 to our host, Susan Barger from the FAAIC, go. Hi everyone, how we go. Because there have been so many disasters, I just want to remind you about the National Heritage Responders Hotline. It's available today, seven days a week. And if you have questions, you can post them. Okay, Mike is going to take over. Sorry, yeah, this is Mike here. So we were having some issues with audio with Susan a little while ago, and we thought maybe they'd be rectified, maybe they wouldn't. Obviously they aren't. And so at this point, I'll take over and just quickly go through this. If you have any questions or need any answers from anybody in the C2C world, please use the question in the C2C Care online community discussion forums. And one of the experts will get back to you. There's a link at the bottom of your screen. As well, you can keep up with the C2CC community, either on Facebook or you can follow them in their, or follow along with their Twitter handle. And there's also the listserv for C2CC Announce. It only comes out or gets sent out about once or twice a month, not very often. So by joining it, you will not be spammed. And you can feel free to contact not me, but Susan any time. That is her email address there. And she will respond as quickly as she can. Coming up, we're going to be having another webinar on October 17th with what is this Solving Problems found in Collection. And that will be at our regular time. As well in November, there's going to be imaging and metadata and NAGPRA issues coming up and followed by December issues with Ivory. So keep your eyes peeled on the C2CC website and you'll receive notifications when the registrations are open for those webinars. So without further delay, it is my pleasure to pass the audio off to our presenter today, Sherry Cook, Senior Program Manager with the AASLH. Sherry, go ahead. Thanks Mike so much. I'm very pleased to be here with all of you this afternoon. As Mike said, I am with the American Association for State and Local History. We are headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. I'm actually speaking to you from Jefferson City, Missouri where I telework from. My weather today is absolutely beautiful. I hope yours is too. I look forward to talking with you about the steps program which I coordinate for AASLH. So I want to start today by saying that I'm going to begin by describing kind of the nuts and bolts of the steps program. And then I have some what I think are very interesting examples of how steps is helping organizations make meaningful improvements to them. Things that are changing not only the way that they operate but how they engage with their communities and how they serve their visitors. So as I said we'll start with the nuts and bolts. Feel free to post comments and questions in the chat box and either Susan or Mike will serve as moderator for those questions. Some of them they may ask during the presentation and others they may hold until the final Q&A session towards the end. But I plan to leave plenty of time for questions. So be thinking about anything you want to ask or exchange comments with your colleagues in the chat box. There's lots of things we can learn from each other in these sessions. So let's talk about steps. Steps actually stands for the Standards and Excellence Program for History Organizations. And it is a program that's offered by AASLH. And steps is a self-study program. And it is open to any museum, historical society, historic house, or related organization. We have libraries enrolled in steps. We have universities. So we don't turn anyone away if they want to enroll in the program. The only entities we do turn away is we don't allow individuals to enroll in steps. It is a program for institutions, organizations, or agencies. So it is an entry level program that is intended for small and mid-sized organizations including all volunteer organizations. Especially those that may not feel ready for other assessment programs. Now larger museums and organizations will also find the program helpful. So as I said, everyone's invited to enroll in the program. Unlike other assessment programs, steps does not have an application period and there are no eligibility requirements. So I like to tell people that steps is very flexible, especially for time constraints that small museums and sites have. And in a few minutes I'll discuss some options for how you can approach the program to make it suit your needs. So the development of steps was a grassroots effort by people in the field and a lot of enthusiasm and passion was exhibited throughout the four and a half years that we developed steps. Many volunteers, 135 people, many of them very passionate about wanting to help, especially small institutions, be able to take part in some type of assessment program. So there were 47 pilot sites and those ranged everywhere from Maine to Alaska, California to Maryland and Mississippi all the way up to Minnesota. So we had a very wide range of people from 37 states who took part in developing the steps program. Now steps is part of what we call the continuum of excellence. And if some of you took part in last week's webinar with the map and the cap folks, you probably saw this image also. And you can see in the center of the screen where it says maps, steps, cap, and SMAA. These are all different programs that are available to you to help you with assessing your policies and practices. And so steps is right there in the middle. And most of these programs you can do at any time. As I mentioned earlier, you can enroll in steps at any time. So I wanted to take a quick poll, or actually two polls. The first poll that I want to ask everyone is have you, either at your current position or institution or a previous one, have you participated in one of the continuum of excellence assessment programs? Okay, so about a third of you have, and two thirds have not. That's a good range. So we have some folks who will be familiar with the material today or know about cap and map and other programs. And for some of you these may be opportunities you'll want to take part in very soon. Thank you for answering that poll. So the second poll that I want to ask very quickly is do we have any organizations represented today that are currently enrolled in steps? Not yet? Several of you are considering it? Okay, we have several