Elisha Durrant's Field Reports

It's amazing how one day you can be questioning the worth of the work you are doing. And then the next day you realize that yes what I'm doing is important and worth the sacrifices. INMP has applied for a number of grants in the past year we have received several rejection letters making me question the sustainability of the program. Today I'm not sure why or how but I felt renewed. Last week we were notified by one of our state senators that INMP will be receiving one of the grants that we applied for. This is great!! I have had a renewal to my drive for this position. I want to see things grow and change. The idea of possibly redefining our goals and purposes will mean success. …read more

Everyone is writing their end of the year reports. For me it has been a rather challenging year. There are so many hurdles that you have to over come. …read more

Okay, I don't know about anyone else but can you believe it's already November. Wow for those of us that started in January we are almost done. Look back over this year; this has been an absolute wonderful experience. I've learned so much and feel that I have accomplished quiet a bit. …read more

Here's a quick update on what I've been doing here at Tincan. Continue to work on our small museums grant from Humanities Washington. We've recently submitted two grants and are looking at some smaller local grant. I've been trying to get people together for our once a month after school club for one of the local middle schools. …read more

The summer is quickly coming to a close but wait wasn't I suppose to have more done by now? …read more

I've completed over half of my VISTA year, and it has certainly been a challenge. While I've enjoyed my position and the type of work I'm doing I've been facing a rather difficult dilemma. No matter how hard I work we all make the same amount. I know everyone struggles with the income a VISTA makes. So I know many of you are feeling the pinch. …read more

So we've been working on a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities for a digitization project in cooperation with the Spokane library's Northwest Room (which houses local history). Its enough to make your head spin. Our deadline is tuesday so its crunch time. …read more

We have received a small grant from Humanities Washington to go out to all the small town museums in our area. We are going to show them how to digitize their collections and place them on the INMP website. Also if they do not have a website of their own we will help them to create a basic website to help promote their museum. Finally we are going to create a 3 to 5 minute film of the project. …read more

Okay so I'm sure we've all experienced this...being nervous. In less then two weeks I'm beginning my first after-school program. At two of the local middle schools I will be teaching students how to conduct oral histories. This is a kind of pilot to see if the program will occur next fall...HOPEFULLY it does. I'm looking forward to working with the kids but still trying to figure out everything I need. So if anyone has an tips for the first day let me know. …read more

It's been a while since I've done a blog. Here at Tincan, I've been refining the INMP website. And brainstorming new projects and how to increase our contributors and school involvement. INMP is an online archive of Inland Northwest History. http://history.tincan.org Check it out those who are interested. I know it's not like many of the websites others are working on but its still cool - if you like history. …read more