Seal Beach Leisure World Historical Society & Museum

Sponsors

Sponsors

501(c)3 Educational Foundation

When the Historical Society was formed in 1993 the founders began the process of becoming a California 501c3 educational non-profit. The Leisure World Historical Society was granted non-profit status in 1995. In 2018 the Historical Society celebrated its 25th anniversary.

Donations to the Historical Society are tax deductible.

Achievements

  • Collection and storage of organization records as the organizations were closing. The records include clubs, churches, educational programs, employees who were also residents, and shareholders.
  • Preservation of Artifacts from early Leisure World.
  • Oral History recordings and photos of first residents were collected beginning in 1993. Collection continues for current residents and organizations.
  • Video conversion from VHS to digital. As of 2021 we have converted 200 videos that were recorded on VHS while playing on the SB3 (Seal Beach 3) TV Station. The movies were moved to our Youtube.com channel so they could be watched. We have the original digital files that are higher resolution than the Youtube.com channel on disk at the Historical Society. Clips from our videos have been used in history videos made by video producers such as Owen Hughes' 2020 The Beginning of Leisure World.. Once the software and computer were set up to convert the videos Historical Society board member Richard Erickson came into the Historical Society several times a week to convert tapes.
  • Oral History tapes conversion from cassette to MP3.
  • Document scanning of histories, correspondence, legal papers, clipping files, etc.
  • UCI creation of an archive for Seal Beach Leisure World. Inventoried and scanned papers before the move. Contacted owners of materials to sign donation forms. Removed artifacts from collections that were not appropriate for UCI and inventory them. The Historical Society hired movers to take the archive materials to UCI.
  • Updated the Museum with a display framework so that materials can be hung on the walls and moved around easily for changing exhibits.
  • Inventory and organization of papers donated to the Historical Society.
  • Sharing early Leisure World photos with the Golden Rain Fdn for projects like the new photo murals in Clubhouse 3, 4, and 6 that were added when the clubhouses were remolded.
  • Keeping the museum open and welcoming people who drop in and have questions about the community.

Projects

  • Leisure World's 60th Anniversary. Organizing a celebration at the Historical Society for Leisure World's 60th Anniversary in June 2022. Golden Rain Fdn has discussed this idea and dismissed it but the Historical Society will have small events at the Museum during June 2022 to celebrate this special decade and the strength of our community throughout the pandemic.
  • Historical Society Special Events. Once COVID-19 has been controlled and the community is safe the Historical Society will resume holding special events such as showing movies about community events and then having a Q & A afterwards. Favorite video subjects are the 1) the Flood of 1995 and 2) Michael Landon filming Highway to Heaven in Leisure World and using shareholders as extras.
  • Newspaper Microfilm conversion to digital. We have microfilm of the Weekly newspapers from 1962 to 1999. We are searching for local companies that can scan the microfilm and convert the images to digital files with OCR (optical character recognition) so the digital files are searchable. The microfilm contains approximately 15,000, pages of newspaper and the cost for conversation can be from $1 to $3 per page. Using the high figure the conversion cost may be up to $45,000. There are no grants for conversation that we have found at this time but we continue to look.
  • Identify and label materials that were scanned but not organized due to missing information

Wish List

  • Mircofilm Conversion. Once we find a vendor we need the funds for the conversion.
  • Powder coated steel storage drawers for vulnerable items such as cloth, old paper, drawings, maps, etc. Currently we are storing items in a wood cabinet and file drawers. Neither of these solutions is appropriate for aging artifacts.
  • Computers. We have two computers and one printer in the Historical Society. All units are seven years old and need replacing.
  • File Server. Currently our digital files and movies are using 1 TB of storage space. None of our computers have that much storage so we are using external hard drives, that are slow, for files. That number will continue to grow. Digitizing newspapers will add 1 - 2 TB to our storage needs. A server in the Museum that could be used to play videos on our TV screen and stored digitized materials would improve events and research.
  • A direct Internet connection, monthly subscription. The Clubhouse 1 wireless is spotty. Many days we cannot connect to the Internet for research or computer updates. The wireless we connect to most often is the wireless in Clubhouse 6 and it is a public internet. It would be nice to have a strong secure Internet connection in the Museum.
  • Cloud Storage, monthly subscription. Used for backup and retrieval of files.
  • Wireless modem for devices in the Museum. Once we have Internet a secure Wireless modem would allow Museum devices to connect without cables.
  • Soundbar. Our room is small but noisy due to wall mounted air conditioning. Having a soundbar to project the TVs audio into the Museum will improve video viewing.