Newsletters — Current & Past Issues

Southern Colorado Space Museum & Learning Center
Newsletter #4

   Greetings to all of our supporters and thanks for your patience in between these newsletters. We continue to play the waiting game when it comes to the 501c3 paperwork. First we had to wait a couple of months for The Foundation Group to compile and fill out all of the needed forms. But they filled out everything to the letter and now we wait for the IRS to review all 57 pages. That could take them anywhere from 2–6 months! Once we are granted our 501c3 rating we will see things start to happen rapidly.

   While we were waiting for the paperwork to be filled out, we made great progress in some other areas. We have put together a very talented and diverse Board of Directors that meets monthly. You will meet them in a future newsletter. In April we attended the 24th National Space Symposium held at the Broadmore in Colorado Springs. This is the largest gathering of space related companies in the world! While we were there, we talked with 23 different companies that agreed to help us out once we are up and running.

   Speaking of helping us out, we would like to take a moment to thank the following people that have been kind enough to donate to our cause, either with cash or physical donations (such as artifacts or equipment) or both. Many thanks to:
   Laura C of Lakewood, Co.
   Oscar H of Huntsville, AL.
   Brent A of Dulles, VA.
   Les K of FL.
   Robert C of Westcliffe, CO.
   Mike & Jan B of CO.
   Kelly C of Westcliffe, CO.

We appreciate every donation no matter how small or insignificant it may seem.

 While you’re at the website, click here on the new page 2 the Artifact Collection to see five new items that we’ve added . We’ll keep adding five new items with each newsletter.

   As soon as the IRS gives us the ‘go ahead’, we will be starting a number of fundraising campaigns. We are always open to new ideas, questions or comments so don’t hesitate to contact us. Thanks for all of your support and we will keep you posted.
     Steve Janssen  <museumcurator@hughes.net>

Southern Colorado Space Museum & Learning Center
Newsletter #3

We are pleased to announce that the Space Museums website is up and running. Many thanks go out to our Webmaster Ed Stewart, he did a top notch job on it!

We’ve had people ask what they can expect to see inside the museum so we’ll cover that in this newsletter. Some of the more unique areas will be an astronaut ‘wall of fame’, a ‘60’s living room display, and a space art gallery.

The astronaut wall of fame will be a long hall with over 200 autographed photos of astronauts. Mostly from the U.S. but also from Canada, France, Japan and where ever else we can get them from.

The 1960’s living room mock up will be just that. A room decorated with retro furniture to look just like it might have during the moon landing in 1969. There will be an old black & white TV playing actual footage of the first moon landing.

The art gallery will be a separate room where artists can feature their space art for the public to see. There are many artists out there that just concentrate on space.

There will of course be hundreds of memorabilia items on display. Everything from old space toys to liquor decanters and commemorative plates to record albums. If you can name an item, there’s a pretty good chance that somewhere there is a space theme put to that item. For example, who would think that an ice scraper would have anything to do with the space program? But that’s one of the hundreds of items that will be on display.

You can also expect to see more model rockets than you ever have before. From tiny ones to one that will stand over 20’ tall.

We will be featuring some of the items on the website, different ones each month. So keep checking in to see what’s new.

As far as our 501c3 rating goes, The Foundation Group, a company out of Nashville Tennessee, will be handling all of the paperwork. We still need dedicated board members to fill some spots before we can continue. Among those spots are:

• Program Manager
• Chief Financial Officer
• Secretary
• Fundraising Coordinator

We are not allowed to apply for any grant money until our rating is approved, so these positions will need to be on a voluntary basis at first. Then after our grant money starts to arrive we will be able to compensate the people that have filled these positions. A lot of organizations run solely on volunteer help and that’s fine. We will certainly need a lot of that. But the people on our board that make all this happen will be paid for their efforts.

We have been looking around at property and buildings to get an idea of what this will all cost to get going. Location is obviously a big factor and the best place we found will run just over three million dollars. So we will be looking for grant writers to start writing grants as soon as our 501c3 is in place. Our grant writers will receive compensation on every grant they acquire. That’s a lot of funding to go after so the grant writers will be constantly busy.

Thanks again to everyone for their support. We hope that 2008 will prove to be a great year for all of you.

