Sunday, July 10, 2011

Setting Up Social Media for a Historic Building Movement

Setting Up Social Media for a Historic Building Movement
This weekend I have worked on setting up an easy way to connect on the internet all of the social media sites to keep the Delta Township/Lansing community up-to-date on the progress of saving the Delta Township Grange Hall, http://www.deltatownshiphistory.org/save_our_grange.

Through a query on Facebook, I found TweetDeck. Through TweetDeck I can write one status post and it will upload the post to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Gmail Buzz and Foursquare.

I have two twitter accounts so it can also add a tweet to my Delta Mills Grange Hall Twitter account. With TweetDeck you can decide if you want to add a status to all of the sites or just one or two. You can upload pictures through TweetDeck and it will also add the pic on to Twitpic.

I have also set up my iPhone with TweetDeck so I can give on-site accounts of where I am and what is happening.

For all those who want an idea of what each site does. Facebook is a social site to connect with your friends and family. Twitter is a way to let your friends and followers know what you are doing at that moment. Many young people are gravitating away from a Facebook status to twitter so they can have actual conversations posted from their texts. LinkedIn is a site to connect professionally with others. It is the site where you can up load you  resume and have professional networking on the internet. Foursquare is the way you can let friends know where you are and what you are doing by having a location check in.

Gmail is leading the way with a new way of Internet networking. Through Google and Gmail you can connect all of you sites with one log in and one web page. Google is now experimenting with Google +. Google + is a site modeled after Facebook but it takes on the aspects of Twitter, LinkedIn, Gmail Buzz, Blogger and Foursquare all on one site. That way in the near future you will not need to have a separate program such as TweetDeck to connect all your sites.

The outcome of my experimenting this weekend is to engage the local community in the process of saving a local historic building. I would like to have followers come along with us on the process of saving a historic site that is of importance to Delta Township History.

I am not an expert in social networking site. If it were up to me we would be in a world without computers. Computers have become the wave of the future where we can connect with our fellow man and community in ways our ancestors never dreamed.

Please feel free to add any ideas on making life easier in the Internet world.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Why Save the Delta Mills Grange Hall?

The plan is to save the Delta Mills Grange building in order to preserve the heritage of Delta Township.

Goal
The goal of the historical society is to relocate the Delta Mills Grange Hall to a location that is usable and more fitting to the preservation of one of the last vestiges of Delta Township History. The Grange building is a lasting reminder of the pioneer and farming history of Delta Township.

Preservation
In order to preserve Delta Township History we need to preserve the last remaining pieces of it’s past. The restoration of the grange building will be a lasting and living history for future generations of Delta Township residents.

Why Save the Grange
The grange building is one of the last preserved and untouched pieces to show residents how our pioneers lived as a community.

Why Move the Grange
The present location of the grange building is not usable as a living history museum for the township. The site has no sewers, running water or parking.

Lasting Use of the Grange
The grange building will be used as a museum to the history of Delta Township. As a usable community building, the historical society will be able to educate the community on the past while preserving the building for the future. The building will also serve as a gathering place for community and private events much the same as it’s original use as a community gathering place.


Delta Grange Hall History & Location
The Michigan State Grange was organized on April 15, 1873 at Kalamazoo as part of the National Grange, founded in Washington D.C. on December 4, 1867. Delta farmers established Delta Grange #370 in December, 1901 at a time of rapid growth of the Grange movement. The present frame building was constructed between March 6 and June 18, 1903. Meetings continued until 1924. The building has since been used as a meeting place by retired local farmers. The Delta Grange No. 370 Building historically recalls the Grange at the height of its popularity at century's turn in rural northeast Eaton County.