Historical Commission Agenda and Packet 2016 07 06

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Page 5 of 150 Commission members, in reviewing the two consultants' reports,overall expressed satisfaction and gratitude that the City retained museum experts to focus their expertise on our Louisville Historical Museum campus,and expressed enthusiastic approval of the overall goals contained in the Needs Assessment Report and Business Plan. In closely examining the details of the recommendations,the Commission also had some suggestions for other ways to carry out the goals. For example, based on a request by the Museum Coordinator,the Commission has suggested a change the Museum tag line that the Needs Assessment Report contained.The Commission,along with the Foundation,also raised issues concerning some aspects of the Business Plan recommendations,such as whether the City should require the Foundation,which is a private 501c3,to fundraise for ongoing operational funding for the Museum and whether the new building will provide adequate space for a museum store.These and similar discussion points and suggestions, all of which were very productive, have been incorporated into the Interpretive Plan and have thereby been made a part of the Master Plan. The Master Plan process also led the Museum Coordinator to review the needs for new or updated Museum policies. During the period of working on the Master Plan,the Commission reviewed and approved three Museum policies that the Museum Coordinator presented for approval.These policies,which are the Collections Management Policy,Visitor Policy, and Volunteers Policy,appear in this Master Plan as appendices. The City administration and residents can count themselves fortunate not only that they already have the Museum as an existing City asset, but also that there are constituencies who deeply care about the past, present, and future of Louisville and of the Museum that has been telling the story of Louisville for thirty years.The Commission, Foundation,City staff, Museum volunteers, Foundation members and donors,and Museum visitors have all had input into the planning for the future of our community museum. Now that the major issues and needs have been identified through this planning process,attention will by necessity need to turn to an educational phase in order to explain these needs to the general public.The survey results from the 2016 Louisville Citizen Survey show that there is work do be done, particularly in the current environment when there are so many needs in the City to consider.The results show that"[n]ine in 10 awarded high marks to Historical Museum programs and the overall performance of the museum," but also show that three percent of respondents indicated that expanding the Museum should be considered one of the top three issues for the City to invest in for the future.Twelve percent indicated that expansion was an essential or very important priority for the City.An encouraging result of the survey is that without any accompanying information about the Museum's lack of ADA access or the fact that its facilities have never been updated and improved like other City facilities, 53%of respondents still indicated that expanding the Museum is at least"somewhat important."Also,81%of respondents indicated that creating indoor community gathering space is at least"somewhat important,"with 29%indicating that it is at least"very important." Creating indoor community gathering space is one of the reasons for the City to construct a new Visitor Center building,which is being called the Community House. It is hoped that information about what needs would be met through a new Visitor Center building can be communicated to Louisville residents in ways that it was not possible to do through the format of a survey.