who are enrolled, wonderful, and several that are not. Great. Okay, thank you. So you can see from the map that's up on the screen we have organizations enrolled in steps all across the country in Canada. And I believe right now there's about 940 organizations enrolled. So that's a fair number of organizations. The program was first introduced to the field in 2009. So it's been around for a few years, but still considered fairly new and something that the field really has wanted for a long time. Now just a few things about enrollment in steps, because I know that's probably one thing that people are always wondering, well how much does this program cost? And I mentioned that steps does not have any eligibility requirements or an application. And you can enroll online, you can do it by phone or mail. There is a one-time fee of $75 to enroll in the program. And that once you're enrolled that one-time fee you're in it for as long as you want to be in it. You do have to be an AASLH institutional member for at least the first year. Now of course we hope that you will continue your membership in AASLH because the publications that you receive as part of your membership and the webinars you have the opportunity to take part in will help you with your work in steps. But the requirement is at least for the first year. So with that steps enrollment fee, you receive a copy of the workbook, you receive opportunities to earn certificates, and you receive access to the steps website. So each of those three things I'm going to talk about in detail one after the other so you can learn a little bit more about them. You also receive as part of that enrollment fee, you get national recognition for the certificates your organization earns, you get this nice little window decal, and then you get discounts on AASLH workshops and webinars, technical leaflets and other publications. So $175 one time fee. I want to talk first about the steps workbook. It really is the core of the steps program. It is an easy to use spiral bound book and you write in it and hopefully it will stay at your organization even through the transition of staff and volunteers so that there is a record of what your organization has done in the program. You can see on the cover of the book there are six sections to the workbook. You can address those sections in any order that you want. A lot of people I've talked to they recommend that you start with the first one because it tends to lay groundwork for the other sections but you don't have to and it's one of the things about this program that is very flexible. Each of those sections can stand on its own. Some organizations don't have any historic structures and landscapes and so they may not have to address the fifth section down there on your screen and that's fine. We've even had one organization that didn't have any collections. They were a historical society that published books and articles and so they were able to skip the collections section. Most organizations however address all six sections. But as I mentioned the book is, it's valuable to have as a record of your work in the program to pass along when there's transitions in staff and volunteers. There are also electronic copies of the workbook that you can access through the website which I'll talk about in just a minute. But let's look at the table of contents for just a minute. You can see that the first section after the introduction and the forward there is a section on how to use the workbook. We're going to talk a little bit about that in a few minutes. And then it goes into each of those six sections. And each of those sections has a case study. It's a fictional story about the Middletown Historical Society and things that they come up against, how they solve problems, perhaps how they aren't able to solve problems. The case study is in each section so that your organization if it chooses to can use it for discussion. It's a great way to discuss perhaps hot button issues, things that your organization has faced that perhaps people have differences of opinion on. It's a great way to kind of bring some topics to the surface that perhaps need to be discussed. And then the section goes into the list of standards and then some unacceptable practices. And then it gets into the self-assessment questions and what we call the performance indicators. And I'll talk a little bit about those in just a moment. Each section then ends with a list of sample projects that you can do, things that will help you to meet the performance indicators like having a policy perhaps on let's say rental of your facility. Or it might suggest a project on coming up with better key control of collection storage. There's also bibliographies of resources and then the final part of each section are the certificate forms that you complete when you are able to check off enough boxes and we'll talk about those certificate forms in just a moment. So here's a page from the workbook showing starting on the left with the standards. So this is MVG stands for Mission, Vision, and Governance. That's the first section of the workbook. And so you have the standard is on the left, in the left column and then you move over to the center column and that's the self- assessment question. And then the column on the right these are the performance indicators or recommendations if you will. So an institution can begin to ask these self-assessment questions and then check off the boxes for those things that it is already doing. So these performance indicators that are over on the left you'll notice that there's a three tier format, basic, good, and better. And the great thing about these performance indicators is that first of all the field has never had anything like this before. So STEPPS is the first program to have performance indicators. And they help to answer the question for your organization how do we know when we're meeting a national standard like the standard that's over on the left side of the screen. It's difficult sometimes to know are we meeting a standard are we doing what we're supposed to be doing. So these performance indicators help you to measure or benchmark where you are in meeting a standard. So the boxes that you can't check off yet, those are opportunities for improvement. On the right side of the page which you can't see on the