President's Update

Our organization continues to march forward in a number of areas including the cyber world. Our website - www.champaigncountyhistoricalmuseum.org - exhibits ongoing innovation and improved accessibility, and our Facebook page is receiving a record number of “likes.”

This is most timely in that the board of trustees voted on April 25 to place a levy for “maintenance and operation” on the November ballot. As before, the levy is for 0.3 mil (3/10ths) for 5 years which would cost a Champaign County property owner about $10/year on a $100,000 property. We were only 439 votes short the last time, and we are mounting a maximum effort to pass it so that we can hire full-time staff, something most organizations of a similar nature have already accomplished; in the meantime we continue to seek volunteer assistance.

What will we do differently this time? We know that we need to reach out to younger voters, particularly in the county, and our new electronic capabilities will help us do that. Since last November we have worked steadily to bolster our presence in the community by recruiting and training volunteers to open the museum on Sundays, engaging the county schools more often and efficiently, posting Ward Lutz’s “Then and Now” and “Looking Back” items in the newspaper and on Facebook, presenting monthly programs of interest, and speaking to local groups. Moreover, Ken Wright’s Community Outreach committee is hard at work establishing partnerships in an around the villages.

The Levy Committee begins weekly meetings in June and will work diligently right up to Nov. 6. More than ever, we’ll need the support of all members to pass this issue and thus stabilize our museum operation.

Contributions made to the CCHS Campaign Committee will be deposited in the First Central National Bank of St. Paris and may be sent to CCHS, P. O. Box 65, Urbana, OH, 43078.

Thank you for your support!
-Dan Walter