, which lead to more vacant storefronts, more trashed buildings, and more declining revenue.

So there I was. I can’t say that I was in charge of the downtown, because I wasn’t. And if you think that some of your museum members are difficult to get along with, go downtown. There is a reason why, these people were in business for themselves, they couldn’t get along with people, so they decided to go into business for themselves and work with the public.

And all around them the downtown was dying. It was dying in Laramie and in small towns around the country. The downtowns were dirty, uninviting and boring to the general public. (Does any of this sound familiar?) Yet there was a small band of people who loved them. They were going to save the downtowns. This was a tall order to say the least. One might even say it would be an impossible task.

Yet there is a program out there, that was developed to save the downtowns across the country. This was the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Main Street program. The program works. It has been used in just about every state (if not all of them) in a myriad of different downtowns across the country.

I am new to the museum field. I was minding my own business, but asking questions, and all of a sudden, I’m in charge of a museum that is on the verge of bankruptcy and it is the size of a small city. It has buildings falling down, old equipment, track issues, and a thousand other problems. What to do, I fell back on to my Main Street training.

The parallels of the problems facing museums and the problems facing small downtowns are striking. There is already a program out there that we can adapt to the museum field to solve the problems that we are facing.

This past summer I was interviewed by the National Main Street Center for their magazine. The article was published, here’s the link http://www.mainstreet.org/MediaLibrary/ ... Museum.pdf

The article goes into depth some of the challenges that I am facing and some of my solutions. I need to stress, I present this here not to blow my own horn. I do not walk on water or speak parables. The article illustrates some of the problems that we’re facing at the Nevada Northern and some of our solutions.

The Nevada Northern Railway Museum is not out of the woods yet. I told staff last week that as I see it, we are in a race. The bear is still at the door. We still haven’t got our financial woes under control. We are getting close, but we are not there yet.

I offer this to continue the conversation on our future.

Mark, you have the benefit of directing a "national treasure" as touted by a Smithsonian expert. Much momentum and interest can be generated in that setting. Many of us have old, not necessarily historically significant assets. Just because something is old and singular, it is not necessarily enticing as a project to throw onseself into. I noted with interest the photo of the local Lion's Club on a NNRM project. Likely, it was the result of a phone call from you. In our part of town, the likely response would be to send over two members to sell popcorn at A Day Out With Thomas and split the profit with us. The point being that the responses we get are not overwhelming to say the least.
What are the four points of Main Street revitalization?

The biggest single shortcoming of many railroad museums today is that they do not make their displays relevant to visitors. They do not answer the visitor's question, "Why should these big ugly things be important to me?"

Years ago nostalgia was a major drawing card. Visitors could remember riding on trains or streetcars just like those on display. They could remember watching steam locomotives in action. The exhibits triggered a flood of memories. Today those people make up a very small and shrinking minority of rail museum visitors.

For example, differences in steam locomotive wheel arrangement or methods of power collection in transit cars may be interesting to the enthusiast, but they do not answer the general visitor question,"Why should this be important to me."

Many docents get bogged down in technical details that are of no interest to the general public. They wind up boring most of their listeners. This is the curse of having to use volunteers who are rail enthusiasts. Many museums are doing a very poor job of quality control over what their docents are telling visitors.

What many museums need is to have their displays evaluated by people who are not railfans of any type. Perhaps some local civic or school groups could help. These are the people who can tell you what needs to be done to make the displays relevant and interessting to the public.

fk

That's a good point that sadly I think is lost on many in the RR museum world. I've been talking to folks about moving in to the "post-nostalgia" age with the Western Pacific Railroad Museum at Portola. We need to find a way to make this collection matter to the public who has no idea what the WP was.

We all need to learn to do things differently if we're to survive.

Just some notes of things that I find missing in some museums:

1. Links to the equipment builders, identifying them, their location, size and work force, and perhaps also mentioning their competitors, and their locations. It would seem to me that this information should be made readily available, but sometimes it is missing completely. We know who operated it, that's obvious, but who designed and built it?

2. Some explanation of the overall transportation scenario in the time period of the equipment, possibly even including the competition.

3. An overview of the railroad network in the region as it existed throughout the time period covered by the collection. One possible way to relate this to the competitive situation is to show the railroad network vs. the interstate highway network in the area at several time intervals.

All of these things help to provide some perspective as to the significance of the collection.

The four points of the Main Street approach which work together to build a sustainable and complete community revitalization effort:

Organization involves getting everyone working toward the same goal and assembling the appropriate human and financial resources to implement a Main Street revitalization program. A governing board and standing committees make up the fundamental organizational structure of the volunteer-driven program. Volunteers are coordinated and supported by a paid program director as well. This structure not only divides the workload and clearly delineates responsibilities, but also builds consensus and cooperation among the various stakeholders.

Promotion sells a positive image of the commercial district and encourages consumers and investors to live, work, shop, play and invest in the Main Street district. By marketing a district's unique characteristics to residents, investors, business owners, and visitors, an effective promotional strategy forges a positive image through advertising, retail promotional activity, special events, and marketing campaigns carried out by local volunteers. These activities improve consumer and investor confidence in the district and encourage commercial activity and investment in the area.

