Happy Winter time: and what is so happy about Winter time you might ask. Well, it's just that it's still Winter, and except for one very brief episode of freezing precip, we have had very mild, almost Springlike weather conditions. With so much going on, and with so much work to do, I'll take a "happy" Texas Winter anytime over the alternative.
So much IS going on, it's been hard to keep pace with current events vis-a-vis the Museum, so this edition of Dog Tags will be necessarily brief.
I'm writing this SITuation REPort today as your newsletter editor, as I am no longer President. At our first Board Meeting of the new year, on January 17, I resigned as President after having served in that position for approximately three and a half years. As an order of business, before my resignation took effect, I appointed Dale Wagner as the new President, and Karen Garrison as the new Vice President for the foreseeable future. These two are proven leaders and dedicated to the proposition that the Military Museum will continue its mission.
This change in leadership comes at a critical time when the Museum faces the challenges of shutting down its current operation, moving from its current location, and making the transition from a brick-and-mortar destination venue to a mobile "Road Show" format. There's lots of hard work ahead, and these two long-standing veterans of the Museum operation are up to the task.
As previously reported, the days of the Museum at the Mall location were numbered, and our position under new Mall management became untenable. Therefore, a decision was made to suspend operations at this location, and reimagine the form the new Military Museum of Fort Worth will take. Tentative plans include a new Headquarters location, and a "road show" format of highly mobile exhibits that can be put on display practically anywhere. More on this later.
January 11 was the last official day of operation for the Museum. The word had been put out, so the weeks leading up to closure saw a flurry of last-minute visitors who wanted to take final photos and visit the gift shop one last time. Among those visitors were Belle Brownlee, Darrel and Denise Tabner, Lt Col, (retired) Gary Owens, and retired Army MP Kerry Sampson; just to name a few of the many fans who came by for a last look and to bid farewell.
After that, things began to move. Display cases were emptied, items were boxed up, mannequins were undressed, and all items began to be sorted and labeled to determine which displays would be first to rotate through our new headquarters, which would be in storage and made ready for mobile exhibits, and which would be donated elsewhere. This included fixtures that are no longer needed.
On February 7 and 8, the museum held an "estate sale" on site to reduce our inventory of "overstocked" items.
As of this writing, the move is in progress. When I visited a couple of days ago, I was struck not only by the quantity of material we have, but also by the enormous volume of work that has already been done by our stalwart team of volunteers; our board members and new volunteers, including Wanita Lovell, who want to do their bit for the cause. The stacks and stacks of boxes, piles of mannequins, clusters of display cases, and racks of partition walls is beyond impressive. Packing is still going on and will continue right up till move day, which is soon.
