The Magnolia Historical Society is nearing its 10th anniversary with more than a little anxiety about its future.
Like other small nonprofits that depend on donations and volunteers, the MHS has fallen prey to the downtrend economy too and now the organization is in survival-mode.
"We're trying to redesign the society so it's easier to survive during these times," said Monica Wooton, MHS president, "which we've done by rewriting our bylaws, trying to make it easy to join and cutting down the amount of events we have."
With hopes of reviving its board and membership, currently at 45, MHS will launch is 2010 membership drive April 17, from 11 a.m-3 p.m. and April 20, from 6-8 p.m. at the Magnolia Library.
"Our goal is to maintain our nonprofit status so the society can continue," Wooton said. "Five of us have been on the board since 2007 so we need to start turning it over and get new ideas, new energy."
To help promote the organization, MHS is compiling new memories about the childhoods of residents from the 1950s and 1960s. Wooton's hoping this will spur Magnolians to contribute their stories and photos to grow the archive of Magnolia's recorded history.
"We're the only community that has produced high-quality academic historical research with high quality archival photographs in book form that is substantial," Wooton said. "That seems to be the main mission of our society."
The last book published by MHS, "Magnolia: Making More Memories," featured 32 Magnolia writers who told the history of Magnolia in the decades of 1920-1940. Wooton expects to continue compiling stories for all the decades as a sort of mandate for the society.
"It's a way to keep doing what we do," Wooton said. "Writing is what Magnolia Historical Society does. This is a fun idea and it's an opportunity for us to build our collection."
The memories will be published in the Historical Society's next newsletter and will be available at the public library. This year there will be no charge for membership and the book, "Magnolia: Making More Memories," will be given away to 25 new members, along with current members. More information on the organization and upcoming events can be found at magnoliahistoricalsociety.org.[[In-content Ad]]