Southern Colorado Space Museum & Learning Center
Newsletter #2

Hello everyone, a few things have happened since our last newsletter and we’re happy to share them with you. First of all, we have received a few cash donations. Not a lot but we appreciate every dollar.

A number of other donations have come in as well. Those items consist of:

• A large safe
• Office furniture
• TV/VCR
• Some actual artifacts to put on display
• And an offer to host our website

That's a great start and we thank everyone for their support!

And speaking of our website, Ed Stewart will be our webmaster and from the looks of the sample pages he’s designed, it's going to be a wonderful site. As soon as it is up and running, we will be featuring some of the artifacts that will be displayed in the museum. A new item will be featured each month.

As our ideas grow, so does our "want, need, gotta have" list. Be on the lookout for the following items. (This list will also be available on the website and updated as needed):

• Sheets of plywood or OSB (to be used for models & photo backdrops)
• 2" dia. Pvc pipe and end caps (short pieces about 12" long)
• Bright colored paints
• Picture frames
• Office furniture (Desks, chairs, filing cabinets, etc)
• Computers
• An old '60's style TV cabinet (doesn’t need the TV in it)
• TVs VCRs
• Display cabinets

Our first form of fundraising will be done with this giant rocket bank. As soon as we are granted our 501c3 rating, we will be allowed to set it out in front of stores like Wal-Mart and hand out flyers and encourage people to help fund this project. As the level of money rises up in the rocket, the astronaut will be hoisted up in his elevator until he reaches his space capsule. When the rocket bank is full, the money will be removed and used for a specific purpose. Then we’ll start it all over again.

This rocket bank stands over 9’ tall and is sure to attract a lot of attention.

We hope the astronaut reaches his capsule quickly so our mission can begin!

In our next newsletter we will publish the address to our website and give an update on the progress of the 501c3 rating. As well as any other news that happens between now and then. Thanks again to all of you who are supporting this effort. And as always, feel free to contact me anytime with questions, comments or ideas at:
     <museumcurator@hughes.net> Steve Janssen, Curator

Southern Colorado Space Museum & Learning Center
Newsletter #1

Thank you for your interest in putting a space museum here in southern Colorado. What we plan to do is incorporate it with a learning center to help children learn more about the importance of math and science in their future.

There is no way to cover all of the things we would like to include in the museum, but some of the features that we are planning would be:

• An astronaut wall of fame, featuring autographed photos of astronauts from the very beginning of the space age to the present and from many different countries
• Displays of all types of spacecraft models from small ones to gigantic ones
• A reading room/study center where students from any school can find information for reports etc
• A cafe or lunch room
• A picnic / play area
• A gift shop
• An astronomy telescope viewing area
• A space art gallery
• A hand's on display area for all ages
• And a main lobby where larger displays from NASA or other museums could be featured.

This is going to be a huge undertaking and if we cannot do it right then there is no need to go any further. The very first thing we need to do is to find help in applying for a 501c3 status. That will allow us to apply for various grants and give out tax deductible receipts to donors. Whether it is for monetary donations, help with labor of any kind, or artifact donations that are to be put on display.

I have been collecting artifacts and memorabilia related to the space program for around 40 years and have a huge collection that will be ready for display as soon as a building is put up. I invite anyone to visit me if they wish to see some of the items that will be displayed. We also invite any suggestions that you may have regarding this effort.

Once we receive a 501c3 status we will need an enormous amount of help in areas such as:

• Land acquisition
• Building
• Website Hosting
• Grant writing/Fundraising
• Printing
• Staffing
• We will be looking for the following positions for the Board of Directors as well:
• Project Manager
• Chief Financial Officer
• Attorney
• Secretary

If any of this sounds interesting to you or you know of someone that is up for the challenge, then please pass it on. We thank you for your support and hope that we can make this all happen.

It is a simple fact that space artifacts on display are a good way to attract tourists. Wherever they are displayed, people go out of their way to see them. This museum, like any other, will be an ever growing attraction. It will be your museum and we hope you will want to be a part of it. You are always welcome to contact me at <museumcurator@hughes.net> or 719-783-0610. Thanks again for your interest, Steve Janssen.