Future Plans of the Museum of Information Technology at Arlington -
We envision three phases in our growth at the Museum:
Phase 1 - We will acquire a small facility where we can store our collection, catalog it, refurbish it and build displays using the existing collection. We will place these displays in the vitrines that have been loaned to us by the Origins Project. We will be placing these displays where they can be seen around Arlington - perhaps at City Hall, in the Library, in the Visitors Center, at the Convention Center, at the Chamber of Commerce, etc. Some of these other entities may have display cases of their own that they would like for us to utilize instead of using the vitrines. While we hope to raise support for MITA, we trust that the displays will be educational and interesting and will assist the mission of these entities as well. This first facility might be no more than 1000-1500 square feet and would be open to the public only on a limited number of hours per week and for small groups.
We will also have a web site that we will use to document our collection. We will link to other Arlington Arts organizations, tourist attractions, etc. and will encourage them to do the same for us. We will also use the web site as a vehicle for collecting donations in several ways. We will use other publicity methods as well such as press releases, media kits and email lists.
During this phase we will probably have no paid employees. We will try and recruit as many participants as we can to assist in refurbishing equipment, documenting and acknowledging donations and keeping the doors open for a minimum number of hours. Federal museum grants require minimum hours of operation and staffing for a certain period of time, so we will want to get started on that right away.
Phase 2 - We will plan on opening a second phase with a larger building, probably in the range of 6-10 K Sq. ft. This will allow us to have larger groups and to begin programs for education rather than just exhibition. We will also be able to start to fill a new roll in Arlington as an adjunct to the tourism business model. We will also be able to produce touring displays for exhibit in other museums as a means of bringing in more funds for our own operation, collection and growth.
At this point we will have longer open hours and we will most likely pay 1-3 people a part time salary in addition to the continued use of volunteers for many purposes.
Phase 3 - We will plan on opening a third phase with a still larger building of 100 K Sq. ft. or more. This will be a full-sized museum on a par with any in the country at the present time. It will allow us to become a tourist destination rather than just an auxiliary interest. We will probably have a paid staff of up to 10 full time people and also will rely heavily on volunteer hours.
Of course, sometimes donations come from unanticipated sources and at unanticipated times. We can't assume that some angel will step forth and fund our Phase 3 on day one, but something like that could happen. In that case we will be pleased to jump to the Phase 3 plan at any time.
| MITA is an IRS 501(c)(3) non-profit scientific and educational corporation. | Last page change August 2, 2010 |