Thank You Arcata Exchange! Pouring Wine to Save the Museum

We would like to extend a thank you to all those that participated in the wine pouring event for the museum. And to Gene, the owner of the Arcata Exchange for being such a great supporter.

Look for us out and about in the community and remember -- we are still working on SAVING the museum!

Event: See our square at Pastels on the Plaza!

Many thanks to the Northcoast Children's Services for donating a square to us! Stop on by the Plaza Saturday and check it out! Tell your friends!

PRESS: A letter to the Times Standard Editor "Save the North Coast's Natural History Museum!"

Save the Natural History Museum

Letter to the Editor

Posted: 09/28/2009 01:15:17 AM PDT

Thanks for your Toast to the hundreds of volunteers and donors who are working to keep the North Coast's Natural History Museum alive, and thanks, too, for your Roast of the HSU administrators who decided, against all evidence, that it would be better to permanently shut down the museum than turn it over to its own advisory board to keep the collection open to the public.

You were quite right in ending your Roast of the administration by giving HSU an out, saying, “these are difficult times, and difficult decisions have to be made.” No argument there, but this particular case was a no-brainer, and HSU administrators didn't pass the exam.

HSU has little to lose but much to gain by giving the advisory board a year to make the museum sustainable. At little additional cost to the university (which is keeping the museum open by appointment in order to satisfy grants it accepted last year), the newly formed Friends of the North Coast's NHM might at least be allowed to fail on its own. Instead, the university seems happy to accept the blame for eliminating one of its only examples of outreach to the community. As far as public relations goes, HSU gets an F.

Janet and Arthur Zich

Arcata

PRESS: A Roast from the Times Standard

Roasts and Toasts

The Times-Standard

Posted: 09/21/2009 01:30:13 AM PDT

Roast

* To Humboldt State University for putting a halt to prospects for the reopening of the Natural History Museum. While the university's budget predicament is unquestioned, it seems like it too readily gave up on the efforts of many in the community -- people who pledged some $75,000 to the museum and had proposed keeping it open with some paid and volunteer staff. At the same time, these are difficult times, and difficult decisions have to be made.

PS We have over $76,000 in pledges as of today.

Word. Check it out over there ---------->


To pledge visit www.savethenorthcoastnhm.org

"Alright I'm listening and I'm not giving up. So what can I do to help?"

So you're surprised, perhaps angry, maybe a little disheartened or maybe you're fired up and you want to do something with that extra energy! There is still a lot to be done and we're more than willing to work with you to contribute in whatever way you'd like.

1. Pledge.

Pledge, pledge, pledge. Pledge $5.00. Get together with your friends and pass the hat around and pledge that. Have a party and charge to get in and pledge that. Tell your Brother in Law "I know you were thinking about pledging so do it now!" Teach your Great Aunt how navigate the web and take her to http://www.savethenorthcoastnhm.org/

Because the more money we have ready to go -- the more hard evidence we have that our model is feasible and supported. Money talks...

2. Write a letter to the Editor. Any Editor -- all Editors.

The press gets the word out -- and we need the word out there. You can find all of the information you need to write a letter here. Or you can go to the top of the blog and click on "show your support." Tell them why you love the museum. Tell them about the last time you went there. Tell them to visit the blog and website. Tell everyone who reads the letter to write a letter themselves.

If you have any questions about information or our press releases or anything you can always email us savethenorthcoastnhm@gmail.com and we will get back to you.

3. Write a letter and send it to us! You can direct the letter to HSU, the President of HSU, the community at large or whomever. We'll in turn post it on the blog (to get your word out) and send it along with our letters and requests to HSU.

If you're going to write a letter to the President of HSU we ask that you write it soon as we're trying to start working with them again as soon as we can.

Email us and we can talk more about details if you'd like. savethenorthcoastnhm@gmail.com

4. Write to me! Write me an email savethenorthcoastnhm@gmail.com and answer the question "why the museum should remain open to the public" or answer the other question "why I love the natural history museum." Or you can even write a statement about what compelled you to write a statement in the first place.

Email it to me -- we'll put it up everywhere we can. Include in this email your contact information (Name, Email, Phone) if you would like us to include the statement in a press release/ packet sent to the press. Or if you want to remain anonymous we can do that too.

5. Tell us if we've missed anything. Have you been sitting on an idea but didn't want to share it? Or didn't have a moment to share it? Email it! savethenorthcoastnhm@gmail.com

We're still getting together fundraising ideas and sustainability plan ideas, volunteers, people and businesses who are willing to show their support. So if you're cooking up something let us know!

6. Sign up for the blog updates. Become our friend on Facebook.

7. Pledge.

8. And believe it... we're not giving up.