American Association for State and Local History

The American Association for State and Local History will strengthen history museums and related organizations by improving the training available to their paid and unpaid professionals. Beginning with an assessment of the association's current continuing education and professional development programs, the association will examine how the historical community's training needs have been served, and how organizations inside and outside the history museum field have provided professional development opportunities. The association will also conduct interviews about current and emerging training needs. The project deliverable will be a comprehensive, evolutionary Continuing Education and Professional Development Framework that augments graduate education, serves professionals at every stage of their careers, and reaches lifelong learners and avocational historians. The framework will identify the value of the association's training programs for professionals; create a refined vision statement, outcomes, and metrics; establish a curriculum of courses, workshops, and webinars; define target audiences and ideal formats for reaching those audiences; and outline systems for evaluation and experimentation.