Essex Heritage Annual Meeting and
How We Communicate
Essex Heritage Annual Meeting
The Essex National Heritage Commission conducted its Annual Meeting for October 2009 at the Community House in Hamilton. We are indebted to the Board of the Community House for providing their wonderful facility that we had access to for this regional event. The Hamilton Community House is a classic example of the wonderful spaces that we have been blessed to have met in over the last dozen years.
We want to particularly thank William Bowler, Hamilton Selectman for being in attendance and for bringing the greetings of the host community. This meeting marked the last meeting that was officiated over by outgoing President Ms. Nancy Huntington Stager of Eastern Bank and started the new term of President Kevin M. Tierney, President of Saugus Bank. The transition appeared seamless and both Nancy and Kevin provided valuable information to the group assembled. The group included a contingent of Senior National Park Service officials who are in Essex County to work with Essex Heritage in the near term, to complete the long awaited evaluation report that will ultimately be presented to the United States Congress.
Essex Heritage Executive Director, Annie Harris and our senior partner, National Park Service Regional Superintendant Patricia Trap provided a recap of the work accomplished by the Commission over the last half year to enhance this excellent partnership. Ms. Harris provided details about .specific endeavors undertaken by the Commission with some of its other regional partners, and the announcement that Essex Heritage was prepared to partially reinstate the Partnership Grant Program in 2010 was warmly received. The Grant program has been one of the most important projects undertaken by Essex Heritage during the life of the Commission, and a reinstatement of the program even on a limited basis will be welcomed by the region. Over the life of this program, Essex Heritage has provided almost 300 individual grants to not-for-profit partners, and municipalities that total in excess of $1.5 million dollars. That commitment of funds that has seen grants made in every one of the thirty-four communities in the region and has resulted in an additional $15.0 million in investments made in the region. Before the start of 2010 more information on how this program will be re-started will be released, but just the fact that the program will be back in place in some form in the upcoming year is great news for the region.
Essex Heritage Communicating Using Many New Resources
A panel of nationally known experts headed by former United States Senators, Howard Baker and Bennett Johnson has been holding hearings across this country, with the goal of offering a recommendation to the National Park Service. The goal is to offer a plan as to how the Park Service might move forward in the second Century of their existence. The Essex National Heritage Commission has played an important role in those deliberations as in 2008 the Second Century Commission made a visit to this region to learn how the partnership that has been established here between the National Park Service, the communities in this region, and the many private partners we have established relationships with is working. This blue-ribbon panel visited the Gould Barn in Topsfield for a hearing and that followed an extraordinary dinner meeting at the Boot Mills the night before in Lowell. Those two sessions gave Essex Heritage advocates the opportunity to advance some thoughts on the work being accomplished in this region.
Over the time that Essex Heritage has been serving this region, we have taken great care to make the Essex Heritage web site, www.essexheritage.org better organized and a vehicle that provides valuable information to the residents of the region. The site is regularly updated and current information and activities are always highlighted in a way that makes that information highly visible. For example during the weeks leading up to our signature event, Trails and Sails that series of events was prominent on the site. It is clear that many visitors to the series of free events offered those two weekends in September obtained the information that they needed to plan their experience by accessing the Essex Heritage web site. We were recently provided information by our web-master that confirms both the importance of the web site to Essex Heritage and to the region. During the month of September 2009 that covers the period of the Trails and Sails events and the period leading up to the events Essex Heritage experienced more than 57, 500 “hits” on the web site. That total is up almost 27, 500 “hits” from the prior month. That activity represents a healthy increase in activity month to month. We can only surmise that the increased activity was due in part to requests seeking information on the Essex Heritage signature event. During the month of September inquires came from all 50 states in the country and the District of Columbia and there were visits from dozens of countries around the world including Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Iraq, Japan, India, Australia, Russia, Chili, Brazil and many more.
The panel also indicated that they have seen the current reality function at or near optimum level in their meeting at the Essex National Heritage Area, and the Salem Maritime National Historic Site, “where two units of the National Park Service; a National Heritage Area; National Historic Landmarks; National Register of Historic Places; Rivers, Trails and Conservation Assistance; and state, local and private sector entities interested in cultural resources, natural resources, scenic beauty, recreation, education, and economic function in nearly seamless harmony.”
In addition to a much broader use of the web site, Essex Heritage is also communicating using traditional methods like this monthly column and social networks like Face book, Twitter and Linked in as well as using other non traditional methods like the Essex Happenings BLOG that I post information to three times a week that can be accessed at www.essexhappenings.blogspot.com.
Read more about the region from Tom Leonard on his blog.
Thomas M. Leonard is President Emeritus of the Essex National Heritage Commission, Inc., the nonprofit management entity of the Essex National Heritage Area, and can be reached by clicking here.