Energized by a fresh outlook and new board members, leaders of the Douglas County Historical Society say they are looking to build a viable future by bidding farewell to a recently divisive past.

“There are people who are going to be disappointed in what’s happened, but – by and large – everybody understands what we are trying to do and is working to help us succeed,” said Phil Godwin, society president.

Nearly 100 people attended the organization’s annual meeting Wednesday night at the Eldridge Hotel, and together they approved initiatives to help heal wounds that have threatened the very survival of the society’s main asset: the Watkins Community Museum of History, 1047 Mass.

The society’s decisions – to reduce its board’s size and solidify the board’s authority to oversee the museum – came less than a month after the society’s directors moved to end a bitter personnel struggle by encouraging Steve Jansen, the museum’s former director and historian, to retire.

Jansen’s presence had polarized the society’s membership more than a year after his salary had been cut in the midst of a budget deficit and acrimonious finger-pointing about disorganized collections, ineffectual fund-raising and other problems.

With Jansen’s $32,000 salary available, the society’s board now intends to hire a professional director to run the museum, raise money, boost membership and mend fences in the museum community.

“It has to evolve,” said Faye Watson, a board member and Jansen supporter. “If we’re going to save the museum, we have to move forward as a united group.”

This summer, Douglas County commissioners threatened to withhold all or part of the county’s annual $58,000 allocation unless the museum’s management received a major overhaul. The society’s annual budget is $163,000.

The decision to remove Jansen and hire an experienced administrator, Commissioner Charles Jones said, “increases our resolve to give them the resources that they need and that we can afford.”

The society still needs money to add a kitchen and expand the museum store. It also needs $30,000 in private financing to accept a $24,000 grant to finance an exhibit on the Underground Railroad, after a foundation rejected the society’s request for help.

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Jim Martin, a board member elected Wednesday night, is optimistic that increased financing will come.

“Over a period of time, that goal should be very doable,” said Martin, who retired in September after 11 years as president of the Kansas University Endowment Association.