Vol. 4, No. 2                                                                                  March 2009

Recap of the February Roundtable Meeting

The winter meeting of the Monadnock Historical Societies Forum was held at the Historical Society of Cheshire County on Thursday 26 February 2009. There were 20 people in attendance representing 12 different organizations from the region.

The morning roundtable discussion was filled with a wide range of topics and highlighted the many different projects the region's historical organizations are undertaking. Chesterfield has had great success in the selling of a new book on the homes along Spofford Lake; Westmoreland and Jaffrey have new websites; Westmoreland's 2009 calendar sold out; Marlborough is conducting a town wide historic barn assessment; Harrisville has started collecting oral stories; and Troy is starting an Old Home Days.

After our brown bag lunch, Heather Jasmin, who works in the Continuing Education office at Keene State College, gave us an introductory demonstration in how to use PowerPoint software to create visual displays or slide shows for programs or museum displays. For most of us, this was a wonderful and fun introduction and we wish to thank Heather for a very helpful demonstration.

The spring Roundtable Forum meeting will be held at the Westmoreland Town Hall on Thursday 18 June 2009 beginning at 9:30 a.m. The Roundtable's open forum and planning for the fall's collaborative exhibit and publication on education and schools will be part of the morning meeting. After a brown bag lunch, we will tour the old Westmoreland school house.

The fall meeting will be held at the Sullivan Town Library on Wednesday 21 October 2009 at 9:30 a.m. We switched this meeting from a Thursday to a Wednesday to not conflict with the library's open hours.

We continued our discussion of some kind of deaccessioning venture during the morning Roundtable. Because there was only a few organizations who returned the deaccession survey form, interest in a cooperative venture seemed small.

During the discussion, it was suggested that HSCC be the hub for deaccessioning through the use of Ebay. Alan Rumrill talked with Greg Bixby of Keene, a professional auctioneer and appraiser, and he is interested in working with the Roundtable to sell deaccessioned items from our collections. Initially, Greg would collect a 25% fee from any item he sells, which would include listing the item, taking photographs, and shipping. If there is enough volume, Greg indicated the fee may decrease to 20%. HSCC could be used as the hub for dropping off items for Greg.

If this feels like a good option for deaccessioning items from your collection, please contact Tom Haynes at HSCC to voice your opinion. If I hear back from a majority of organizations favorably, we can have Greg develop a set of guidelines as to how this deaccessioning venture would work effectively. We can present this at the next Roundtable meeting in June for approval. You can contact Tom at dired@hsccnh.org or at 352-1895.

Please let me know by the first of May.

Schools & Education Collaborative Exhibit Project

The subcommittee organizing the collaborative exhibit has not heard from a few organizations: Alstead, Gilsum, Marlow, Peterborough, Richmond, Rindge, Surry, Troy, Walpole, and Winchester to know if you are interested in participating in the collaborative project. If you are interested, please fill out the Exhibit Survey Form, available on the HSCC website at Exhibit Survey, and return the form via the mail or an email ASAP to Tom Haynes at HSCC. Thank You!

The next step in our collaborative project is to have each participating organization complete the written narrative on the history of education and schools in your community for the publication. Guidance for what information to include in the narrative is available on the HSCC website at: Publication Guidelines.

18 June 09 - Submission of written narrative and photographs for the publication.

30 October 09 - Delivery deadline of all artifacts/items that will be used in the exhibit.

20 November 09 - Tentative opening of exhibit and completion of publication.

Contact & Website Information

For all questions or concerns regarding any aspect of the Monadnock Historical Societies Forum, please contact HSCC's Tom Haynes at 603-352-1895 or dired@hsccnh.org. Please remember to post and share this newsletter with your members. Also, please remember to submit your events for posting on the Roundtable Events page of the Roundtable Forum website.