PERFORMANCE MEASURES
Assuming that the Commission will be allocated the staff and operating budget requisite to carrying out its mission, it is committed to accountability through the use of continuous improvement-linked performance targets. Among the methods that will be used are the following:
Input: Administrative and travel costs.
Output: Full-time accessibility to the public and stakeholders by means written, electronic, telephonic, and person-to-person communication.
Efficiency: While irregular support from the State Archives and MHT is helpful, this can only be achieved through Commission staff and operating budget beginning FY 2003 as requested.
Outcome: All regions of Maryland will be networked together with respect to the history and legacy of slavery at the same time that the State will be networked with relevant developments, agencies, and resources nationally so as to support Maryland’s leadership in such areas as education, scholarship, tourism, etc.
Quality: Maryland will enhance its quality of life through investment in heritage, education, scholarship, inter-group understanding, and fairness.
Outreach and Initiatives
Input: Administrative and travel costs.
Output: Support initiatives, agencies and organizations statewide that focus on study, commemoration, and impact of slavery’s history and legacy in Maryland.
Efficiency: Serve as a centralized conduit that Marylanders of all races can use to encourage reconciliation around programmatic initiatives that educate and encourage research about slavery’s history and legacy.
Outcome: Participation in conferences, programs, cooperative undertakings, and offer information and support to Marylanders interested in the study, commemoration, and slavery and its legacy.
Quality: Marylanders will have a coordinating agency and a resource clearing house to which they may direct their concerns and inquiries having to do with slavery and its legacy in Maryland.
RESEARCH AND RESOURCE PRESERVATION
Input: Funding for computer equipment, electronic storage space, travel costs, and contractual services for scanning.
Output: Detailed, comprehensive publicly accessible catalogs and guides to collections related to slavery available at the Maryland State Archives which seek to incorporate lists of materials from other Maryland repositories, a portion of which will be scanned and accessible on-line.
Efficiency: Allowing the public, state organizations, government agencies, community groups, and interested stake holders to access materials on-line will control costs by limiting staff resources necessary to pull and present these records. The records will also be preserved electronically, lessening some of the costly burden inherent in preserving paper documents.
Outcome: Maryland citizens will have greater insight into the history of the institution of slavery in Maryland, which will facilitate a more complete understanding of the legacy of slavery which plagues our nation today.
Quality: An essential part of our state and national history will be preserved for future generations of Maryland citizens. By acknowledging and documenting the unparalleled suffering of slaves, Maryland citizens are also recognizing and memorializing the invaluable role that Africans and African Americans played in building Maryland and America. Recognition and general acceptance of the realties of slavery in Maryland will work to break down racial barriers and improve race relations in Maryland.
HISTORIC SITES
Input: Leverage existing MHT grant program to develop a catalog of African American historic resources throughout Maryland, with particular emphasis on sites and monuments associated with slavery.
Output: Database of African American historic sites accessible through the MHT website that can be searched by themes, location and time period.
Efficiency: This project can be accomplished largely within existing MHT resources.
Outcome: Increased interest in individual sites across the state and creation of comprehensive catalog accessible to the general public, school children, historians, community organizations and local governments.
Quality: A standardized MHT assessment of resources, including level of significance, physical integrity of the site/resource, and preservation needs along with a parallel Commission analysis will help to ensure a more balanced treatment of African American historic resources.
Input: Funding request to Maryland Historical Trust (or other agency) for statewide historic surveying of monuments and historic landscapes commemorating African Americans.
Output: State of the art document detailing county by county (including Baltimore City) historic monuments and historic landscapes broken down by military and civilian, African American and non-African American, slaves, slaveholders, an others, etc.
Efficiency: Cost of undertaking and publishing the study will be controlled through seeking cooperative funding relationships with agencies, organization, foundations, and educational entities.
Outcome: Marylanders will have a better understanding and awareness of the legacy of slavery, and state government agencies will respond to this awareness by modifying structures and barriers that still disadvantage African Americans and this will constitute an objective basis on which the Commission will render recommendations to the Governor and General Assembly regarding commemoration.
Quality: Maryland citizens, regardless of race, will address numerous issues, structures, and barriers through their legislative and administrative representatives to break down racial barriers and improve racial relations throughout the State of Maryland.
Input: Funding for materials, equipment, administrative costs, consulting fees to scholars, publication costs (estimated cost: $40,000).
Output: State of the art document distilling issues surround the legacy of slavery in Maryland, including in the criminal justice system, that will be a stimulus to further research and suggest areas that need to be addressed.
Efficiency: Cost of undertaking and publishing the study will be controlled through seeking cooperative funding relationships with agencies, organization, foundations, and educational entities.
Outcome: Marylanders will have a better understanding and awareness of the legacy of slavery, and state government agencies will respond to this awareness by modifying structures and barriers that still disadvantage African Americans.
Quality: Maryland citizens, regardless of race, will address numerous issues, structures, and barriers through their legislative and administrative representatives to break down racial barriers and improve racial relations throughout the State of Maryland.
Input: Funding for data collection and analysis, administrative costs, and costs of developing, publishing, posting on-line, and disseminating African American Maryland tourist guide (estimated cost: $25,000).
Output: State of art report on equity issues relevant to State funding African American historic sites and businesses, and widely accessible information relevant to African American tourism in Maryland.
Efficiency: Costs of data gathering, analysis, and publication will be offset through cooperative funding relationships with agencies, organizations, foundations, and educational entities.
Outcome: Maryland lawmakers will have a better understanding and awareness of funding needs relevant to African American tourism, and tourists nationwide will have a comprehensive guide to the rich heritage of African American history and culture in Maryland especially as related to the history and legacy of slavery.
Quality: Increase in funding to African American heritage sites and tourism, businesses; and increase in awareness of and visitation to historic sites associated with slavery and its legacy.
Slavery Commission’s MFR Report