After more than a year of having to suspend in-person programming or allowing people to tour their historic buildings due to the coronavirus pandemic, historical societies in Mahoning and Trumbull counties are focusing on membership campaigns and the return to live programs and events.

MAHONING COUNTY

The Mahoning Valley Historical Society in Youngstown had to cancel in-person happenings, but did see an increase in viewership with its online programs and fundraising events.

Linda Kostka, MVHS development director, said in 2020, society membership stayed about the same with some new members — though not as many as the society usually sees per year.

“We did see more donations last year. Our members and the public were very generous. Many probably saw how challenging it was last year for us so they wanted to help us out with donation. It was nice to have the public’s support,” Kostka said.

She said the annual fund donations doubled last year with more people donating and moving to higher donor levels.

Kostka said viewership online for events increased.

“We have been very fortunate to have support from our sponsors and from our membership,” she said.

Dave Ragan, communications manager, echoed that all programming and fundraising events online saw an increase in viewership. He cited as an example the annual cookie table and cocktails fundraiser.

“That event has been growing in the past couple of years with 350 people attending. When we had 800 viewers watching that event, that showed how much of a success it was for us even online,” Ragan said

The Oakhill Cemetery tour, another popular MVHS event in person, went online and had 1,500 views, Ragan said.

“That event always fills up when we tour the cemetery so for it to increase that much online was amazing,” he said.

Ragan said the monthly “Bites and Bits of History” series, which will return in person in September, often had 75 to 100 people attending at the Tyler Ballroom. There are about 12 per year.

Ragan said the viewers for the monthly series were about 300 on average, ranging from 100 to 1,000 based on the topic.

“The attendance of the online viewers have been decreasing in recent weeks as less online programs are being held and more people are returning to in-person,” he said

Kostka said people are glad they can attend events so she was not suprised the annual meeting held June 22 sold out with more than 160 in attendance.

“We could tell people are very happy to return to in-person events,” she said.

The Poland Township Historical Society did see a membership drop during the pandemic and is hoping that will change as it has more and more public events — including taking part in the Poland Township 225th celebration on Saturday.

Laurie Fox, president of the society, said membership did decline last year from 125 members before the pandemic to 85.

“We suspect that because there was not much to do, or events were canceled and not being held, people were not renewing their memberships fees. We didn’t have many meetings where we always reminded people of paying their memberships,” Fox said.

Fox said she and other members plan to promote membership in the society at community events including the Poland Township celebration on Saturday and also at meetings and programs this fall at the Little Red School House.

“The celebrations and events will bring people back out and this can be a time we can promote the historical society and focus on memberships,” said Fox, noting memberships discounts for 2022 can be offered.

She said the members stayed in contact with one another by email and phone while trustees kept active doing maintenance work at the school house and planting flowers.

Fox said when programs and events return, more people will become interested in taking part and membership will likely increase.

TRUMBULL COUNTY

The Trumbull County Historical Society saw a big increase in viewership of programming after all in-person programs were closed and switched to online in spring 2020.

Meghan Reed, TCHS director, said the society still received support from members and the public.

“We had to be super flexible and adapt to an online audience with our programming, which worked well.” she said.

Reed said the History at Home series for children and their parents — who had often become teachers at home during the pandemic — was popular as students could complete history lessons online.

She said the online viewing for all TCHS events included viewership from people who formerly lived in the area and now are out of state, who were able to watch the programs on their computer.

“We reached 140,000 viewers with our online programming, which was very exciting,” Reed said.

Reed said the society was very fortunate to have support from members and donors since revenue was less, with fewer fundraising events such as Oktoberfest. She said the historical society received both local and federal grants and funds to support programming,

For the Harriet Taylor Upton Association in Warren, past president Ken Conklin said the association is very fortunate to have “a very strong membership and extremely supportive members.”

Conklin said the membership is between 150 and 175 people, and while not able to hold many events or have the house open for monthly tours during the pandemic, the website was kept updated.

“We did not gain or lose any members. We pretty much remained the same. They understood we were not going to be able to hold many events during the pandemic,” Conklin said.

He said the association’s website has seen more viewers and comments.

The Howland Historical Society, which has faced challenges this past year on the future of its Yellow House Museum on state Route 46, has been doing well with memberships, said Cindee Mines, a society member.

“Memberships and donations have been about the same as before. We have done some online programs also that were attended fairly well,” Mines said.

bcoupland@tribtoday.com