My ‘post’ report due to my being awarded a $375.00 registration grant to attend your 49th annual conference. Had my dad been alive, I think he would have been happy to see me attend this ‘conference’. He loved conferences and sports. There are several museums / halls of fame that I would have liked to go to with him.
I am not a ‘man of many words’ as my dad was, so this report will be somewhat brief. I honestly tried to take notes, but that got kind of lost in just listening and wishing our museum “Oklahoma Sports Museum” had the funds to do what others are or have done. I also wished that the presenters had ‘handouts’ to better remember what they said.
I am a person that likes to find “diamonds in the rough”, so here are the diamonds that I found. Most of them came from Kansas, my home state.
- Jackie Stiles #10, luncheon speaker. I went to her final high school game at Hays, Kansas. I wanted so much to console her for their team loss, and to get her autograph. But funny how God gives you something (autograph) when it comes later in life.
- Gary Bender, as he spoke I began to remember him on CBS & ABC Sports. But it was a real treat to hear how he grew up just a few miles away from me in Southwest Kansas.
- Janice L. Ogurcak’s business card from “World Little League Museum & Official Store”. On the back of the card it says ‘One Complimentary Admission’. Here I come Janice!
- The ‘Silent Auction’, I won the 2016 Women’s Basketball Hall of Famers’ autographed ball. Plus the autographed Induction Program and a $50.00 Amazon Gift Card… 3 for the price of 1 – what a ‘diamond’!
- Meeting and talking with Saman Amarasinghe from Sri Lanka.
- Marla Day, Curator of K-State Costume and Textile Museum. Marla, I wish you could come to our museum in Guthrie, OK., as we could use your guidance.
My notes from your presentation:
- Tape is ‘evil’
- Laminating a poster is no good, the plastic will yellow, and ‘encapsulation’ is the way
- Copy the object, store it, and show the copy
- Myths:
- Cedar chests preserve your collection
- It is safe to store collections in plastic
Textiles:
- Keep out of light
- Keep in stable environment
- No metals (pins, staples, nails)
- Clothing needs support – padded foam on hanger
- The “Heck Yes/Heck No”, “Of Course/Nope”, “Naturally/Definitely Not”, “Yay/Nay”, and “Yep Yep Yep/No No No” voting flags, a must in every decision time.
Submitted by Alan Penner, Vice President, Oklahoma Sport Museum dba Oklahoma Territorial Capital Sports Museum
The 2019 International Sports Heritage Association Conference in Wichita provided a fruitful and engaging experience for attendees. Each session had speakers who shared first-hand accounts and detailed case studies of issues affecting their respective institutions. These sessions covered a wide range of topics including stewardship, best practice, and collections care in sports heritage museums. I received many great insights from these sessions and have returned to the ProRodeo Hall of Fame with a handful of ways we can implement improvements to different areas of the museum.
One of the most important components of the conference for me was getting the chance to network with other museum professionals and exchange stories about our current and past work projects. Many attendees I networked with at the conference had similar challenges to those that we are up against at our hall of fame and it was incredibly valuable for me to hear about ways that my fellow museum professionals were able to navigate and troubleshoot certain issues. A big interest for me going into the conference on behalf of the ProRodeo Hall of Fame was to explore ways to bolster engagement with our local community and to expand our visitor base. At the open dialogue session, these concerns were addressed by moderators and attendees who shared ways they were able to get new guests in their museum doors via event programming and by making their institution a community meeting place instead of solely being a place to exhibit content on a specific topic.
I very much enjoyed having the opportunity to attend this year’s ISHA conference in Wichita and am proud of having received the conference grant on behalf of the ProRodeo Hall of Fame.
Submitted by Kyle Moore, ProRodeo Hall of Fame