screen, the right side of the spiral bound book there are columns and lots of blank space where you can write in projects that perhaps will help you to meet one of the performance indicators that you're not able to check off yet. So for example the good box here where it says the mission statement is easily accessible etc. If you're not able to check that off you would go across the page to the right side and perhaps you would write in something that you can do that will enable you to then check off the box. And what this does is when you're able to make those lists on the right side of your workbook you can then easily move those projects into a long range plan, a strategic plan, perhaps your organization just has an annual set of goals, but you're able to then identify things that your organization needs to work on. So as I said it's a great way to begin to identify things that will help you to better meet national standards. Now certainly AASLH understands that not every organization is going to make it to the better level throughout the whole workbook. And that's okay. There are many organizations perhaps that do not have the capacity level whether it's funding or space or maybe they're in a historic building that they're not able to do some things and that's totally understandable. So we often see organizations where they might be at the basic level in one section, perhaps they're at the good level in another section, and even there may be a section like audience or something that they've reached the better level. So it's very common for organizations to pretty much be all over the board with where they are. We expect that most organizations will be in steps at least five years and there's nothing wrong with that at all. It's a great program to use as a refresher or a checklist and to continue to work on it. And we understand that many small organizations perhaps have to set the program aside for a while when they have school tour season or they're doing a large fundraiser. So the program is flexible and it is a self-paced program that you can work on when you're able to. Now of course that's a double-edged sword. It's also easy to put the program down and not pick it back up. So you have to think about that also and we'll talk about that in a few minutes. So the most important thing that I tell organizations when they enroll is that to put things into perspective and to know that even if you're only able to reach the basic level in the beginning, that shouldn't stop you from trying to move up to the next levels. But the most important thing is that at least you know where your organization stands in terms of what the expectations are and at least your organization knows that it is doing everything it can to meet national standards. So it's kind of like you at least know where you stand and there's no longer a question or a thing of we don't know anything about national standards, we don't really know what we're supposed to be doing. Now you know and it really helps for planning and for everyone to understand where the organization is going, where it would like to go. So steps just kind of shines a light on how you can improve your policies and your practices in order to be the kind of organization that you envision you want it to be in the future. So there's a couple of different ways you can approach the workbook and I want to talk about that right now. The first way is kind of the traditional way that I talked about earlier where you can choose a section and work through it. So we call that the vertical method where you choose perhaps like on the screen you see the collection standard number two. So this is the collections section. So you say okay we're going to work on collections and you start going down through the pages and looking at each of the performance indicators, checking off boxes, things like that. And so you may decide that you want a group of folks from your institution to do this. Maybe it's made up of volunteers and staff. If you have paid staff perhaps you have unpaid staff and volunteers or board members. So perhaps a group of people sit down and begin to answer the questions. We occasionally have organizations where just one person within the organization uses the workbook to answer questions. You can do it either way. I think that having a group address the questions presents an opportunity for more people within your organization to learn about policies and practices and what you can do. But it's up to your organization. But this vertical method means that you take one section at a time or if you have enough staff and volunteers you can do more than one section. But really I think most organizations address one section at a time. So it's pretty basic you go through that way. Now there's a second way that you can go through steps and that is what we call the horizontal method. And that means that you decide that your organization is just going to look at the basic indicators across all six sections. And once you're finished doing that and checking off boxes then you're going to go back and look at the middle level, the good performance indicators through all six sections. Now I personally like this method better for several reasons. First of all it can quickly elevate your organization up to the basic level. So you've kind of met the basic entry point in all six sections. And many of the performance indicators in the basic level are about awareness of things. Your organization is aware that it needs to do something. That doesn't mean that it has achieved it, it just means that it's aware. So the basic level is fairly easy to achieve. And what that does is it gives your organization early success. It helps to motivate people within your organization to want to keep going in the program. And it also helps you to set that foundation for the next level, the good and better level. And for example, let's say your organization perhaps it doesn't have a collections management policy by seeing in the basic level that you need a collections management policy, that's going to set the foundation then for other places in the workbook that might ask about that same policy. This horizontal option also means that if you don't have a collections management policy, for example, and let's say you didn't get to the collections section for some time, perhaps a year or two, you