Board Meeting Update

The Board of the Ohio Local History Alliance met Monday, August 25 at the Ohio History Center. Below is a brief summary of committee sessions to be shared with our membership.

Advocacy Committee
The Advocacy Committee discussed strategic planning goals, including encouraging small, informal regional “coffee hour” events based on the popular sharing time sessions at regional meetings. Region 1 will host the first session to generate planning ideas and feedback for additional events in remaining regions. The committee also addressed advocacy-related aspects of the strategic plan and set dates for completing or revisiting goals.

Communications Committee
The Communications Committee discussed the current strategic plan and set dates for completion of ongoing projects, including improving social networking practices, implementing Pinterest and History Pin usage and addressing possible changes to the current website. Committee members reviewed plans for “Going Social” at the 2104 Annual Meeting, including setting an official hashtag and planning efforts to encourage attendees to use social media to broadcast the meeting.

Education Committee
The Education Committee discussed webinar goals and upcoming sessions, as well as planning for 2015 webinars. In 2014, the committee met its goal of hosting four webinars, several of which were based on popular and well-received sessions from previous regional and annual meetings. The committee presented ideas for post-Annual Meeting surveys of attendees to improve planning and adapt offerings to the needs of attendees, as well as the implementation and promotion of a “call for proposals” method of choosing sessions for future Annual Meetings. Call for Proposals information will be distributed at the 2014 Annual Meeting and through various media following the meeting. Also discussed by the committee were possible plans for an advocacy workshop for 2015.

Regional Representatives
Revised and updated responsibilities were distributed to apprise representatives of their duties. These duties include establishing and maintaining communication with member and non-member organizations in their regions, attending Alliance Board meetings, serving on a committee, writing for the Local Historian, writing for the Alliance website and regional meeting planning. Planning sessions for 2015 regional meetings will begin in October.

The next Alliance Board meeting will be held January 2015.