By Jessica Honigford
Community Post

MINSTER – The project to give the Minster Historical Society a new home and museum is well underway, so volunteers at the historical society have been working hard to pack up and inventory artifacts to prepare for the big move.

“We're using the Past Perfect assession program,” historical society member Mary Oldiges said.  “We're implementing this because the county historical society and the Ohio Historical Society are all using it.”
The program allows organizations such as the Minster Historical Society to catalog and take inventory using the computer.  It also allows each organization connected to the network to see what the other organizations have, making artifact sharing for special displays easier.
The historical society volunteers started the project of cataloging and boxing up the artifacts, documents and photos two weeks ago.  When asked how long it will take to box and move everything to the new museum, Oldiges said, “Forever.”
Oldiges went on to say the historical society hopes to have it done by Oct. 1, in time to set up displays for the museum's grand opening and open house in November.
“This is a huge project that the ladies are doing,” Oldiges said.  “Not only are they learning the program but they're identifying everything.”
Heading the committee to assess and pack all the artifacts are Mary Knapke and Ronnie Raible.
Raible said she thinks the computer program is very effective.  “Let's say we're going to do a civil war displaying,” she said.  “We can get online and find artifacts in neighboring historical societies and get them on loan and vice versa.”
Raible said the program even includes pictures of every artifact to make it easier to locate items not currently on display.
The Cincinnati native who now lives with her family in Minster said she believes the program helps the Minster Historical Society be more visible and accessible to more people in the community.
“I want the children to come through the historical society and see their history,” she said.
Another way the historical society is trying to get the community more involved is through a photo contest coming later this fall.
The Minster Historical Society will be having a progress open house Saturday Aug. 23 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at its new location next to the police station.
“It's for the people to be able to come in and see where its going to be and the layout,” Oldiges said.
The historical society is still accepting artifact of Minster historical significance.  Items pertaining to Minster's past including military items (Civil War to present), school, church, old businesses, old sports memorabilia and identifiable pictures are welcome as well as other items.
To donate contact any member of the historical society.

SIDEBAR:
Minster Historical Society still needs:
Minster military (Civil War-present) items
Minster school items
Minster church items
Minster old business items
Old Minster sports memorabilia
Identifiable pictures
Anything else of Minster historical significance