would be without that policy, or you might see it crop up in the workbook in other places, but you wouldn't have had the opportunity to address it in the collections section yet. So by looking at just the basic indicators across all six sections, you're able to raise your organization to the point where you have those core documents like a mission statement and a collections management policy. You have those early on in your steps participation, and so your organization isn't waiting several years before it says, oh my gosh, we need to have a collections management policy. So that's why I like this method better than the vertical method, but again as I said, it's up to you whichever way you want to do it. Now this year we are embarking on a review of the workbook, and I want to just mention this to you. The workbook was published in 2009, so it is a couple of years old, and there are things that have changed in our field. So we are starting a review process. We've just started it this year, and I do want to just say that even though at some point, probably around 2019, we will have a new version, a second edition of the workbook. I want to reassure those organizations that are already enrolled, and those that are considering enrolling, that I don't want you to worry about, oh my gosh, are we going to have to go back and start over again? Are they going to make us reapply for certificates? This seems to be the most common question I get when we talk about this enhancement project that's going to take place. And I just want to reassure everyone that when the new copy of the new version of the workbook is ready, you will not be told that you have to go back and reapply for certificates, or go back and cover material that's new. We will use both the old and the new versions of the workbook for at least 18 months. So that takes you into almost 2022, because we know that so many organizations are using the first edition, they will have their choice whether they want to move over to the second edition up until about 2022 is when we will go to just the brand, the new version, and we'll set aside the old one. But until then, you have plenty of time to work on the current workbook and then continue to work in the current workbook, as I said, for at least 18 months after the new one's published. So I don't want anyone to think that there's going to be big changes made and that they're going to have to all of a sudden move over to the new workbook. But we are trying to stay in tune with new things. Digital collections, that's a huge topic and environmental sustainability, fraud prevention, we've got to begin to incorporate those topics into the steps program. So I want to talk now about the steps website. This is, if you remember from that enrollment slide, this is another benefit you receive from the steps fee that you pay. This is a website that's only open to those organizations enrolled in steps. So you receive unlimited access to the website. That means that your board members, volunteers, paid and unpaid staff can all create their own username and password for the site and have access to it. And you can see up along the top toolbar, there are different sections, there are discussion groups, they're not real active but we hope that they will become more active. There's one for every state and there's a Steps Commons for everyone in the group. There are announcements and news, free webinar recordings that you can listen to, and then in the resources section there are lots of different sample policies, sample forms, manuals, links to helpful information and these resources are divided by the same sections as the workbook. So if you're looking for, I see on the screen, acquisition policy, there's a sample there from the Shiloh Museum if you're looking for a code of ethics example, it's there. There's lots of different resources that you can access through this website. So let's talk for just a minute about the certificates. I mentioned earlier that at the back of each section of the workbook are the forms that you fill out. So once your organization is meeting all of the basic indicators in the management section, for example, you would complete the form at the end of the section and mail it to AASLH and we will send you a bronze certificate. And the same thing goes for the silver and gold. Now the certificates are earned on the honor system. And so we don't ask you or require that you mail in copies of documents or policies or anything like that. Frankly, we just don't have the staff to be able to review all of those things. So the certificates are earned on the honor system. Again, this is a self-study program and so you self-report what your organization has done and the certificates that it has earned. You are required to have your board president or some other authorizing official sign those certificate forms and send those into us. But these are a great way for your organization to be able to let visitors, board members, your community know that you are taking part in a national program and that you have made progress towards meeting national standards. They also work really well for as leverage when you are requesting funds applying for grants, justifying why you need X number of dollars for equipment or new exhibits, collection storage materials, whatever it is. So the certificates are really helpful and they can be a great motivator for your organization and for your board to be able to celebrate earning certificates and then putting them up on the wall to display in your facility. Now organizations that earn all six gold certificates or five if you don't have historic structures or landscapes once you are able to graduate from the steps program with all golds you are invited to our leadership awards program that we have each September as part of our annual meeting and you get to walk across the stage and be recognized for graduating from the steps program. I do want to mention the difference between the certificates either the bronze, silver, and gold or the graduation certificate that there is a difference in the steps program between a certificate and certification and it's a distinction that I think is important to point out. When you receive the certificates in steps they are for making progress in the steps program. It is not certification, it is not an endorsement, it's