What Can You Do?

Talk to your museum colleagues.

• What staff expertise and resources can the museum offer the community?

Talk to your board of directors.

• How can the museum and the community work together to observe Sept. 11?
• Will the board endorse the museum's participation in a national Day of Remembrance?

Participate in and/or initiate public discussions about how your community should remember Sept. 11.

• Talk to other local museums about collaborating on Day of Remembrance activities and events.
• Talk to community groups and leaders. Who is discussing how the community should mark the Sept. 11 anniversary?
• Contact local community organizations, such as firefighters, rescue workers, police, churches, community centers, boys & girls clubs, libraries, schools, civic organizations (Rotarians, Elks), veterans groups.
• Contact local elected or community leaders, including the mayor's office, city council, county officials, aldermen, school board, school superintendent.

Encourage your museum staff and volunteers to participate in community observances of Sept. 11.

• Let your community know that museum staff and volunteers can help with Sept. 11-related activities.

Things to think about:

• Cooperative efforts are most successful when the organizations believe the efforts are mutually beneficial, leadership is supportive, and the group represents all participating institutions. The group should meet, decide how to work together, select a point person, assess each institution's strengths, and determine how responsibilities should be divided. Adapted from the AAM Communications Kit (1999).

 

• Community organizations have a deep knowledge of the constituencies they serve and wealth of experience in outreach and partnership. A successful partnership will preserve each organization's strength and identity, operate in neutral territory, and multiply the assets the participating organizations can offer. Adapted from Mastering Civic Engagement: A Challenge to Museums (AAM, 2002).