My Goals for the SIA

First, thank you for giving me the opportunity to serve the Society as Vice President for the next two years. I hope that with your help, Mary Habstritt, the incoming Board and I can move the Society forward.

There are a several things on my agenda as Vice President. Some of these are “stretch goals”, things that are ambitious and might not be fully achieved in the next two years. An organization cannot achieve great things without reaching for things beyond the current grasp.

First, we must improve the technology we use to find, reach and stay in contact with our members, friends and allies. Although we will continue to reach members via standard mail, I’d like to see us move aggressively to use electronic means of communication to improve timeliness of communications and reduce costs. This is more than email, it includes RSS feeds, text messaging, and social networking. Anybody want to help build a copy of the Troy Gasholder in Second Life? How about a YouTube video on one of the sites YOU are passionate about? We also need to find ways of being discovered by new friends and allies. Improving our web presence and relevance is part of this, as is seeking new ways to engage the public in industrial heritage awareness and preservation. There are millions of geographically aware mobile devices out there, what can we do to point out industrial heritage sites as one gets near one of them?

We must find ways of reaching under-served demographic groups. We must broaden our geographic base, and actively seek out new potential members and allies in the ranks of students and young professionals, and in the immense cohort of the Baby Boom, now entering active retirement with resources, interests, and time to get involved in our activities. Coming up with new programs and events to entice, captivate and engage new members is a top priority for me.

I am also very excited about aligning our interests in industrial heritage preservation with the green movement. Existing industrial buildings in creative adaptive reuse are exceptionally green. It is particularly interesting to see how leading edge companies have achieved formal green certifications for buildings over 100 years old. We need to make sure our interests are in sync with the organizations, processes and people in the green movement, and to seek creative alliances with other organizations and people in the historic preservation community who share a green vision with us.

Finally, I was struck by the risk of losing vital parts of the documentation of our industrial heritage while working on SIA 2008. It was a delight to hear that Robert Vogel’s slide collection has been donated to Michigan Tech, and to see the initial steps being taken to make it available to the public. I spoke with other prominent SIA members who were taking similar steps. However, we have a rich legacy of imagery in the hands of individual members who, on their own, have collected slides etc. documenting our industrial heritage. I plan to propose programs in which the SIA can foster the preservation and greater dissemination of these collections. This is still an embryonic idea, and I’d welcome inputs, ideas, and discussion on it.

Thank you for your support. Let’s make something HAPPEN!

jay