VISION Statement:

To be a highly valued historical resource offering premier educational and recreational opportunities for Washington's citizens, visitors, and others interested in our state's history.

MISSION

As custodian of Washington's history and our state's storyteller, we engage audiences by:

• Presenting innovative educational opportunities including exhibits, programs, publications, and on-line curricula and digital resources that make Washington's history relevant in a national and international context.
• Collecting, preserving, and making accessible materials that represent our history.
• Partnering with varied organizations, agencies and communities statewide.
• Encouraging the heritage activities of others.

STATUTORY AUTHORITY

The Washington State Historical Society was founded as a non-profit organization in 1891 and officially chartered in 1903 by the Legislature as a trustee agency, thereby operating under the provisions of RCW 27.34. The Society, as an agency, also operates in accordance with all other state laws, its own by-laws, and other governing policies as established by the Board of Trustees of the Society.

VALUES

• Customer Focus
• Entrepreneurial Spirit
• Professional Integrity
• Exemplary Performance
• Public Accountability
• Statewide Service
• Honoring Diversity
• Collaborative Attitude

GOALS of ENDURING VALUE

• Champion state and local history
• Make historical observances meaningful and memorable
• Create significant venues for WSHS interpretive programming
• Strengthen institutional capacities
• Engage organizations, agencies and communities statewide through outreach and effective partnerships
• Preserve the physical assets of WSHS

GOALS with OBJECTIVES

1. Champion State and Local history

• Develop content-driven educational media for use in K-12 with corresponding promotional commitments and measurable rates of adoption.
• Establish relationships with history and social studies teachers and curriculum developers, focusing particularly on Washington History Online and National History Day.
• Increase access to WSHS collections through an expansion of digital assets and online research tools.
• Develop a new Collecting Plan to facilitate acquisition of new materials with strong research and educational potential.
• Strengthen the Heritage Resource Center to reflect its continuing mission as a statewide information clearinghouse.

2. Make historical observances meaningful and memorable.

Develop a Washington-based women's history curriculum for placement on Washington History Online.
• Provide technical assistance to communities planning commemorative events.
• Produce an exhibition on the 10th anniversary of the opening of the History Museum
• Study opportunities for traveling exhibits associated with the Abraham Lincoln bicentennial (2009), the Civil War sesquicentennial (2010-2015) and the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition (2009) and women's suffrage (2010) centennials.

3. Create significant venues for WSHS interpretive programming

• Participate in development of the proposed Washington Heritage Center and other opportunities for interpretive exhibit development on the Capitol Campus.
• Continue restoration, replication and digitization of Legislative Building Mural Art collection.

4. Strengthen institutional capacities

• Expand and enhance technology infrastructure agency-wide to support inter-agency transactions and digital initiatives, including Washington History Online and the Women's History Consortium.
• Complete Museum and Special Collections inventories.
• Increase membership and private donations, including annual fund, grant and major gift contributions.
• Refine customer survey capabilities for exhibition and program evaluation to maintain accreditation and to enhance marketing assessment and audience analysis.
• Increase museum-wide and exhibition specific sponsorships to maximize exposure for the institution and increase museum attendance.

5. Engage Washington's diverse communities through outreach and effective partnerships

• Implement recommendations of the inter-departmental forum on civic engagement.
• Mount high quality temporary exhibitions likely to elicit attention from communities of interest
• Explore a strategic partnership with Washington State Parks, including joint development of exhibitions and study of collections consolidation under WSHS auspices.
• Launch the Washington Women's History Consortium, drawing on the expertise of its advisory committee to implement its commemorative and academic goals.
• Maintain programmatic ownership of National History Day in Washington State, and continue to implement strategies for outreach and growth.
• Launch a Native American Arts Festival.

6. Preserve and enhance the physical assets of WSHS

• Maintain, augment or replace portions of the Great Hall of Washington History and the History Lab.
• Update and enhance telecommunications and data storage capabilities of all WSHS facilities.
• Conduct a pre-planning study for expansion of the Research Center by July 2009.
• Implement the new architectural program plan for the Lord Mansion by July 2009.
• Schedule replacement for electronic components of permanent exhibits.
• Update the Facilities Condition Report biennially.
• Update the 10-year facilities maintenance plan biennially.