Wednesday, October 20, 2010

All You Ever Wanted to Know about the LA Heritage Alliance

In developing an answer to "What exactly is the L.A. Heritage Alliance?," we created a handy one-page fact sheet. Below is the text of that sheet:

Los Angeles Heritage Alliance
Fact Sheet 2010
Mission & Purpose
The Los Angeles Heritage Alliance works to support heritage organizations in Los Angeles to more effectively promote and preserve the region's heritage mainly through increased communication, coordination, and collaboration between the over 225 such organizations in the region.

Background
The Los Angeles Heritage Alliance (LAHA) was founded in 2008 to help many heritage organizations facing very similar challenges to come together to solve them without have to do so in isolation. With limited human and financial capital, many heritage organizations are challenged to fill in board members when they no longer can serve, and often historic venues are only open extremely limited hours each month, if at all. These issues, and those of a digital revolution, have stirred on heritage organizations to collectively address these issues and to raise the level of awareness and appreciation for our shared Los Angeles heritage.

Activities & Projects
Quarterly Meetings: Each quarter, heritage leaders from across LA are invited to meet to discuss the latest projects and resources of the LAHA. Additionally, each meeting features a different training seminar to add value for those traveling to be a part of the meeting. The meeting locations rotate around LA, with organizations hosting each meeting to showcase their venues and accomplishments. These meetings also provide valuable and much needed information-sharing and networking.
L.A. Heritage Portal: Launching in late 2010, The L.A. Heritage Portal is a partnership between the L.A. Heritage Alliance and ExperienceLA.com. This partnership provides a central location for all heritage events taking place in Los Angeles, which assists with planning, collaboration, and education. Each group adds their own events, and there is no cost for groups to add or update events. Additionally, this platform allows every organization to manage and update their own profile for a central listing of all heritage organizations that is current. Further, this raises the awareness of the vast heritage and activities Los Angeles has to offer, as well as providing directions to all events. Check out the LA Heritage Portal at ExperienceLA.com/heritage.
L.A. Heritage Day: L.A. Heritage Day is LAHA’s signature event. Since 2008, this event has brought together hundreds of heritage leaders and over 75 heritage organizations to set up alongside each other for one day to remind the public of the vast heritage and history of the region. Usually held the first Sunday in April, LA Heritage Day saw over 1200 attendees in 2010 and featured performances and presentations in the Heritage Showcase. Held at Heritage Square Museum, this event is free and open to the public (with a flyer!), and has become one of the leading heritage events in Southern California, with attendees coming from as far away as San Diego and Santa Barbara. This event also garners substantial media coverage from local TV, newspapers, radio, and online sources.
E-News: At least monthly, an internal communication is sent out to heritage leaders updating them on funding opportunities, training and operational resources, news, and upcoming events related to communication, marketing, partnership, and other activities to support their efforts in leadership and management.
L.A. Heritage Blog: The L.A. Heritage Alliance blog is place where news and resources can be shared from a variety of sources. Press releases from member groups related to non-event news are posted here, as well as trainings, national heritage news, and updates about LAHA-sponsors events and projects.

Membership & Structure
The L.A. Heritage Alliance is open to all heritage leaders in the Los Angeles region who lead heritage, history, cultural or preservation organizations relating to the geographic or cultural heritage of the region. The organization is solely driven by volunteers, and all projects and activities are accomplished through open committees. There is no fee to participate and no minimum level of participation. Multiple leaders from an organization or entity are encouraged to participate, and active participation from across Los Angeles has resulted in a richer alliance.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

More of a question than a comment. I am interested in the idea of setting up a similar organization in Orange County and would like some info on how you pulled it together. I can't find an e-mail address anywhere on your site, so I'm asking here.

John said...

Just email us back at laheritage [at] gmail [dot] com