Facebook, trading cards among new tools for Heritage Areas

LAKEVILLE — Take advantage of social media such as Facebook. Make handouts terse and appealing. Find a template for direction and information signs. Focus on bright interpretation, not dry fact.These were some of the topics that emerged from a two-day National Park Service Northeast Region training program held at The Interlaken Inn in Lakeville on March 20 and 21.Hosted by the Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage Area, it was a workshop for professional people to become even more professional.The newest buzzword is social media. This focus is new, explained Michael Liang, visual information specialist, Northeast Region, because until the Gulf oil spill two years ago, National Park Service access to Facebook, Twitter and other digital media was blocked. The NPS was assigned to use digital media to spread word about cleanup activities for the oil spill, Liang said. NPS said it couldn’t get into digital media. A day later, it could. And now it is developing social media for a variety of uses at its parks and heritage areas.“It’s easy on Facebook to offer links to, for example, other parks and sites with similar geographic, historical or other themes,” Liang said. Of 80 parks in the Northeast Region, he said, 24 use Facebook, 34 Twitter, nine Flickr and 11 Youtube. A dozen are developing mobile phone applications.The Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage Area — Housatonic Heritage, for short — has been in the formative stages since 2000. It received Congressional approval in 2006.Housatonic Heritage’s not-quite-in-the-fraternity status — it has to finish its management plan before it can receive full funding — meant nothing to workshop presenters or other participants. In fact, staff from Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor, Niagara Falls National Heritage Area, Crossroads of the American Revolution NHA, Champlain Valley National Heritage Partnership and Delaware & Lehigh NHC were more than happy to share anecdotes and offer advice.Participants toured Beckley Furnace in North Canaan, the Col. John Ashley House and Bartholomew’s Cobble in Sheffield, Mass., and the Mahaiwe Theatre in Great Barrington, Mass. They mentioned those sites in their presentations, and they discussed issues with several Housatonic Heritage partners, among them Liz Shapiro of Sharon Historical Society, Scott Heth of Sharon Audubon and Rene Wendell of the Cobble.Dan Bolognani, Housatonic Heritage’s executive director, said the local NHA holds annual autumn Heritage Hikes, offers annual grants on changing themes and nurtures iron, paper and African-American heritage trails.“We’ve nearly completed the management plan, a three-year process of working with heritage partners and the public to determine how the resources of a national heritage area are best used,” Bolognani said Monday. “Through this process we sought to determine the priorities of the 29 communities that the organization serves as they relate to our historic, natural and cultural resources.”Workshop presenters stressed the importance of providing visitors to historic, outdoors and cultural sites with enjoyable and worthwhile experiences. Experiences start at the driveway (signage) and continue in the visitor’s center (restrooms) and displays. Those who take away the best experiences have felt a sense of participation.Unlike national parks, National Heritage Areas own no properties, according to Peter Samuel, National Heritage Area program coordinator for the Northeast Region. NHAs work with partner organizations to originate, nurture and broaden existing history and cultural organizations, and, as in the case of the Erie Canalway NHC, work with a state entity, the New York State Barge Canal, to expand awareness.Housatonic Heritage has no national park within its boundaries. “We have to gather partners to our programs, yet at the same time maintain our partners’ individual identities,” Bolognani said.Branding is a popular term today — imprinting on the public an image so strong, they will instantly recognize it. McDonald’s golden arches is an example. “It will be up to our partners to establish our identity here,” Bolognani said.“The management plan includes strategies for preservation and for interpreting those resources, and includes existing and proposed partnerships for carrying out this work. The activities the Housatonic Heritage will engage in after the management plan is completed will look similar to current activities, though many of the programs are likely to be expanded, and a few new programs will be initiated.”Housatonic Heritage, to eventually become self-sustaining, will have to identify potential new funding sources.“Typically the funding for heritage areas is increased once a management plan is approved,” Bolognani explained, “and this would likely be the case for Housatonic Heritage. Currently Housatonic Heritage receives about $150,000 annually, and this is likely to double once the plan is approved.”Housatonic Heritage has identified as important themes its industrial past, its landscape, its emergence as a cultural resort and its role in fostering democracy.But how to get the message out? Ideas flowed at the workshop.Joanne Blacoe, interpretive planner for the Northeast Region, described a set of historical trading cards aimed at young visitors that has taken off in popularity. Each card carries two photographs and a message of no more than 55 words. Each message must go beyond raw facts. It must be interpretive.Invigorated by the workshop, Bolognani and Housatonic Heritage Education Director Judith Monachina and consultant Elizabeth Sharp were hyped to tackle the management plan one last time. A new draft should show up on the heritage area’s website within a few weeks, Bolognani said.The writer, associate editor of The Lakeville Journal, was on the founding committee for Housatonic Heritage from 2000-2004.