CLHO Strategic Plan Summary Document

CLHO MISSION STATEMENT: 

The Connecticut League of History Organizations builds connections among those who preserve and share the stories and objects of our past. (Adopted March 15, 2011)

We strengthen and sustain our communities by sharing knowledge and experience, and promoting best practices.

We practice our mission by:

• Sharing best practices and contemporary trends that affect historical societies, museums and libraries, with those responsible for Connecticut’s heritage collections.
• Serving as a communication hub by offering opportunities for peer-to-peer net-working.
• Providing a consistent presence and long-term memory for those who promote and safeguard Connecticut’s cultural heritage.

CLHO Identity Statement:

     We advance our mission to unite, support, and promote historical interests and activities statewide and seek to strengthen and empower the network of those who promote and safeguard Connecticut’s cultural heritage.

     We do this by serving the staff and volunteers of organizations that have history-related collections in the state of Connecticut through a flexible and responsive array of programs and publications.

     We emphasize our competitive advantage of offering an accessible window to programs and practices that sustain cultural organizations and promote peer-to-peer learning.

     We are sustainable by the scope of our outreach and the excellence of our programs developed and implemented by a dedicated staff and volunteers and currently funded by the Connecticut Humanities Council and the Institute for Museum and Library Services.

Impact that CLHO seeks to achieve:

The Connecticut League of History Organizations seeks to:

• Articulate professional museum standards and share them with the greater history community through educational programs and professional development opportunities.
• Be the primary resource for small museums and the staff of larger museums in the state of CT.
• Model best practices in the field
• Serve as a communication hub and social network for history museum professionals by offering opportunities for peer-to-peer interaction
• Continue to provide a consistent presence and long-term memory for Connecticut’s museum community 

Through its programs and services, the Connecticut League of History Organizations will make the following impact on its constituents, and on the people of Connecticut:

1. Develop and support lasting mechanisms that create self-sufficient networks of both the people and the organizations that steward Connecticut’s material culture collections, in order to combat the sense of isolation prevalent in our community and pass along best practices for museum operation. 

2. Broker, develop, and/or otherwise present geographically accessible, ongoing, affordable and high-quality programs that share expertise and promote best practices. 

3. CLHO is known state-wide as the “go-to” (first-responder) organization for guidance in the field. 

4. Connecticut residents demonstrate an increasing respect for the state’s history and material culture, resulting in stabilized funding. 

To further guide future decisions, all strategies will:

• Support our mission to build connections among those who preserve and share the stories and objects of our past,
• Prioritize the development of programs and services that have been identified as needed or desired by our constituency,
• Base programmatic decision making on fiscally sound policies as guided by the CLHO business plan,
• Discourage the creation of duplicative programs and services,
• Foster a greater cooperation and stewardship of resources between the existing organizations that also serve Connecticut’s greater heritage, cultural, library/archival, and museum communities.