IMPORTANT NOTE:

The Board of Commissioners approved a new lease for the Museum today, Sept. 1, by a vote of 3-2.

Now we feel a little like the dog that caught the car...what now?

Actually, major plans have in the works throughout the entire down time
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The Museum closed to the public after May 15th at 5 PM, as directed by The Douglas County Board of Commissioners.  Reopening date TBD

DC Museum supporters please note that we have until the drop-dead date of Aug. 15th for either closure or a new lease (Up for a vote -Sept. 1). Also without access to the Museum we cannot allow people to get their stuff.

Here is what your new Board has been doing to satisfy the Commission's concerns **********************************************************

New Board of Douglas County Museum, Inc.
Chris Usry-Arnold, President
Homer Danley, Vice President
Jim Popham, Treasurer
Carolyn Blanton, Secretary
Frank Winn, Member at Large
Colt Hamrick, Member at Large

Recent Actions
Documentation and Accounts

· Board of Old Courthouse, Inc. voted to close the corporation and transfer all assets to DC Museum, Inc. on July 28, 2026
· DC Museum, Inc. opened a new checking account to receive funds from Old Courthouse, Inc. on July 29, 2026.
· Papers written to transfer assets from Old Courthouse, Inc. to DC Museum, Inc. written July 30, 2026
· Waiting for access to the museum to put the package together to send to Attorney General and Secretary of State of Georgia to end Old Courthouse, Inc.
· New DCM Articles of Incorporation are on file with Secretary of State.
· We are in receipt of IRS letter identifying DCM as a Section 501 (c)(3). This allows us to receive donations under IRC section 170 as well as Section 2055, 2106, or 2522. DCM is classified as a public charity.
· The C-100 form for the State of Georgia is in the process of submittal. This will allow the Museum to solicit donations in the State of Georgia.

Accounting changes:
· Monthly Board Meetings provide a full account of all financial transactions. Beginning with monthly balance, all receipts, all expenditures, and ending monthly balance. This educates the Board on patterns of expenditure.
· Expanded guidelines for expenditure approval:
  o <$100  Office manager approval
  o <$500 Executive approval
  o $501> Require Board approval.
· Adoption of a formal audit plan for annual reviews for <$500K organizations.
· Looking for a software package to manage CRM (Customer Relationship Management) for the small to medium museum. This would manage visitors, ticketing, membership, and programing.

Changes to the Museum:
Many changes have taken place over the past two months. The Museum Board was able to arrange access through Mr. Corbin, the County Administrator, for eight hours most weeks. Since the time was limited, the Board focused on an improved facility. Over a dumpster and a half of unused fixtures and materials have been removed from the facility. The Archive Vault has never been so organized and in order, thanks to the challenging work of Virginia Pope and other volunteers. During this process we found many items that will now be incorporated into exhibits.
Panned changes to the Museum programming have been based on feedback from the Georgia Department of Economic Development 2014 and the KSU evaluation of June 2023.

The following changes have occurred:
· Several long-time exhibits are in the process of being removed such as the children’s record players, the lunch box collection, the TV lamps, and others.
· The plan is to reorganize the large History Gallery in a more chronological order to facilitate self-touring.
· More videos have been made to accompany the exhibits. These videos have first person interviews, additional story information, and pictures. These also appear on our website to encourage visitation by the public.
· The History Gallery reorganization will begin with
  o Indigenous peoples, a letter from David Scott regarding indigenous people,
  o Trail of Tears,
  o Skin’t Chestnut,
  o New Manchester,
  o Why smaller counties were made after the Civil War,
  o Ephraim Pray,
  o Churches,
  o Textile industry boom,
  o (Salt) Litha Springs, The resort & water,
  o Groovers Lake,
  o New Industry to town,
  o Black families economic growth,
  o Super Station, TV’s,
  o Olympics ’96,
  o New Courthouse

· We hope to establish a military exhibit room in the smaller courtroom. This would hold all the uniforms, flags, and military accessories. This could be used by several organizations for services and ceremonies.
· The rotating exhibits would be in the central exhibit room with the ability to make it into 2 separate spaces for diversity.
· The back hallway would have all the Sports citizens and displays.
· New school exhibit with area for sitting and looking through year books and seeing tributes to past educators such as Mr. John W. Stewart.
· First Responders exhibit, Inventor Exhibit, improved exhibits with more signage and videos.
· Foyer will be a tribute to the 60’s in which the building operated and feature a new exhibit of all the previous court houses and the Michelle Obama letter for Historic Preservation for saving the courthouse from demolition.
· We have added photo opportunity spots around the Museum:
    Phone booths, shoeshine stand, and piano.
· We will have a break area for visitors to sit and rest, enjoy the view, and have an opportunity to read some of the books promoted at the Museum and in the Museum shop.

Your Board of DC Museum Inc. Has been diligently and faithfully working on your behalf supporting your Museum as the repository of our County history.

Please repost this information to your friends so that the information gets out there. 
Spread the word to everyone.