REPORT FOR THE AGM OF THE STRATHALBYN BRANCH of the NATIONAL TRUST.

Held At the Masonic Hall, Dawson Street on Tuesday the 25th August 2009.

Chairman……..  DAVID FINNIE.

It certainly has been and continues to be a very busy and exciting year at our branch. All of our volunteers have helped us with great achievements and the changes to the museum and grounds are something that all involved should be very proud of.  I as chairman of this Branch have certainly been inspired by the effort and the help and support that everyone has shown me, and helped me put into place something’s that I am passionate about. I will not single out any volunteers and name them in this report as I believe we are one and we all work toward a common goal.

Importantly please be aware that the visitor numbers are going up and interest in our museum is growing. More groups are going through and school groups are also increasing. We have been lucky to have had quite a few articles in the local Argus newspaper which keeps the local community involved in what is happening at our museum.

We started with the idea of a dramatic change to the displays within the museum and I believe what we have done has only proved once again that this is more than just a country museum. We started in the courtroom and went from room to room making the displays more vibrant and informative towards the history of Strathalbyn.

The sitting room and the children’s room are now more accessible to the public with roped walk-ins which I believe make the visitors feel more part of the era and of course can look at what is on display more closely. We have utilised more of the artifacts that were in storage and thus shown more of Strathalbyn to the visitors. Extra cabinets were installed to various parts of our displays to help secure some of our smaller items while on display to the public. What we have to do now is to continue this approach and keep it changing on a regular basis, I don’t mean the whole museum but certain exhibits every year.

We invested in a carpet strip throughout the passageway to make the museum look more professional to our visitors and to get away from that typical country museum appearance.

A newsletter to our financial members was again started to keep members involved and interested with what we are doing within our branch. Also the volunteers designed a trial tri-fold leaflet and we have now had this brochure professionally printed to give to the public and other interested parties

We moved the Argus newspapers from the existing office out to the back room and we started a new method of making sure they are preserved for future generations. This of course is a long and ongoing process. The office was redesigned and made more usable for research as well.

Security was updated with a new key system where all locks are keyed alike, and keys are signed for by the holder and also a new dead lock fitted to the front door. We believed this was essential to protecting the rich heritage and valuable artifacts held within our branch. Also an audible alarm was fitted to the front entrance to alert volunteers on duty of anyone entering.
 
As Nancy Gemmell is the patron of our branch a tribute board to her and her achievements was added to our entrance hallway. This included her books, paintings, her history, etc and also information on ways to research past relatives.

Two audio visual DVD players have been installed to allow us to show to visitors Strathalbyn history and make the museum feel a bit more user friendly and welcoming.

The committee has designed a strategic plan for our future goals within our branch and if this is read through you can see that we are well on the way to achieving the results that we planned for.

Our collection of ephemera has been rehashed and a lot of work has been put into the reorganizing of these items in catalogues and of course putting into the mosaic program on the computer. This was very time consuming but well worth the effort. Cataloguing of all our artifacts is progressing as well.

Stocktaking of the inside of the museum is well on the way to completion and this is excellent as it brings our records up to an accurate stage, and has shown up the failings of our past recording methods. Extra students from the Eastern Fleurieu School have been involved in the stocktaking of our artifacts, albeit so slow but I believe it is allowing our younger generation to appreciate some of the early history and its importance. This has also encouraged the school to have more involvement with other students in research of different areas. This I believe will grow in the coming years with enthusiasm as it is realised where this can lead.

The web site has had a major revamp and with a lot of effort and input involved. We now have a very professional web site with video viewing of our museum from your lounge room. This I believe is an excellent promotional tool which we will learn to utilise more and more as we move forward. I can only encourage any of our members to feed this site to make it as vibrant as we can. For those members who need the internet address it is www.strathmuseum.org.au.

Even though the volunteers had worked hard towards our open day in May it was not as good as we had hoped but this was due to the inclement weather. We tried a few new things and learnt a lot but I think we all agree for a major fund raiser we need to try something completely different and to achieve this we are embarking on something new and exciting under the guise of darkness. If this is successful the variations to this theme could be quite large.

During this years Open Day we had people producing a DVD for head office of the National Trust on volunteering within the National Trust and we were asked to be involved as they recognise the effort that we put in to making our museum come alive. Hopefully the end result will be excellent.

Under our new committee we now have others within our museum involved in the Regional Meetings of the National Trust, and also the Heritage committee of the Fleurieu Peninsula, and of course keeping an eye and recording what is happening within our area. This of course allows me the time needed for the overall well being of our branch and encourages more input from volunteers, which I believe is progressive.

We completed the Positive Aging Grant in June and I think that we all agree that this grant was very beneficial to our museum in many ways and as George Healey from the Eastern Fleurieu School stated it achieved far, far more than any of us thought it would, and full credit should go to all that helped in making it successful. The important thing about it is going to be an on going program and has shown to the school that volunteers of all ages have something to share with our younger generations. We have made an application for a new grant and I am hoping also that this will be successful while others are being looked at and investigated.

The outside area of the museum has also changed with new gardens added and seating for visitors also installed. The rear grounds now are certainly visible to the outside public, due to the council removing a row of trees along side our perimeter fence, and how they are kept gives the community something to be proud of, and that of course is our objective.  We have made major changes in the old stable with us cleaning out the upper level and stabilising and re finishing the internal walls. This is now being used as a storage facility very successfully. The lower level has been re-organised and had new doors fitted and is now our stationary engine and other motorized vehicle bits and pieces. This had to be done as the Blackstone engine is 99% finished and is a very valuable asset to the museum and hopefully in October we will be firing it up and introducing it to the public at a special function. New fencing was installed around the well in the yard and a new larger Museum sign fitted to the Southern wall of the Police building.

 A major task for the volunteers has started on the rear wall of the police building in re-doing the pointing of the stonework. This will be a long drawn out job as it is very time consuming but it is very necessary to the future of the building. There have been many, many different materials put in as pointing over the years and this is having a detrimental effect to the walls, but I believe that with a little help we have the necessary knowledge to achieve the end result.

The Eastern Fleurieu School has been involved once again this year and have put in a brilliant effort. Every year the enthusiasm seems to increase and the results are improving. They have built a display cabinet for our horsey stuff in the wagon shed utilising materials on hand and are still involved in bringing the old machinery to life. One major achievement is the Blacksmith shop which every Thursday a Blacksmith from Milang gives his time and teaches two students at a time, the old ways of making things out of basic materials. The results are outstanding and the students involved are certainly proud of what they make, which of course they take home proudly to show their parents.

I think I have covered this very busy and rewarding year and once again I would like to thank all the volunteers involved within our museum for there effort and enthusiasm, and I can only hope that the future years will be as good and keep moving forward with who ever is elected to the governing committee.

Thanking You All.
David Finnie. Chairman 2008-2009.