not a seal of approval, it's like a correspondence course. And so sometimes I'll see a news article come across my desk where someone has said that they've been certified by AASLH or they've received certification but there is a big difference between a certificate and certification. So these are progress certificates, it's not certification it's not accreditation like AAM does. One of the things that we learned when we piloted the steps program with those 47 sites across the country is that many of those pilot sites like to work within a group as they're going through the steps program. And so we encourage you to consider working within a group if you enroll in steps or if you're already enrolled in steps to look around and see if there's a group in your area if there's not considered joining up with a nearby historical society or other museum either in your same city, your county, region perhaps you're a railroad museum and you can find other railroad museums across the country to talk with. It's that support group or community of practice model that offers some really helpful benefits like accountability, self-study programs, it's easy as I mentioned earlier you start procrastinating and you put it down and you don't come back to it. So that accountability mechanism knowing that hey my group's going to get together in two months we better get going on this. There's also that wonderful benefit of shared learning and networking and camaraderie we really believe that participation in some type of steps community of practice offers the best opportunity for organizations to make meaningful progress in steps and other self-study programs. A couple of examples of steps groups that are out there in Tennessee several years ago AASLH received funding from the Middle Tennessee Community Foundation and we started a steps group of five organizations and we were with them, worked with them for two years and then the funding ran out but the group has continued to meet and they get together a couple of times a year and go to each other's museums and talk about their work and steps and so that's kind of what I consider an informal type group. They don't have any funding they each pay for their own way to their meetings and things like that so it's a kind of an informal structure for a group there are other groups like that around the country and I know Freedom's Frontier National Heritage Area in the Kansas and Missouri area, they're starting a group like that there's kind of been a group in Illinois Patricia Miller with the Illinois Heritage Association has tried to get a group together and still she keeps in contact with them but that's another example of a very informal group without any funding. Now when you there's some other examples of organizations that perhaps are a little bit more structured in Ohio, the Ohio History Connection, they have received AmeriCorps funding and so they have, I believe it's eight out of the ten regions in Ohio have an AmeriCorps partner working with several museums to go through steps so that's an interesting model to look at in terms of AmeriCorps funding to help and so we like to watch and see how Ohio is doing this and see if perhaps it might be replicated across the country. There was another group in the state of Washington, in the Seattle area the Four Culture Organization provided funding I'm not sure if they're still doing it but there was funding for organizations in King County to get together and attend some workshops and I think Four Culture at one point paid for their enrollment in steps so that's another possibility. Probably the longest running and the most structured steps community of practice is sponsored by the Connecticut Humanities, the Connecticut League of History Organizations in partnership with the Connecticut Historical Society and so their project is called, or their group is called, Steps Connecticut and they actually offer professional development opportunities meetings, mentors and then those organizations that stick with the project for two years they're eligible for special funding through Connecticut Humanities to help them accomplish some projects that they've identified as priorities and so they really are the model for a highly structured steps group. They've had great success and you can look them up online if you'd like, Steps Connecticut, look it up to Connecticut Humanities and see what they're doing but I do want you to consider the benefits that you receive from time spent at conferences or workshops or webinars where you actually have the opportunity to gather with people from other museums and historical societies. I always tell people that I never underestimate the value of time spent with colleagues and the learning that can go on from each other so many of us work at sites that are isolated from each other either you're the loan staff person or there's only a handful of unpaid or paid folks or maybe you're just tied to your site because of the visitation or what you have on your plate and it's very helpful to be able to get together with others and talk about issues that are common to your organizations, concerns, solutions and so I encourage you if you're already enrolled in Steps or you're considering it look around, see if there are others in your area that are enrolled in Steps and consider starting or joining a Steps group. So whether your organization works on Steps within a group or alone it can make significant progress without spending a lot of money. Sometimes people tell me that they don't want to enroll in Steps because their organization doesn't have any money and I tell them that many of the performance indicators in the program don't have anything to do with money. They have to do more with communication and consensus building than they do money. Things that you can see up on the screen, a facility rental policy emergency plan, collections policy, board orientation manual, those cost only the paper that they're printed on. It's the time and the sitting down and talking with other people that's what takes time in this program but it is well worth the time spent doing that. I do see where someone's asking, Kathleen asks how do we find out who else is completing the Steps program. You can email me or call me and I can let you know if you have a field service office in your state either with