Volunteers and Committees

          Canby Historical Society is always on the lookout for committee volunteers at the Depot Museum and we invite you, family members or friends to participate.  Please seriously consider volunteering, and please pass this message on to others.  We would ideally like to have 3-5 members on each committee.  The Depot Museum survives and thrives based entirely on volunteer support from the community.  We sincerely hope that you would like to help!  No matter which activity you choose, you’ll enjoy the camaraderie of working together as a team, the appreciation of the community and generations to come and the satisfaction of a job well-done!

COLLECTIONS

          Our collections are the heart and soul of our organization and we take their preservation very seriously.  How we handle fragile objects and catalog each item is an important process.  Our staff is given the responsibility of documenting each artifact, identifying their owner or donor, assigning a reference number, taking a photo, and storing the information into our Past-Perfect computer file.

The Collections Committee meets periodically to

            -  Review and approve policies to determine which documents, books, photos, etc. the Museum shall collect and remove from the collection.

            -  Recommend items for removal to Board of Directors.

            -  Process incoming and outgoing collection items.

            -  Remove identified items from the collections.

            -  Computer entry into collections database.

            -  Cleaning, care and conservation of items as needed.

            -  Research items as needed.  Recommend, assist with exhibits.

ORAL HISTORY

            We are in the process of transferring data from cassette tape to digital for computer storage.  If you or a friend or family member would like to be interviewed, please give us a call so an interviewer can arrange a convenient time.  It would only take a couple of hours. 

Responsibilities of the Oral History Committee are to

            -  Contact potential candidates for Oral History Interviews.

            -  Schedule and conduct interviews, either at the Depot Museum or at the
                interviewee’s place of residence.

            -  Complete appropriate consent and personal data paperwork with, and take a
                snapshot of, the interviewee.

            -  Copy the audio recording, catalog and store the Oral History Interviews to
                computer.

            -  Transcribe interviews, save the data to computer and the hard-copy to file.

            -  Supply a copy of the transcribed interview to the Interviewee.

HISTORICAL CALENDAR

            Canby Historical Society produces an annual Historical Calendar with vintage photos of the Canby area, people and events.  This has been a tradition for us since 1984, and our patrons and people in the area look forward to this publication.  Canby Historical Society has a vast photo archive collection but we’re always on the lookout for more photos.  If you have a quality vintage photo of street scenes, old buildings, school events or people, and can supply the year, description and names of people, we can certainly use it in our Calendar and we’ll give you credit by naming you as the source!

            If you have not picked up our 2008 Historical Calendar, please do so and help support Canby Historical Society.  The cost is $9.00 and you can purchase them at several businesses in Canby.  The entire list is on our What’s Happening page.

            Our Calendar Committee consists entirely of volunteers who

            -  Search our archives for the right photo.

            -  Ascertain the description (i. e. year, names, descriptions of locations and
                buildings).

            -  Design the Calendar and proof it.

            -  Send it off to the publisher.

            -  Distribute copies to our advertisers and the public.

PHOTO and HISTORIAN

            We have recently restructured our database and photo archive collection, which holds an estimated 3200 photos, dating from the late 1800s to present day.  We are very proud of our photo collection and Canby is very lucky to have had citizens with the forethought to capture early life and save quality photos for posterity.  Their foresight is our gold mine, and we welcome the public to come to the Depot and look at this photo collection.  We have notebooks with copies of every photo in our collection and we can also print a quality photo for you, with or without the description on the photo.

            We realize, as our forefathers did, that what is happening today is tomorrow’s history and memories, and that’s where our Historian comes in.  Canby is changing in leaps and bounds and our Historian has been capturing it all on camera so that generations to come will enjoy “our history.”  If you’d like to get a sampling of some of the photos in our library, got to Virtual Tour.  We will be adding more in the future.

            The Photo Committee is charged with the task of

            -  Assessing the quality and ascertaining the description of each photo received.

            -  Scanning the photo, assigning a reference number and saving it to computer.

            -  Storing the original photo in fire-proof cabinets and making a copy for our

               photo collection notebooks.

NEWSLETTER and PUBLICITY

            Canby Historical Society relies heavily on our Newsletter and Publicity Committees.  Word-of-mouth is our stock-in-trade and Newsletter and Publicity are probably the most important Committees we have. 

            We provide a quarterly Newsletter to our membership which highlights our activities, upcoming events, our President’s Message and a host of other tidbits about our Organization and its members.  We send our Newsletter by mail to members and it is also published on our Website.  To read our latest Newsletter publication you can go to Newsletter.

            It is the responsibility of our Publicity Committee to make sure the word gets out there!  Whether its an event that’s published in our Newsletter, the Candy Herald and other publications, put onto our Website or flyers taped on store windows, Publicity will see that its done!

EVENTS and PROGRAMS

            Our Events and Program committees plan, recruit volunteers and carry out our special events--flea markets, July 4 Pancake Breakfast, Third Grade Visits and a new event, St. Nick Day.  We are always in need of volunteers for these activities, the more the better!

            Our Program Director lines up speakers for our monthly public gathering, usually held the third Tuesday of each month.  For those of us interested in the history of our community, this forum offers a glimpse into early life in not only Canby, but surrounding communities.  The speaker usually comes with artifacts and photos and its always an interesting, enlightening and inspiring lecture.  If you know of anyone who has stories of the past, antiques or even a hodgepodge of collectibles, we would urge you to contact us and we’ll have our Program Director get in touch with you.

HOSPITALITY and MAINTENANCE

            Our Hospitality team usually consists of the entire Board of Directors, who, taking turns, provide the goodies and refreshments served at our monthly programs.  They’re home-made, delicious and served with punch or coffee.

            Our Maintenance crew makes sure our Depot Museum stays in tip-top shape.  Whether its sprucing up our landscaping, changing our reader board, or sweeping, mopping and waxing our floors, Maintenance makes our Museum shine!