Even though it's our down time, it's hoppin'

Really, we're getting to where this is the quiet time of the year. It's that time between events and exhibits.

We've installed two exhibits this year...and have taken one of them down. Our next exhibit is slated to open in November. I'll be working on making our Swedish Texans exhibit a traveling exhibit (which I've not done before, so it's an all-around learning experience).

We held Pioneer Day, which saw double last year's attendance. We had way more school tours through the museum and courthouse than last year. But, school's over. Mickie's working on Summer History Explorers' Camp. This will be the first year we're expanding that program to a week (well, really, four days). Mickie's going to a storytellers' workshop on Friday.

Celina's catching us up on paperwork. All of the old attendance and volunteer records that were handwritten, she's entering it ALL into our database. Plus, she's going to a training workshop in Waco next week to get a better handle on our membership/contacts database.

I was recently appointed to the Collections Managers Committee (an affinity group of the Texas Association of Museum) as the Newsletter Editor. I sent out my first quarterly newsletter today. I'm also the Secretary for the Austin Museum Partnership. We don't have a lot of meetings for that organization, but we do have networking happy hours, which everyone enjoys. That group will take up more time as Austin Museum Day gets closer.

This is the perfect time for me to have some quiet time to concentrate on the unsexy elements of museum work...working on the collections (Dana's making great progress on the photography project), designing the traveling exhibit, updating the labels in some of the older exhibits, and working with the webmaster to design and get our NEW webpage up and running.

Next month, the intense planning for Up the Chisholm Trail will be in full swing...