your state historical society or another agency. They can also contact AASLH and find out but I'm happy to let you know and give you some pointers on who might be in your area. So as I said meaningful progress without spending a lot of money it's easy to do in Steps. There's just lots of things that don't cost a lot of money. Now certainly you'll see that here's an example of what I'm talking about up on the screen. You can see it's asking about the self-assessment question asked are there written procedures for acquiring borrowing and lending collection items. Again you can see over from the performance indicators. This is all has to do with paperwork, policies procedures not spending money. Now certainly there are things recommended in Steps that do take some money. Things like acid free collection supplies, software things like that but each organization has to make the determination whether they're able to move up to the good or better level if they need to spend funding but this is a great way to be able to justify if you have a grant program or if you need to request if you work for an agency where you submit budget requests each year this is how you can justify those budget requests or local granting foundations when you're able to leverage Steps and your participation in Steps with your funding request it justifies why you need the money. So the work that we all do at museums and historic sites and historic houses it really is endless and I know you all know that too. It's like it's never done but our energy and our resources are not unlimited and so assessment programs like Steps are valuable tools for moving an organization forward because Steps provides the structure that helps everyone within an organization move in the same direction toward a set of common goals and so by connecting your organization's planning and decision making and fundraising to an assessment program whether it's Steps or MAP or CAP by connecting them to a program and a national museum standards you're able to gain credibility and as I said justify why you're making decisions, why you're asking for funds, why you're doing what you do. Funders like to know that our long range plans are based on something other than just what we want to do and that they can be assured through those performance indicators that Steps offers. And in turn we have a much easier time articulating our goals and our successes. You're able to tell your community we've been able to do this and this and this and we've made all these accomplishments. It helps your community to not only understand what is involved in museum operations but to know that you're making success and you are achieving goals that other museums around the country are also striving for. But it's not uncommon as I'm sure some of you know for an organization to find itself in a rut and sometimes for many many years and funding or lack of it, people, lack of help and the biggie, lack of time the one that we all seem to be so stretched for these days. Longing for these things can keep an organization in a rut for many years. And no doubt the vast majority of museums and historical societies need all three of these. But I believe if we're willing to look a little bit deeper and take an honest look at how we operate on a day to day basis, we might be able to find some solutions to at least help us somewhat with those things, those elusive things that we find really difficult to find more of. So I have a poll that I want to ask Mike to bring across on the screen. Just something to think about if you think, if you believe that your organization is in a rut, do you think it is due primarily to one of these things? Mike, can you expand the poll? I think it goes down further. There we go. Hope everybody can see all of those things now. So is it one of these? Lack of clear priorities, or do you have too many cooks spoiling the broth? Too much putting out little fires every day to really look at the big picture. Any of these things resonate with anyone? You can put your comments in the chat box if you want, if you think some of these are right on the mark. I think sometimes it's interesting if we just look a little bit below the surface and begin to think about if we don't have time to do anything is there a way to find more time? Do we need to really make sure we've got clear priorities? Or create a calendar where we block out time so we're not just reacting to everything that comes through the front door, but that we're actually working on big picture projects? Think about how an assessment program like STEPPS might be able to help you refocus and climb out of a rut. I see assessment programs that they're like roadmaps. They help us figure out where we are going. Okay, you can pull that poll across Mike. I want to take a look at some organizations where they have been able to they've found STEPPS to be really helpful either in helping them get out of a rut or to identify some things that they really want to do. I see where Sharon has posted a comment, those in charge are in denial that the society is in a rut and a downhill trend. So true that that does happen, Sharon. It's unfortunate that we hear about those situations and hopefully that will change for you. But yes, that does happen. So let's look at a couple of organizations that have been able to use STEPPS to make some big changes. Helping a board of directors learn more about museum operations and to focus their energies is one of the most valuable accomplishments we hear from participants like the Black Heritage Society of Washington State. I believe strongly that it is one of the best benefits of the program. That it helps board of directors, folks who come with great intentions but they may not always have a lot of information about how an organization like a historic site is run. So this helps them to learn. Learn more about it. It can help everyone within an organization learn more about it. We are hearing more and more like Black Heritage Society about organizations using STEPPS as leverage for funding requests and grant proposals. The new London Public Museum in Wisconsin again another one board of directors has a better understanding and this was one of their main goals for joining STEPPS. We often also hear that strategic planning is more meaningful. That's a big one. And I like how I remember