Saving the Big Ship
5/25/2004
Thinking About Audiences / Why CWB Succeeds
I've been thinking a great deal over the past few days about the audience for maritime heritage and maritime preservation in the Seattle area. Maritime heritage supporters have clearly failed to grow their audience in the past 10 to 20 years. I bet a review of membership numbers would show this, with some exceptions for specific organizations. I also predict that an audience analysis would show audience members to be getting grayer, and that they would come from occupations associated with older industries, namely maritime and aircraft, and that they would be primarily long-time residents. Flipping this around, an analysis would show few people associated with computer or biology-based high technology jobs and even fewer people who have lived here less than 20 years. Without meaning to show disrespect to our elders, this is not a sustainable strategy.
Maritime heritage supporters must grow their audience by appealing to the expectations of potential audience members who have little or no emotional connection to Seattle's maritime past. How do we excite these people? I believe we have to remember that history for mass audiences means entertainment. A person once remarked to me that we shouldn't turn maritime heritage into a Disneyland with old ships. I couldn't disagree more. While I don't think Disneyland is the right metaphor, I do think that modern audiences expect to be dazzled. They want to say Wow! They want a memorable experience. Like it or not, audiences, and to some degree funders, expect a certain flash and bang. It may be more sedate that Six Flags Over Wherever, but it has to have some showmanship, i.e., high-tech, participatory, and universal.
This brings me to my thoughts about why the Center for Wooden Boats has been so successful while other local maritime heritage groups have failed. If you look closely at CWB, its activities, by and large, have almost nothing to do with Pacific Northwest maritime heritage per se. Individual projects are related to local heritage. But its overall tone is maritime heritage as a class of skills and values that almost anyone with a North American/European background can understand. And these values could potentially be expanded into other cultures. If you got off the plane yesterday, and you've never held a hammer in your life, you can immediately plug into what CWB does. Not so with most other local heritage organizations. Dick Wagner and crew have successfully tapped into a universal desire to participate in something larger than an individual. The subject matter just happens to be wooden boats and small boat sailing skills.
If you would like to be placed on the list notifying readers of new entries, email Joe Follansbee at joef@speakeasy.net
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Maritime heritage supporters must grow their audience by appealing to the expectations of potential audience members who have little or no emotional connection to Seattle's maritime past. How do we excite these people? I believe we have to remember that history for mass audiences means entertainment. A person once remarked to me that we shouldn't turn maritime heritage into a Disneyland with old ships. I couldn't disagree more. While I don't think Disneyland is the right metaphor, I do think that modern audiences expect to be dazzled. They want to say Wow! They want a memorable experience. Like it or not, audiences, and to some degree funders, expect a certain flash and bang. It may be more sedate that Six Flags Over Wherever, but it has to have some showmanship, i.e., high-tech, participatory, and universal.
This brings me to my thoughts about why the Center for Wooden Boats has been so successful while other local maritime heritage groups have failed. If you look closely at CWB, its activities, by and large, have almost nothing to do with Pacific Northwest maritime heritage per se. Individual projects are related to local heritage. But its overall tone is maritime heritage as a class of skills and values that almost anyone with a North American/European background can understand. And these values could potentially be expanded into other cultures. If you got off the plane yesterday, and you've never held a hammer in your life, you can immediately plug into what CWB does. Not so with most other local heritage organizations. Dick Wagner and crew have successfully tapped into a universal desire to participate in something larger than an individual. The subject matter just happens to be wooden boats and small boat sailing skills.
If you would like to be placed on the list notifying readers of new entries, email Joe Follansbee at joef@speakeasy.net
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5/08/2004
A Potential Turning Point for Puget Sound Maritime History
I participated in a meeting yesterday that led me to restart this blog after a four month absence. The local cultural development authority, called "4Culture," http://www.4culture.org, sponsored a one-day conference yesterday at the Naval Reserve Building on preserving local maritime history. 4Culture invited representatives from all the maritime history organizations, with particular emphasis on the owners of the ships, namely the Wawona, Duwamish, Viriginia V, Arthur Foss, Swiftsure, and Twilight. Many government agencies were represented, and a few non-profits and businesses with an interest in the issues. City Councilman Peter Steinbrueck attended the morning sessions. I am not affiliated with any organization, although my main ship interest remains the Wawona. I was invited after I sent a letter to 4Culture expressing my thoughts on how the maritime history community should move forward.
I knew only a few of the 50 or so participants, but I recognized many of the history organization names. They were the "usual suspects," the core of people who have worked in their various areas over the years. They are the same people who've found it almost impossible to cooperate beyond minor issues for any significant length of time. I can't be 100 percent sure, but I believe I was one of the very few unaffiliated or independent people there. I won't go into the details of the meeting, which consisted of some presentations and a standard set of exercises meant to tease out a portrait of the resource base, elements of a vision for maritime history preservation, and some practical elements needed to make the vision happen. Here's the basic outcome from the notes of the facilitators:
Vision: Sustainable business model; Seattle as a destination and hub of Puget Sound maritime history activity; Focus of effort on relevant vessels; Authentic and experiential experiences; Core stories.
