Heading into its second decade, the Redmond Historical Society will discuss its new bylaws, organizational structure and goals at its next meeting, Saturday, Sept. 12 at the Old Redmond Schoolhouse Community Center (ORSCC), 16600 NE 80th St.

Coffee and greetings begin at 10 a.m. and the meeting commences at 10:30 a.m., including a chance to view vintage Redmond photos and identify the people and events.

Like schools, the Redmond Historical Society goes on “hiatus” during the summer months but “we’ve been very busy over the last year,” board member Joe Townsend told the Redmond Reporter during a recent visit to the society’s office at the ORSCC.

To continue its mission “to educate, advocate and serve the Redmond area by documenting, collecting, housing and displaying the history of people, places and events that illustrate the city’s heritage,” the society needs “a capable board, professional staff, trained volunteers, active non-dues revenue sources, an efficient fundraising mechanism and sufficient office and display space,” said Townsend and former Redmond mayor Christine Himes, who is now president of the Redmond Historical Society.

Board members recently conducted a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunties and Threats) analysis with both internal and external input.

Among the observers, Mayor John Marchione praised the great attendance at the group’s meetings and their many dedicated volunteers, but suggested that they need more connections with the “under 40” crowd, better display space and funding.

Townsend agreed, “Our strengths are our passion, our dedicated board and staff and digital archives we’re willing to share,” but he admitted that the society is prey to “a volunteer burnout factor, weak funding and limited, non-dues revenue sources.”

That’s not going to discourage them, said Himes and Townsend.

They plan to “accentuate the positive” and continue looking for ways to fund and fuel the exciting work of preserving Redmond’s history, especially at a time when downtown construction is booming and some longtime community members fear that old images, documents and artifacts won’t be preserved or given their due respect.

Himes said working with VolunteerMatch.com was a recent godsend. The society got 13 new volunteers who were unemployed, had time on their hands and wanted to show prospective employers they weren’t idle.

“These were definitely not idle people,” Himes emphasized. “They were very skilled and motivated. Several took oral histories or are preparing to. As people get older, these stories disappear. But as the economy improves and people go back to work, we still need more people with time, skills and motivation.”

And, said Townsend, “We’d like to see more members join. Anyone can attend the meetings and get our newsletters. About half are dues-paying members.”

Sales of books such as “Redmond Reflections: From Settlers to Software,” DVDs, postcards and membership dues have been the society’s only sources of money, thus far.

But again “accentuating the positive,” Himes stated, “I can not see a more talented and diverse board than ours. It includes people with an amazing wealth of information — artists, scholars, people who work in communications and genealogy experts. And we now have an office manager to take care of paperwork and our Web site. People sometimes come in and just drop off boxes of ‘stuff.'”

They need people to sort and research donations and safe places to store them.

Also, to attract younger participants, they are working with city staff and local educators to put together an Oregon Trail or Lewis and Clark presentation at one of the Redmond parks — or present skits at schools, with volunteers portraying Redmond pioneers such as Luke and Emma McRedmond. Those activities would be geared toward elementary school students, but high school students are encouraged to use volunteer work at the Redmond Historical Society for community service or culminating projects.

To learn more about the Redmond Historical Society, visit www.redmondhistoricalsociety.org, call (425) 885-2919 or e-mail redmondhistory@hotmail.com.