talking with the director of this museum and she told me that she tried to have at least some part of STEPPS included in every board meeting whether they would go through just a few self-assessment questions or they would talk about a section. She brought the board into the process. But then as she said on the bullet point number four here for the interpretation section she used that with her staff and they took a day long retreat and went through the interpretation section figuring out how what they needed to do and how they could use the recommendations and interpretation section to change the exhibits and other programming within their museum. Grasmere Farm at the Nashville Zoo where you are affiliated with a larger entity like Grasmere is your site can benefit from those folks in administration at like the zoo for them to gain a better understanding of how museums operate. And also Grasmere reports that they were able to use STEPPS to help them justify supplies and other resources they needed in order to properly care for their collections and manage them. And so they were able to request and be able to budget for past perfect software shelving acid free storage supplies. And as she says in bullet number two they quickly learned the importance of having a collections policy which they didn't have any of the documents like Dita gift forms. And so those were very quickly revelations to them that they needed to work on those things. A county historical society again county officials learned more about operating museum and those of you who are affiliated with city, county or state government you know that they often have benchmarks and requirements that they want museums to meet. And that can be difficult and in the past it was very difficult because there wasn't anything we didn't have anything that you could take to your county administrators and say okay these are the requirements and here's what we're going to work on. But now with STEPPS we have that and so you're able to satisfy those requirements that governmental entities have that non-profit museums don't have. And so as Rob Orison said from Brentsville courthouse that they were able to do that with their county government. And then as he also mentions county maintenance staff learned why they should and shouldn't do some things when they were working on the site the Brentsville courthouse site that would be different from maintenance that they would do at other places that the county maintained. And so this was a way to help train those maintenance staff. And some not all certainly but there are some museums and sites that are interested in moving from STEPPS to other assessment programs like accreditation. And Darnell's Chance House in Maryland this was one of the reasons why they enrolled in STEPPS was they wanted to use it as preparation for moving on to the accreditation program. All of the programs in the Continuum of Excellence they are aligned to make that transition from one program to another easier. And so we all use pretty much the same standards one program is not more prescriptive than the other and so they all work really well together. I want to finish up with this last one the Essex Historical Society in Connecticut they use STEPPS to tackle some fundamental issues and how many of us can say with confidence that our mission and vision statements in our bylaws are current, are relevant, and meaningful enough to guide our organizations. And this is something that they are very proud of that they know that those documents are as they say the backbone for how they run their organization. And I think that's a great accomplishment. And then you combine it with bullet point number two where they now have a strategic plan and I think that's just wonderful. And then again bullet point number three address thorny issues like deferred maintenance and land use. Go on to a couple of other things. One of the big things that they had that they accepted the challenge, and I love this about them, they accepted the challenge addressing what they call thorny issues. I remember reading where they said that they would come to board meetings and when the topic of space allocation arose they just stared at each other across the table. They didn't even know how to begin the discussion because I assume it was a hot button issue or they just weren't even really sure what to do. As I said up on the screen you can see where it says they had an empty first floor and another unused area but they were renting off-site storage and they realized that that was just a little bit ridiculous. And so steps provided them with the vehicle for starting that discussion about how to rectify that situation. And then finally more space allocation issues. I recall also where they talked about the decision to make major changes to the interpretation of the historic house on their property and as they said steps gave them the opportunity to think creatively and permission to experiment and I just love that statement because that is important to be able to decide that you're going to use steps to think outside the box to come up with new ideas to try things and as I said some of the rooms in their historic house they've removed a lot of the things the exhibits that were in there for years and years and they're now interpreting the design and the architecture of those rooms what they call the bare bones and as I said we're trying it we can always undo it if we decide that that's not what we want to do but it's a new way to look at interpreting their historic site. And I do want to say that Essex it's one of the organizations in Connecticut that was part of the Steps Connecticut group so they have made a lot of progress. They had help from a mentor and benefits from being in the Steps Connecticut group like workshops and perhaps most importantly that accountability factor they knew that they had to keep going and to make progress. At last check I saw where they had earned six bronze certificates in the Steps program so they are well on their way to using steps to really I think themselves forward and create a future for their site that is ever changing that will keep visitors engaged and keep them plugged into the possibilities of the future for that site. So that's all I have in terms of my presentation. I'd love to take questions now that you have about