The Kettle River Museum in Midway held their annual general meeting last week.
During the meeting they were entertained by Gordy Jones who has the job of winding the clock in the Greenwood post office—telling of his exploits in climbing the ladder over his many years on the job.
Results of the election of officers are as follows. Tannis Killough remains president, Steve Stewart was named vice-president and Elaine Fromme, treasurer. The museum manager normally serves as secretary.
Directors are Casey Bot, Marlene Dunsdon, Eric Freeman, Yuko Hasebe, Jim Reeves, Pat Sheldon and, new this year on the board, John Kohlhauser.
“Our financials don’t look good,” admitted Killough. “We had put forward the thought that perhaps the village could hire somebody to administer the museum, bunkhouse, arena and do such things as writing grant applications.”
In September the museum was given a $1,500 advance on their 2014 grant from the village to get them through the winter. In 2013 the museum received a grant of $7,850 from the village.
“We will probably use more volunteers to keep the museum open,” Killough told the Times in an interview on the weekend.
Killough said after the AGM she had contacted the Greenwood museum to find out more about their operating model. Whereas the Midway Museum has of-late hired a museum director the Greenwood Museum is run almost totally on volunteers using only grants to hire students in the summer.
“Unfortunately I’m not that type of person,” said Killough. I am just not going to devote my life to running the museum, much as I love it— I’ve got a whole lot of other things on the go.”
“So then I look at it and say, well maybe I am part of the problem I haven’t been able to find people who really go in and help.”
“In a way I think my suggestion to the village (for an administrator) was a bit preliminary, we need to do some thinking ourselves before going ahead with that.”
“But maybe there is something the village could do to help out, and I am also going to apply to the regional district for a grant in aid and two generous $500 donations have come in recently. We will struggle on.”
In the end she calls the museum a worthy cause—well worth saving.