One of the continual problems with
outside summer activities for museums is obviously the weather.
Always unpredictable no matter what the weatherperson says. Is 40%
really 100%. It doesn't help checking the sky because it is
continually changing. One year we had so much rain that our museum
grounds were saturated all summer. We were fortunate the museum
didn't flood, and that is really because of the vigilance of a group of our
volunteers. Last year our Strawberry Social was celebrated July 4,
the same date as the town celebration for it's 110th
anniversary. It literally rained on our parade, then later poured.
Suddenly at 2:00 pm it cleared and was beautiful for our event,
however it was really humid.
Fast forward to 2016, the morning of
June 25, there were black clouds and threatening thunderstorms. We
moved our event to the Legion. It was rather crowded for the band
Blue Country with about 7 members and our guests, but somehow we
pulled it off. We were lucky the Legion wasn't already booked, but
it did eat into our fundraising money.
So what is the lesson
learned? The date doesn't matter. Our museum proper does not have a
large enough space to hold the event. Then we realized that our
storage area, the old curling rink attached to the museum, that we
use for vehicles almost totally empties out in the summer and with
some rearranging and cleaning it could become our alternate space.
Oh, yes we have no water back there. The sump pump doesn't count.
The floor is dirt not mud or wood, but I am sure we will eventually
get everything worked out.