Steps either nuts and bolts or anything else comments that you have. Thank you Sherry. We had a couple of comments from Holly from Hawaii had put in the comment at the beginning referring to the map that indicated all the various location and I think that that was a sort of a response or comment on the earlier question about finding out who in their particular area was participating in the program. But we do have a question here from Melanie in Oyster Bay and her institution's landmark owned by the town of Oyster Bay, Long Island and are there any other town owned or state owned institutions that have done Steps? That's a great question and yes there are lots and lots of town or state owned institutions and you're asking do the officials need to be involved in Steps and no they do not. Now what you will find when you do have some type of governmental entity that's affiliated with your museum or that governs your museum some things may be different and this question comes up a lot. So sometimes there will be a question in the workbook that will say does your organization do this or that and so people call me and they say well but that's really something that our administrators at our town hall do. We are not in charge of that or we don't have permission to do that and as I tell people and that's fine. That's okay. What you can do in the workbook is if the person who's in charge of making that decision or has that responsibility is not the person for your situation just cross it out in the workbook and put whoever it is so long as you don't change the intent of the question or the performance indicator you're fine. If it's not a board president who does something but it's a town administrator there is someone in your situation who has responsibility for that and so you can like I said you can just cross it out and write in who does. This is one of the things that we're going to be looking at closely in the steps enhancement project that I mentioned earlier the review. This is one thing that people have asked us about and we are going to be including some content and material about being part of a larger governmental entity. But no Melanie the officials do not have to be involved. You can choose to involve them to whatever extent you want to be. Great question. Fantastic. Thank you Sherry. Yes Susan has indicated to our participants if you could please go ahead and complete the evaluation. The link is in the center of your screen you can go ahead and open that up. She does appreciate that and Ashley what I'll do is I'm just going to move the link up to the top left of the screen over the FAIC logo that way it's not going to cover up Sherry's contact information and Michael from Atlanta is asking or commenting that the same is true for corporate museums where your department and you do not have separate governance like a traditional museum board. Yes you're right Michael absolutely same thing with corporate museums a lot of things are different but again most of the time the intent of the question can still be answered but you know there's certainly going to be times in the steps workbook where there will be something that does not apply especially to like a corporate museum and so again because it's a self-study program you can you know you have that freedom to be able to cross that out in all good conscience and say this does not apply to us. We see the same thing with university museums sometimes they come to us and they say well we're not allowed to create our own code of ethics we have to abide by the university's ethics code and we say you know that's fine although it may not have everything in it that ethics codes typically have in it but at least it's a start and you can begin that conversation on your campus with university officials about some things that might need to be added for your museum. So yes there are different governance models and that's one of the reasons why in the workbook we don't say we don't use the term board of directors we use governance authority it's the term we use because there are different models and we've tried to make one size fits all doesn't always work but we'll see if we can't make some changes in the review of the enhancement project. I have put my contact information on the screen if anyone has questions or would like to talk with me please feel free to give me a call or email me I'm always happy to chat with you and talk with you about your organization situation. And yes if anybody has any additional questions please feel free to add them in the questions comments box we'll give it another another minute or so but otherwise everything else is put in so Mindy is asking are there any comments you may have about exceptions regarding participation for a small museum that documents a religious congregation. That's a good question Mindy comments I have about exceptions I can't think of any off the top of my head there may be some and again you would be certainly free to cross through something in your workbook that says you know this doesn't apply to us but I would think that much of the collection section would apply management section deals with safety and security and risk management and things all things that I'm sure that would apply depending on whether you have visitors coming in for the museum certainly I think that the workbook the majority of the material applies to most situations. Okay Mindy is currently typing so we'll give her a moment to get her thoughts down. Susan's reminding everyone please make sure to join us next month for the found in collections webinar information and the date for the event and the registration or sign up form on the website and so Mindy has elaborated there for you Sherry Oh great yes if you Mindy if you want to send me an email I will look up and see if I can give you any other organizations that are in your area I'll look and see I'd love to talk with you about steps. Okay perfect that's great well if there are no other questions what we'll do is just again lastly one last time we'll remind everyone to please go ahead and complete the evaluation and I'd like to thank Sherry Cook from the ASLH for presenting on the steps program and I'd like to thank everybody for joining us and we will see you all again online in the near future so thank you very much everybody and this webinar is now adjourned