Board member, Bob Mitchell, assisted in preparing our latest update. I am most grateful for his efforts.
-Larry Sassorossi, Executive Director

INFORMATION CENTER TO OPEN
We are opening an Information Center in downtown Springfield, just a few blocks south of the Museum site. We will have 10,000 square feet of space, of which we will only need half. We will sublet the remainder and reduce our lease cost, which is very low to begin with. We will also gain 10,000 square feet of basement storage at no additional cost. We hope to have a gift shop and some kind of food service as well. This will accomplish several goals:

• It will give us an immediate physical presence in the Springfield area
• It will provide an immediate stream of revenue
• It will allow us to finally shut down the Rantoul operation and move everything into the Springfield basement storage.

By moving everything to Springfield we will eliminate the Rantoul rental cost.Also, by utilizing the basement storage long term, which is our intention, we can eliminate the half basement planned for Phase 1, which reduces the cost of this phase by nearly $1 million dollars. Long term, the basement can be a staging area for preparing artifacts for display in the Museum as well as a storage area for items not being currently displayed. After the landlord has completed necessary cleanup and updates, we will move in, hopefully sometime in the second quarter.

DOCUMENTARY FILM IN PROCESS
We are currently working with a documentary filmmaker on a project about three Korean War Medal of Honor recipients. The documentary will be shown on PBS on a nationwide basis when completed. The Museum will be included in the credits. Through this connection we hope to establish contact with Ken Burns, the documentary maker who has done the Civil War, World War II and the history of Baseball. We hope to show him many of the unique features about the Korean War, to persuade him to do a documentary on the War. With the 60th anniversary of the War just two years away it would be very timely.

FUND RAISING GALA IN MAY
A Museum Fundraiser Gala will be held in Springfield in mid-May, in conjunction with a Museum Board Meeting. It is hoped that this will not only yield significant donations but will also expand Museum awareness among potential significant donors.

TWO NEW SUPPORTERS
We recently had a national organization called Military.com join us as a supporter. Through their national contacts we hope to gain more significant donors. Also, The Teamsters Union has come aboard as an active supporter. They will make an appeal for donations for the Museum from their nationwide network of locals, and will also be helping us to reach out to the companies they deal with.

STATUS OF THE FUNDRAISING EFFORT
We are beginning to receive some significant (six figure +) donations from prominent individuals in the private sector. In addition, we have visited a number of major American corporations, and have more lined up to visit. We feel confident that we will see some really sizeable contributions from this effort.

On the public sector side, we continue to track requests both in the U.S. Congress and in the Illinois State legislature to obtain funds, and we have been in touch with the South Korean government as well. We have asked them for a multi million-dollar donation, and they appear to be seriously considering our request. From there, we hope to move on to the various South Korean international corporations.

Our networking efforts have continued to expand and include exciting meetings with Former Governor Jim Edgar and Ms. Anne Roosevelt, granddaughter of Franklin and Eleanor and Vice Chairman of the Global Corporate Citizenship program for The Boeing Company.  Both Mr. Edgar and Ms. Roosevelt were generous enough to provide us with over an hour of their time and some wonderful suggestions, contacts and the confirmation of the importance of our project.  Additionally, since Ms. Roosevelt has a formal education in Museums and sits on numerous museum boards, her advice is priceless.  She did offer ideas that include obtaining "evidence of affiliation" from state and federal officials and compiling the personal stories of our founders to answer the question, "Why Illinois?"  We have begun progress in implementing both suggestions.

We hope to capitalize on our relationship with both Former Governor Edgar and Ms. Roosevelt and utilize the contacts they provided to the fullest.

A NARROWED FOCUS
The consensus of the Board members is that our continued credibility hinges on getting something in place and operating as soon as possible. The Board has therefore decided to narrow our focus to obtaining the necessary funds to build Phase I now. To do this as quickly as possible, we are pursuing a two-pronged approach involving both continuing fundraising efforts as well as seeking partial financing. Hopefully, this will get us there much faster. GGGGGGGGGGGGGG

OTHER ITEMS
The Direct Mail campaign continues to provide us with a steady stream of funding. This is the basic source of our major donor list and it continues to grow.

Liz McAllister has come aboard as Director of Development. Liz has many skills in diverse areas critical to our effort and is helping our Executive Director greatly, by relieving him of many tasks so he can focus on his main tasks. Also with us now is Susanne Hack, who has many contacts in the private sector as a lobbyist for the State of Illinois. Susanne has been opening a lot of corporate doors for us so we can appeal for funding.

That’s it for now. The process is moving, though at a slower pace than we’d hoped. The current economic situation nationwide isn’t helping, either, but we are committed to making this happen.

Stay tuned!