Pratical elements (edited to remove overlaps): Diverse sources of revenue; Credible, visible, and connected leadership; Business plan; Professionalized organization; Trading control for support; Sustainable organizational model; Site identification and analysis; Healing process; cooperation with a broad, committed and involved community; A road map; Visionary
The vision is maritime history specific. The practical elements could be applied to any business or non-profit organization. Some of the current organizations, namely the Center for Wooden Boats and possibly the Virginia V Foundation, incorporate most or all of them. Most of the remaining organizations incorporate only a few or none at all. The differing levels of "organizational prowess" lie at the root of the inability of the groups to cooperate. It is like trying to run an elementary school with a representative of each grade, first through eighth. The eighth grader has a clue most of the time; The first grader doesn't have a clue at all. Meanwhile, the school as a whole deteriorates slowly over time.
The breakdown manifests itself in governance. The most recent effort at cooperation, the Maritime Heritage Foundation, ended in financial bankruptcy. Running out of money usually indicates a structural and operational failure. It has less to do with money than people. These and other failures have left bitterness, distrust and deep skepticism in the maritime heritage community, which was expressed yesterday near the end of the meeting, when 4Culture attempted to acheive a consensus on next steps. 4Culture Executive Director Jim Kelly, his eye on the clock and perhaps sensing that the meeting could end inconclusively (which would be interpreted as a failure), took charge and essentially imposed an interim next step under cover of a suggestion by a meeting participant of some sort of incremental step toward a next step. Kelly did the right thing. This preserves a sense of momentum, no matter how weak that momentum might be. I'm curious on how this will play out.
For those of you following the progess of my book, here's an abbreviated list of happenings:
o Met and interviewed Dave Wright, one of the few remaining Wawona fishermen
o Met and interviewed Diane Colson, daughter of Don McInturf, author of my core document, his 1936 diary
o Met and interviewed Linda Haakenson, daughter of Ted Trafton, last owner of Wawona as a fishing vessel
o Reviewed documents related to Capt. R.E. "Matt" Peasley at Aberdeen History Museum
o Published articles in Pacific Northwest Magazine, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Sea History, and Nostalgia
o Articles accepted by Columbia (Washington State Historical Society) and Maritime Life & Traditions
o Circulating a book proposal (rejected twice so far, now in the hands of a third publisher)
o Currently working on another article based on Wawona research
BTW, my streaming media book has been published. Go to Amazon.com and search with the term "get streaming". My book should be the first one listed.
If you would like to be placed on the list notifying readers of new entries, email Joe Follansbee at joef@speakeasy.net
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I knew only a few of the 50 or so participants, but I recognized many of the history organization names. They were the "usual suspects," the core of people who have worked in their various areas over the years. They are the same people who've found it almost impossible to cooperate beyond minor issues for any significant length of time. I can't be 100 percent sure, but I believe I was one of the very few unaffiliated or independent people there. I won't go into the details of the meeting, which consisted of some presentations and a standard set of exercises meant to tease out a portrait of the resource base, elements of a vision for maritime history preservation, and some practical elements needed to make the vision happen. Here's the basic outcome from the notes of the facilitators:
Vision: Sustainable business model; Seattle as a destination and hub of Puget Sound maritime history activity; Focus of effort on relevant vessels; Authentic and experiential experiences; Core stories.
Pratical elements (edited to remove overlaps): Diverse sources of revenue; Credible, visible, and connected leadership; Business plan; Professionalized organization; Trading control for support; Sustainable organizational model; Site identification and analysis; Healing process; cooperation with a broad, committed and involved community; A road map; Visionary
The vision is maritime history specific. The practical elements could be applied to any business or non-profit organization. Some of the current organizations, namely the Center for Wooden Boats and possibly the Virginia V Foundation, incorporate most or all of them. Most of the remaining organizations incorporate only a few or none at all. The differing levels of "organizational prowess" lie at the root of the inability of the groups to cooperate. It is like trying to run an elementary school with a representative of each grade, first through eighth. The eighth grader has a clue most of the time; The first grader doesn't have a clue at all. Meanwhile, the school as a whole deteriorates slowly over time.
The breakdown manifests itself in governance. The most recent effort at cooperation, the Maritime Heritage Foundation, ended in financial bankruptcy. Running out of money usually indicates a structural and operational failure. It has less to do with money than people. These and other failures have left bitterness, distrust and deep skepticism in the maritime heritage community, which was expressed yesterday near the end of the meeting, when 4Culture attempted to acheive a consensus on next steps. 4Culture Executive Director Jim Kelly, his eye on the clock and perhaps sensing that the meeting could end inconclusively (which would be interpreted as a failure), took charge and essentially imposed an interim next step under cover of a suggestion by a meeting participant of some sort of incremental step toward a next step. Kelly did the right thing. This preserves a sense of momentum, no matter how weak that momentum might be. I'm curious on how this will play out.
For those of you following the progess of my book, here's an abbreviated list of happenings:
o Met and interviewed Dave Wright, one of the few remaining Wawona fishermen
o Met and interviewed Diane Colson, daughter of Don McInturf, author of my core document, his 1936 diary
o Met and interviewed Linda Haakenson, daughter of Ted Trafton, last owner of Wawona as a fishing vessel
o Reviewed documents related to Capt. R.E. "Matt" Peasley at Aberdeen History Museum
o Published articles in Pacific Northwest Magazine, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Sea History, and Nostalgia
o Articles accepted by Columbia (Washington State Historical Society) and Maritime Life & Traditions
o Circulating a book proposal (rejected twice so far, now in the hands of a third publisher)
o Currently working on another article based on Wawona research
BTW, my streaming media book has been published. Go to Amazon.com and search with the term "get streaming". My book should be the first one listed.
If you would like to be placed on the list notifying readers of new entries, email Joe Follansbee at joef@speakeasy.net
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