"Heritage Tourism" is a phrase that describes the motivation for a great deal of travel in America. People go out of their way, many thousands of them, to visit the place where Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote her beloved "Little House" books. Others go out of their way to look up family genealogy. Still others go out of their way to take the kids to see a real Civil War battlefield, or the site of an ancestral homestead, or the place where fugitive slaves were spirited to safety on the Underground Railroad.

We are all curious about how our personal story fits into other stories. The places that are truly ready to gratify that curiosity are good at shaping the visitor's experience. Most places don't even begin to use the creative talent within the organization. That's why I developed a special kind of workshop ten years ago to help release that creative energy.

These workshops are called "charettes," and they work like a hands-on seminar. My team of consultants has served a varied array of heritage organizations in the past few years:

• Partnerships between Main Street Associations and museums in Branson, Lee's Summit, and Liberty
• A visitor center on the southern approach to Kansas City
• County museums in Maryville, Chillicothe, Springfield, Versailles
• A museum focused on American Presidents
• A battlefield preservation group in Newton County
• The Laura Ingalls Wilder Home, the Champ Clark Home, the Blind Boone Home
• Organizations developing new uses for African American schools in Independence and Poplar Bluff
• The Sedalia Heritage Foundation, Waverly Citizens for Progress

Now I'm inviting applications for the fall, winter, and spring. The charettes are provided free of charge to organizations that I think can benefit from this service. You can download an application form from our web site or send me an e-mail about your interest, or give me a call. The number is (800) 357-0909.

--Michael Bouman