Preservation Ohio Goals and Achievements:
November 2010 to November 2011
At the end of each year, Preservation Ohio issues a list of Goals and Achievements accomplished in the preceding twelve months in each of our focus areas – Advocacy and Protection, Local Assistance, and Building a Strong Statewide Community for Preservation.
All of this work is made possible by the generosity and continuing support of our members, donors, volunteers, and friends. Please accept our continued thanks.
Advocacy and Protection.
Ohio’s historic resources are threatened on a continual basis by demolition, neglect, lack of appreciation and/or misunderstanding.
GOAL. Continue effective programming and develop new efforts to promote the cause of significant endangered Ohio places.
12-MONTH ACHIEVEMENTS:
- Compiled and issued the 2011 List of Ohio’s Most Endangered Historic Sites, including issuing a detailed news release on the list with intern assistance that generated requests for television, radio, and print interviews.
- Continued as the first statewide preservation organization in Ohio, and one of very few nationwide, to join local legal proceedings where important preservation issues are being considered with our motion for amicus curiae standing in the Seneca County Courthouse lawsuit. Because of potential legal precedent, our involvement was designed to protect the viability of historic preservation and design review ordinances in every Ohio community where the future of public buildings is being considered.
- Participated in the new Working Group to assist the Ohio Department of Development in soliciting public response and crafting a new application for the newly-renewed Ohio Historic Preservation Tax Credit.
- Worked with consultants and Heritage Ohio on a draft preservation ordinance revision for the City of Chillicothe.
- Laid groundwork for a major new advocacy initiative to be launched during our 30th anniversary year.
- Continued to network with other organizations across the country to monitor developments on key pieces of federal legislation, as well as court decisions impacting the validity and effective use of historic conservation easements.
Local Assistance.
Preservation can transform Ohio’s cities and towns through fostering economic development and promoting an outstanding quality of life. To do so, however, Ohioans need the latest and most effective tools for preservation and revitalization in their own communities.
GOAL. Identify and share the latest and best preservation tools with as many communities as possible.
12-MONTH ACHIEVEMENTS:
- Provided resource information, press releases and interviews for media in Toledo, Tiffin, Mansfield, Ironton, Youngstown, Cincinnati, Dayton, Caldwell, and elsewhere.
- Presented to groups in several Ohio communities.
- Co-hosted “Enhancing and Marketing Heritage Attractions and Byways” with the Ohio National Road Association, with support from the Ohio Humanities Council.
- Worked directly with individuals, organizations and local government in over 20 Ohio communities.
- Placed an AmeriCorps member in the offices of a local downtown revitalization organization to work on an innovative preservation-based neighborhood revitalization program.
- Networked with other entities, including traveling to visit another statewide preservation organization, to develop a model for extending a neighborhood program in Ohio.
- Renewed our involvement with AmeriCorps for a second year, and obtained the services of our own AmeriCorps member to assist in the provision of Preservation Ohio services across Ohio.
Building a Strong Statewide Community for Preservation.
Ohio’s non-profit preservation community has limited inter-communication, and could greatly benefit by improved venues for cooperation and collaboration.
GOAL. Build a strong, vocal, and vital constituency for historic preservation in Ohio in all of its forms.
12-MONTH ACHIEVEMENTS:
- Forged new ground in the use of online social networking to build a strong, cohesive community for preservation, and to provide public relations opportunities for our members and affiliate communities.
- Hosted the most-followed organizational Twitter page of any statewide preservation organization in the country. Each month, our stories and links are now re-posted, and our stories are clicked, over 1,000 times. We continue to build a strong presence on Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn, YouTube and other forms of social media, and can get statewide and local preservation-related messages out to over 4,000 friends, fans, and followers.
- Moved the country’s oldest national or statewide historic preservation blog to a new server in conjunction with our new website at: www.preserveohio.com.
- Worked with statewide and regional preservation organizations in other parts of the country to share best practices and tips on social media.
- Hosted one of the country’s leading experts on social media for heritage and preservation organizations.
