A Year-end wish…
With the recent decline in the health of several of our founding board, we haven’t been able to put out a newsletter for a few years, but we are still busy behind the scenes.
Our recent projects have included continuing our work with the State Library to get items from our “Black Cards” photo collection and additional motion picture films from the Academy digitized and preserved as well as starting to inventory and digitize the old Department newsletters, Communiques and additional annual reports and documents.
You may also know, we own title to 7 restored CDF fire trucks which are housed and cared for by CDF personnel in Nevada City, Coulterville, Ramona AAB, Placerville, Santa Rosa, Hornitos and BDU. The Department has access to use them for parades or public events and the Museum makes sure they are properly titled, licensed & insured. We’ve also still hold an additional 16 authentic CDF vintage trucks in various un-restored states in hopes we can eventually bring them back to life and continue to expand our fleet. (Photo by HFEO Rick Bradley)
While we rely upon our dedicated base of subscriber members to support our mission financially, this year we have a Holiday “Wish List” that goes beyond asking for just money. We need assistance in the form of Personnel hours. Below is a small list of opportunities for you to give a small donation of your time which will make a BIG difference. If you live anywhere in the Southern California area and you’d like to combine a visit to the museum with some productive volunteer time, please email us at: Admin@calfirehistory.com or call the museum and leave a message 909-881-6984.
- Storage space clean out: we need 2-3 strong sturdy folks to donate one day of work to reorganize our off-site storage spaces by combining the contents of multiple spaces into one, and having unused shelving and scrap metal hauled away. This will increase the efficiency of the use of space and decrease our monthly rental costs.
- Administrative Files clean out: We have maintained insurance and registration records on our mobile fleet since the beginning of our museum founding. We’ve never purged the files of old billing documents and duplicate copies of documents. We need one person for a few hours to go through the file drawer and shred the old out-dated versions of documents keeping only the current information on file.
- Year End gift shop inventory: We need 1-2 people to assist for a few hours to go through our supply of tee-shirts, stickers, pins and patches to give us an up-to-date inventory on our supply stock, so we can re-set our records and get a fresh start on the new year
Additionally, we are still welcoming anyone willing to fill any of the following roles on a part-time or intermittent basis as your schedule allows. Help us keep CDF History Alive!
- Social Media content creators (can be off-site)
- Mechanically inclined vehicle checkouts & maintenance (varied locations)
- Fleet tracking: coordination and record keeping for fire trucks (can be off-site)
- Office Management: Monitor incoming correspondence (USPS & email) and phone messages to assure all inquiries are acknowledged and routed accordingly. Pack and ship occasional gift shop orders.
- Handyman skills: Minor repairs and upkeep at the museum
- Docents: People-person available to staff on-site visiting hours
- Membership Coordinator: Computer-literate (Excel) to update and maintain donor records.