The Champaign County Historical Museum posted the following message, regarding its possible closure, on its Facebook page:
We have often mentioned in this column that our members are our most valuable resource, and the largest single source of our support. With the help of Lou Liay, a long-time member, we held a membership drive a few weeks ago and gained a number of new members. All good. However, faithful and supportive though you all may be, there are simply not enough of you to keep our finances positive. At our July 1 Board meeting, we came to the conclusion that there is simply no way the Museum can keep operating as it has for the past 40+ years. We are literally unable to assure that the lights will stay on and the telephone connected. With the help of a special advisory committee made up of local citizens with experience in historic preservation, we are looking at way to manage this situation in both the short and long terms, and hope to remain open a while longer. Nevertheless, we see no way that income will cover expenses in the long term. We will explain the alternatives and the proposed direction at a special Members meeting on Wednesday, September 2nd at 7PM at the Champaign Public Library.
When the Museum was created in 1972, and opened in 1974, the flurry of Bicentennial interest in American history provided a strong path for founding a local museum. Grants at both the state and federal level were plentiful. Donations from many other sources also helped. A few years later, we organized the first Taste of Champaign-Urbana, and for several years this provided enough support for half of our annual expenses. Recently, changes to the Taste structure and the greater expenses to operate our exhibit have meant that our net income there is only 10 percent of what is used to be.
Also contributing to the problem is that we, the Board, are a lot older than we used to be, and no longer able to work as long and hard as in the past. Many former Board members have retired, resigned, passed away or moved from Champaign County. We have regularly asked for volunteers to join the Board but have had very few responses, with only one new Board member added recently. This means that there are simply not enough people to perform the necessary tasks to manage the museum. It also means that we are not in conformance with our bylaws, which requires 10 members on the board. This is another reason for the special Member meeting next month… we will ask you to nominate and vote for enough persons to fill out the Board so that the actions we need to take are in conformance with our bylaws.The museum as we know it at the Cattle Bank will have to close fairly soon. However, we are working with more than one organization interested in our local history to discuss how our mission, personnel, and exhibit materials can be transitioned to a different entity, in order to remain a viable presence in the community. This is not your fault. Perhaps we should have seen this coming more clearly 2 or 3 years ago when the trend headed toward negative, and realized it was not temporary but long term. We will do our best to keep Champaign County history alive in some way, even if not at the museum. We will keep you informed, and hope that each you can attend the upcoming meeting.
Hal Balbach
Board Co-President