McLeod County Historical Organizations Partnership Developement
To develop a lasting partnership among historical organizations in McLeod County to strengthen their community impact.
Partners: McLeod County Historical Society, Historic Hutchinson, Glencoe Historical Preservation Society
The three partners will develop a joint long-range plan to set priorities for programming and projects that will allow each group to be strengthened and have greater impact than they would have individually. The lead partner, McLeod County Historical Society, has trained staff and volunteers in preservation, marketing, and grant writing as well as a set of written policies that can be shared. The partnership will improve access to local history, create a stronger network of history organizations and better document, preserve, and use historical resources in McLeod County. Each partner will take away a better understanding of what the other groups have in their collections and will be able to have access to the other groups: collections, eliminating redundancy. The partnership will explore ways to pool funding resources for office and preservation supplies, advertising, programming, and staff costs. There are other groups that have recently formed in McLeod County that may have the desire and need to become future partners, including a history group in Brownton and a potential group in Stewart. Through shared knowledge and resources, the groups will last longer and have greater impact in their communities and greater Minnesota.
$2,000,000 the first year and $2,000,000 the second year are for partnerships involving multiple organizations, which may include the Minnesota Historical Society, to preserve and enhance access to Minnesota's history and cultural heritage in all regions of the state.
Available upon request. Contact:grants@mnhs.org
Even with the staffing obstacles mentioned above, all the short and intermediate goals of the grant project were met. This new organization developed a job description, hired and approved not one but two developers and created a new organization made up of the three most well established history organizations in McLeod County. The Developer, along with two representative board members from each of the three parent organizations, met monthly to develop the organic documents needed to flesh out and establish the McLeod County Historic Partnership. This new MCHP board, along with each of the parent partner's boards, read and approved each of the following documents developed:
Mission and Vision Statement
MCHP 501c3 Non-profit status paperwork
Board Member Job Descriptions
Organizational Chart
Board Committees and Work Plan
Financial Reports
MCHP Membership Criteria
MCHP Strategic Plan
Our long term goals are also starting to be achieved, with secured funding to continue the MCHP Community Outreach Director position by our McLeod County Commissioners. We also have two cities, Hutchinson and Stewart who have both committed funds in their 2016 budgets to help with projects laid out in the MCHP's Strategic Plan.
The MCHP also has two new organizations who are now attending MCHP meetings to learn more about the group and would like to join the organization.
The MCHP has had three successful fundraising programs in the County, raising enough funds to pay the 501c3 filing and lawyer fees.
These goals have and are continuing to be achieved because of the strong commitment by the partners in our new organization and their desire to preserve McLeod County History!
Available upon request, grants@mnhs.org