By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
Surrounded by the past, the future was on display at the Ellis County Historical Society's annual meeting of members Monday, as the organization elected a new slate of trustees and officers for the year.
“It's really exciting to have this room filled again,” said Interim Director Amanda Rupp, who opened the meeting in the Stone Church on the society’s campus. About 45 people attended the meeting.
“It's been a very good year,” said board President Priscilla Hunt. “We've taken two museums and put them into one. We've had to take the Sternberg Museum collection that we inherited and put it into here and on our premises.”
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“They have done a tremendous job and doing what we've had to do in this short period of time because we all took over in March, not in January,” Hunt said. “So, congratulations to everyone.”
Following routine business, the group moved to elect leaders for the year.
“This is the exciting part,” Rupp said. “Before we were scrambling for candidates. We couldn’t find enough people to come on in.”
This year, elections were needed as more people expressed an interest in serving as a trustee or officer.
Priscilla Hunt was again selected as president. Also selected were Alex Herman, vice president; Matt Odom, secretary; and Cheryl Stramel, treasurer.
Mary Kay Schippers, Cynthia Stone, Jerry Braun, Braden Splichal and Greg Atkins were selected as trustees.
While much of the meeting was routine, the organization’s current focus was made clear — organizing, sorting and curating a collection that will allow the group to showcase the history of Ellis County in meaningful way in the future.
While that effort is underway, Rupp said other activities will be limited.
“We hope to put in more small exhibits in (the Stone Church) rotating through the exhibits that have been in the museum prior,” she said. “There won't be new exhibits. We're not taking our valuable time that we need to organize and do our main back-of-house work to present a new idea. We're not inventing the wheel. We're going to bring out some of the stuff in the collections that haven't been seen that already have their title cards and their information with them and present them so that people can look at them.”
She also said the traveling exhibits in various public locations will continue.
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“They can’t come in our museum right now,” Rupp said, (but) “we can come to them a little bit.”
Groups have also been able to tour the collections.
“We're still available to show some things,” Rupp said. “And those outbuildings are still prime destinations for people to use.”
For now, she said the No. 1 priority for the staff is sorting the society’s collection and removing items that are of little historical significance to Ellis County — even if they are pieces of history.
“We've collected a lot of things over the years — a lot of these are wonderful. Just as an example we have six or seven pull-behind plows,” Rupp said. "(They) take up a lot of room. We don't need six plows, but they could go to a specialized museum.
“When we look at our selections we have to decide ... does it belong to Ellis County? Is it pertinent to us? And can we store it safely and display it properly?”
Items that are selected to be removed from the collection are subject to strict rules and could be returned to the family that donated the item or given to other museums.
“Over the next couple of years, we're going to have to be making some decisions as we go through this collection of what needs to stay and what does not,” Rupp said.
She said the hopes members can help educate the community as to the difficulties surrounding the size and scope of the current collection and share that, while it might seem the society is not active in the community, working through the collection is the first step in creating a society and museum that can bring Ellis County pride.
“We can't keep everything. We don't have the money to keep everything,” Rupp said. “There are 27 typewriters. That's great. If we had a huge complex, we'd love to keep them, but we just can’t.”
The society hopes, even as events and access are currently limited, county residents will support its long-term goal through becoming involved or through financial donations.
One of the key pieces of their mission outlined during the meeting is procuring new computers and software that can catalogue society collections.
Rupp told the group that, in only six weeks, $5,830 of the needed $10,000 had already been raised for those systems.
A sustained effort, however, to secure more sponsorships into the future will be necessary as the society works toward its long-term goals and Rupp called on the members to help share with the community what is needed — and what is going on at the society — in order to create a plan for the future.
“Our priority is assessing our collection, and what we have, so that we know what we need in terms of space, what we're going to do with the building, whether renovating or getting a new building or moving somewhere," Rupp said. "The possibilities are endless.”
For more information about the Ellis County Historical Society, visit its Facebook page, ECHSHays.