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May 2008 President's Message: We are alarmed! Obviously, as a small museum we cannot afford, nor do we have a need, for a guard service. However, our collections are unique and valuable, and as good stewards we have the obligation to maintain proper protection and security for our buildings and their precious contents. The major risks to our collections are fire, theft, loss, or damage, the latter either intentionally inflicted, such as vandalism, or the result of accident or natural disaster. We have been working with the City of Saratoga (who actually owns our Museum buildings), and almost three years ago began the process of getting fire and security systems installed. That meant going through studies of risk analysis and building evaluation, walk-through site inspections by fire officials, and meeting with security analysts and company representatives. All of this takes time, of course, but now I am happy to report that we have 24-hour fire and intrusion security systems and alarms installed and operational! Having security and fire alarms systems brings benefits other than the obvious. In the past we have turned away opportunities for “traveling” exhibits which were made available by other museums because we could not guarantee safekeeping of the exhibit materials. We will now be in a position to host these exhibits that are appropriate to our purpose, as they may be available to us, and I look forward, as I am sure you will, to seeing those in our museum! I want to especially thank Thomas Scott, Saratoga City Facilities Maintenance Supervisor, for working with us and managing this project to completion, and the folks at Kelex Security. Also deserving of my thanks are SHF members Nancy Anderson, Lynne Gurley, Lyn Johnston, April Halberstadt, Jim Sorden, and Jenni Taylor for being available when I could not be on site as work was being done by the contractors. Training of docents and others who have after-hours access is almost completed, and is being done by April, Jenni, and yours truly. Special thanks must go to Membership Director Gene Zambetti and the SHF membership committee. Our numbers continue to grow and now stand at an all-time high! We’re looking forward to meeting all of our new members at our May 19th members meeting or at our special events held through the year. And to all of our new members – a very warm Welcome! May 17 will be “Living History Day” in the Village. Jill Hunter will chair this event and her enthusiasm for Village activities certainly portends another great day. Please see Laurel’s article in this issue, and come to the Village and the Museum to meet many of the characters from Saratoga’s past. For dates and details of other events coming up visit our website: www.saratogahistory.com or watch for details in our newsletter. If you missed the excellent presentation by archeologist Mark Hylkema at our March members meeting, you not only missed a great program, but also a great St. Patrick’s Day traditional corned beef and cabbage meal! You won’t get the same meal, but you will have another opportunity to hear Mark at our May 19th meeting, as he presents part two of his presentation on the indigenous people that inhabited our area. All of the comments about the March meeting that came my way were very positive, so I know that you will not be disappointed. Also at our May meeting we will present new candidates for the SHF Board of Directors for you to meet and, hopefully, accept with your vote. I hope to see you there! Chuck Schoppe, President |
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