Date/Time: Monday, November 1, 2-4 pm
Location: Virtual on Zoom
Attendees: Linda Huber, Emily Rinaman, Jan Bechtel, Justin Crawfis, Tom Neel, Ron Davidson, Sheena Striker, Pat Sheidler, Kasey Harrington, Marnie Pratt, Mark Strang, Nik Pavlik, Marissa Muniz, John Swearingen, Arjun Sabharwal
Brief Notes: Emily and Linda provided updates on the passport project and shared a few sample pages of what the printer has come up with for us so far. The group gave both positive feedback and helpful suggestions for Emily to take back to the printer. For example, the printer designed a color-coded map to be used with the table of contents (the passport will be organized in alphabetical order by county). While that provides a nice visual, some of the colors used might not transfer to text well and a suggestion was made to also assign numbers to each county. A disclaimer will be put into the beginning of the book stating that the hours listed for each participating institution are accurate at the time of printing and subject to change with the encouragement to contact the institution before visiting to confirm hours.
The cost of the passport was also discussed. At the current quote, it will cost about $1 per passport. Several participants are choosing to go the route of printing the PDF themselves (Emily will provide from the printer), which will be available in an 8 1/2 x11 format. Suggestions were also made for developing formats that can be used in software that will print the pages in the correct order, as the passport will be around 25 pages, front and page, and in color. If participants cannot print copies of the passport themselves they will need to let Emily know how many passports they think they will need at $1 per passport. For those participants who don't have a budget to cover their portion if they cannot print their own, a suggestion was made to contact the Visit Northwest Ohio group, a collaboration of several visitor's bureaus/Chambers of Commerce throughout Northwest Ohio. Participants were also asked to start contacting their local visitors bureaus, Chambers of Commerce or local tourism promoters to ask them to promote the passport and have some copies available to the public at their locations. A two-page spread of the visitors/Chambers of Commerce logos will appear towards the back of the passport. While the NWOCHG plans to focus on having passports at our own institutions and tourism offices, if it goes over well, a suggestion was made to eventually have copies available at rest stops on the turnpike (there is a cost).
Emily announced that she still needs information, logos or photographs from several institutions and alerted participants that she will probably have everyone look over their info one last time before it's sent to the printer (Deadline for Emily to have everything to the printer is Feb. 1, 2022, so she would like to have everyone's information by mid-January 2022).
The group decided to hold 2 meetings per year--1 in the spring (April) to gear up for the summer tourist season and share upcoming plans, and then 1 meeting in the fall (October) to share how everyone's season went and any winter activities and projects they have planned. As of right now these meetings are still virtual, but the hope is to eventually resume in-person meetings at various locations. At times, there may be "ad hoc" meetings added to the schedule for special collaborative events, for example, the upcoming 250th anniversary of the United States in 2026. Members expressed gratitude for the creation of the Northwest Ohio Cultural Heritage Group, as it is the last region in the state to form a group of its character. The Northeast Ohio's group is very active. John Swearingen is a member of the Ohio Local History Alliance, a statewide organization that tries to mesh these groups together for statewide collaborating.
Other groups discussed were the Ohio Underground Railroad Group, which just held a symposium at the Muskingum County Public Library (hosted by the Muskingum County Historical Society).
Some members provided updates of their institutions:
The Wood County Museum will have its current exhibits, Utopia, and People, Places and Things, up until Nov. 21. The new exhibit in 2022 will be a wedding-themed exhibit.
While they are still not quite at full capacity, BGSU is excited to see more students on campus this semester with more in-person classes and students living on campus than during 2020 and spring 2021.
Lakeside Heritage Society recently moved a collection to another location about a block away that receives much higher traffic, a move they say has been quite successful.
New London Area Historical Society shared a book they recently put together based on World War II soldiers from the area. A local group of wives and mothers of World War II soldiers collected surviving personal letters written to or by these soldiers and had the information compiled into the books. The local Rotary Club helped fund the project and the books are available for $10 each.