Design means getting Main Street into top physical shape. Capitalizing on its best assets — such as historic buildings and pedestrian-oriented streets — is just part of the story. An inviting atmosphere, created through attractive window displays, parking areas, building improvements, street furniture, signs, sidewalks, street lights, and landscaping, conveys a positive visual message about the commercial district and what it has to offer. Design activities also include instilling good maintenance practices in the commercial district, enhancing the physical appearance of the commercial district by rehabilitating historic buildings, encouraging appropriate new construction, developing sensitive design management systems, and long-term planning.

Economic Restructuring strengthens a community's existing economic assets while expanding and diversifying its economic base. The Main Street program helps sharpen the competitiveness of existing business owners and recruits compatible new businesses and new economic uses to build a commercial district that responds to today's consumers' needs. Converting unused or underused commercial space into economically productive property also helps boost the profitability of the district.

Coincidentally, the four points of the Main Street approach correspond with the four forces of real estate value, which are social, political, physical, and economic.

It is being touted by the Smithsonian expect because I called and started a conversation. Yes, I have a National Treasure that needs an infusion of about $20,000,000 which I don't have. At times my list of challenges seems endless.

My point is that we all have strengths and we all have weakness. We need to concentrate on the strengths and address the weakness. A good example is the reason this is a National Treasure is because of its remoteness. (Strength) If I was to draw a circle with a 180 mile radius, I would encompass about 10,000 people in 101,787 square miles. It’s kind of hard to shake down just 10,000 people for $20,000,000. (Weakness)

I believe it boils down to point of view



First let me say it is not easy, in fact it is damn difficult. But you must have something or you would not be putting you time and energy into it. I would suggest that you step back from it and look at it as if you were seeing it for the first time.

The reason for this thread is to continue the conversation and start coming up with some answers.

I forgot to mention we added a fifth point - Operations. Operations addresses what we need to do and sets the standards for doing so.

Sounds a lot like small town downtowns. The points you make are excellant. My point is that the small town downtown faces the same problems that we do and they came up with a solution that is now 25 years old and is successful.

I think its time that we emiulated what they did and developed a program that addresses all aspects of runnig a success museum. Its more than just the displays.

"I've been talking to folks about moving in to the "post-nostalgia" age with the Western Pacific Railroad Museum at Portola. We need to find a way to make this collection matter to the public who has no idea what the WP was."

I was a member of a California blue ribbon committee exploring the state of Industrial Technology Education here. What we found was troubling. In our populous state only 40-50 high school shop programs were thriving. Only one state university offered an education degree in Industrial Technology. Several industries: metal working, auto repairs, machinists, et al, all face tremendous shortages of workers in the coming decade. We also found that parents overwhelmingly will support shop classes when shown that hands-on education increases critical thinking skills and improves performance in other subject areas.

Can you see our opportunity here? Sure, most folks come to Orange Empire for a train or trolley ride. It doesn't have to remain that way. What about offering the chance to learn how to hot rivet or to apprentice in a real old school machine shop (we do have CNC machines too.) Last week we moved a caboose from one set of tracks (and trucks) to another using cribbing, forklifts and a large crane. There are many kids today, both male and female who would love to learn about crane operations.

How about body work, painting, carpentry/cabinet-making, electrical, pneumatics, hydraulics, print-reading? Are there no kids in our community who wouldn't jump at the chance to learn these crafts hands-on? What about parents who are often left with sending their kid into the military for the lack of any skills or motivation. WE"VE GOT THE ANSWER!!

Grants abound for these types of programs. Link up with a local shop teacher (if you can find one) or look to partner with the local community college. If you are worried about liability concerns, go to your Congressman/woman and explain your plight. Perhaps they can offer legislation to allow more of these kinds of partnerships. Which of us wouldn't want more manpower (albeit green) to advance our projects. Labor unions have all kinds of money for these programs.

Scan the web for "Carl Perkins" or "labor educational grants"

This reminds me of a story I heard a number of years ago when the West Coast Ry Association was begining to develope its West Coast Ry Heritage Park. They had people ride the Royal Hudson train to promote taking a bus to visit the museum during the mid-day turn around. The non-railfan college students employed during the week were more effective than the volunteer railfans used on the weekends.

We tend to recruit hosts and docents from our current members. Our pleas appear in the museum newsletter. Perhaps we should find retired teachers who still have the itch and try to turn them into members. Monsters.com here we come!

Yes, you have that right, I hold the last Industrial Arts degree bestowed by CSU, Chico, back in 1990. Chico used to be the teachers' college, created to provide N. California with trained teachers for primary and secondary eductation. No IA teachers, no IA program. . . .
This is a great thread, and it isn't only about RR museums. I am the curator for a Chinese Temple musueum, Historic house museum, a pioneer memorial museum and soon, an antique tool museum. Despite promotions, etc. attendence is on a downhill slide. We are losing our "nostalgia relevance" to the present generation of young parents. Although once in a while a relevance pops up; when a docent pointed out a doll from the Donner Party, one third grader announced that her ancestors were from the Donner party.
Now we have to change our organization to attract both visitors and docents.
David D.

Establishing relevance is important but relevance is a shifting dynamic. If you look at your own life, what was relevant 10 years ago may not be so relevant today.

Too often, I have seen outfits change their very essence by trying to establish relevance only to find they have lost their identity and not increased business.

There are times to ride out the storm. Conserve your energy for when you can make a difference rather than burn up resources fighting an unbeatable headwind. I don't know if we are fighting that wind now, but there are many indications that we are.

Times and relevance will change - they always do. Until they do we must maintain our integrity and keep the boat afloat. We need to be prepared and on top of our game when the climate is more favorable for what we do.