Division celebrates accomplishments and looks to the future during all-staff meeting
During an all-staff event that took place on Oct. 5, 2017 at the Buena Vista Conference Center in New Castle, employees and volunteers of the Delaware Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs celebrated their recent accomplishments and examined future plans.
Division director Tim Slavin kicked off the program by expressing his pride in the agency’s recent accreditation by the American Alliance of Museums and discussing plans for a publicity campaign to help residents and visitors become more aware of the seal of approval that accreditation brings to the agency’s programs and services.
Leaders of the division’s teams discussed recent accomplishments and works in progress including the following:
–A comprehensive inventory of the state’s archaeological and historic-objects collections which is currently in progress
–Creation of a new agency logo
–Upgrades completed on CHRIS, the State Historic Preservation Office’s geographic information system
–Work is in progress on the creation of a new statewide Historic Preservation Plan
–The division’s accounting system upgraded
–Work is in progress on the restoration of Buena Vista’s pole barn and the replacement of the New Castle Academy roof
–Creation of the exhibit, “New Castle: Three Forts, One Community,” at the New Castle Court House Museum
–Plans for programs celebrating the 250th anniversary of John Dickinson’s “Letters From a Farmer in Pennsylvania”
—50th anniversary celebration of Johnson Victrola Museum taking place in 2017
–The Zwaanendael Museum’s maritime celebration, “A Sailor’s Life for Me,” which attracted more than 1,000 visitors over the 2017 Memorial Day weekend
Slavin also took the opportunity to present staff service-awards to Gloria Henry, site supervisor of the John Dickinson Plantation, for 25 years of service; horticulturalist Ken Roy for 20 years; and deputy director Suzanne Savery for five years. Extra Mile awards were presented to Ed Gillespie for emergency delivery of supplies to Buena Vista, and to the staff of the State Historic Preservation Office for its work on developing the State Historic Preservation Plan.
Finally, the meeting concluded with a presentation on best practices in the use of social media by Hannah Ostroff, social-media manager for the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. and a graduate of Dover High School.
