OCONOMOWOC HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Board Minutes/January 9, 2006

OHS Members Present: Ruth Behling, Valerie Davis, John Fishleigh, Pam Thomas, Ed Johnson, Dorothy St. Thomas, Barbara Elwood-Goetsch, Duane Thorsen, Hilton Neal, Betty Hancock, Diane Johnson, Nancy Lins, Mike Schutz, Bob Duffy, Mac Dorn, Marjorie Day, Mary Hart, Chuck Herro, Don Wiemer, Ann Zimmerman, Margie Krauski and Duane Hoffman

President Ed Johnson opened the meeting at 4:00pm.

Secretary’s Reports: John Fishleigh moved and Bob Duffy seconded a motion to approve the minutes of the December 12, 2005 board meeting. Motion carried.

Treasurer’s Report:

• John Fishleigh distributed the P & L Budget vs. Actual through December 2005.
• P & L for November 2005, showed total income of $11,703.97 and expenses of $7,540.08 for a net income of $4,163.89. Checking account YTD was at $9,370.31 and savings YTD is $80,287.78. Vanguard Index Fund is at $6,578.59. Don Wiemer moved and Bob Duffy seconded a motion to accept the Treasurer’s report. Motion carried.

Fund Raising Committee Report:

• Nancy Nelson, Senior Manager with the Abbey Group has been consulting with the Fund Raising committee regarding how to raise additional monies in the future for the Historical Society/Museum. She passed out a 17 page report to each director and spent an hour going over the topics below and her recommendations:

ü Mail appeal: needs to begin earlier (target date of early November); database assessment should occur during September or October each year in anticipation of the year-end mailing; continue the premium offering but develop ideas for next 2-3 years that could be sold in the museum; consider a second appeal mailing for late spring or early summer and tie it to a specific project.

ü Newsletter: print additional copies to be used for marketing. Send to all area service clubs, local government, area businesses, school contacts, etc.; make sure important fundraising events and activities are included as well as simple planned giving messages and as sponsorship ops are identified for businesses make sure they are prominently recognized.

ü Website: difficult to reach, outdated information and better navigation tools needed.

ü Other topics reviewed were: Past Community Outreach Efforts; Analysis of Board’s role in Marketing/Resource Development; Role of Museum Consultant; Review of Donor and Member Stewardship Activities; Assessment of Board Member/Staff interviews; New Development Opportunities for consideration; and a summary of personal interviews.

Please review your report before the next meeting for details of each of the above topics talked about at the meeting.

• Status of 2005 appeal: $13,472 has been received so far. All acknowledgements have been sent and 40 DVD’s have been dropped off at 1^st Bank. Hilton Neal thanked Dorothy and Joe St. Thomas for all their work on the data base.

Museum Operations:

• Valerie handed out a fee structure policy for image duplication and an image duplication permission request form for all directors to take home and look at. She checked out other historical societies to see what they were charging for these requests before putting an amount on our policies.
• Visitors: a Cub scout group was in before Christmas; a group after Christmas caroling and a senior group have visited since last month.
• Energy consultant offered some good ideas: the large office area gets cold and instead of cranking up the heat, get a space heater; also change the light bulbs to the more efficient type.

Artifacts:

• Marjorie has accessed 71 groups of gifts and donations in 2005. We continue to receive small donations. The process for receiving donations is that the donor sign a deed of gift form, a catalog card is created and it is put in the computer data base and a thank you note is written to the donor.

Membership:

• Barbara Elwood-Goetsch reported the membership list is updated monthly. We currently have 346 paying members and 31 free organizations and members.

Newsletter:

• Newsletter is ready for mailing. Board members can pick them up today. They will be mailed out this week.

Docents:

• Appreciation breakfast is being planned again for April, 2006 for docents and volunteers. Milt will pay for the speaker fees this year.

Speakers:

• Don Wiemer is scheduled for January 2006 at OMH’s conference room on LaBelle boat tour may repeat Pine lake if time permits. His program will run 1 hour.
• April 2006: Joe St. Thomas—Oconomowoc School System and/or Town of Oconomowoc.
• July 2006: Keith Franz—Venerable Historical Fire Department
• October 2006: Local History—Tony Thorsen/Oconomowoc Canning Co. and the “Teenie Weenie” Pea factory.

PR:

• Bob will get info about the January 28^th meeting to the media.

Local History Committee:

• Didn’t meet in December.
• 1^st Bank will sponsor Lavinia’s Letters
• Books are selling great
• Next meeting will be Thursday, January 19, at 10:30am at the Oconomowoc Village Hall.

Special Events:

• No report

Old Business:

• None

New Business:

• Don Wiemer asked if we would be interested in putting the Historical Society/Museum in the Oconomowoc Middle School in the future if the School District decides to make it a performing arts building? There would definitely be grant opportunities available for this and the community exposure would be much better. Definite interest

Meeting adjourned at 5:13pm.

Next Board Meeting: Monday, February 14^th at 4pm at the Wilkinson Conference Center at Whitman Park.

Respectfully submitted,

Pam Thomas/Secretary