OCONOMOWOC HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Board Minutes/May 8, 2006

Hancock residence/430 North Lake Road

 

 

OHS Members Present:  Valerie Davis, John Fishleigh, Pam Thomas, Ed Johnson, Barbara Elwood-Goetsch, Betty Hancock, Nancy Lins, Chuck Herro, Ray Maurer, Mike Schutz, Fran Durkin, Mary Hart, Duane Thorsen, Ann Zimmerman and Hilton Neal.

 

President Ed Johnson opened the meeting at 4:02pm.

 

Secretary’s Reports: John Fishleigh moved and Hilton Neal seconded a motion to approve the minutes of the April 10, 2006 board meeting with the addition of Margie Krauski’s name to the attendance and the correct spelling of her name. Motion carried.

 

Treasurer’s Report:

  • John Fishleigh distributed the P & L Budget vs. Actual through April 2006.
  • P & L for February 2006, showed total income of $794.58 and expenses of $3,078.71. Checking account YTD is at $2,767.78 and savings YTD is $22,807.35. $60,000 was taken out of savings and put into an 11 month CD at 5.07% interest. Vanguard Index Fund is at $6,904.03.
  • Ann Zimmerman moved and Chuck Herro seconded a motion to accept the Treasurer’s report. Motion carried.

 

Presentation of a $500 check from the Oconomowoc Women’s Club was made to the museum by LaVerne Battenburg. Valerie took pictures to be sent to the Women’s Club as well as the local newspapers.

 

Denny Daggett, new Director of Community Relations for Pabst Farms, addressed the board regarding the 100th anniversary of Pabst Farms and its tie in with local history and the Historical Society. He asked if the society would be interested in making a display to be shown at the Pabst Farms development. This would be great exposure for the museum and would inform new residents moving into the area.

A future meeting on Pabst and OHS will be held at the museum. The committee will consist of Mike Schutz, Valerie Davis, Ann Zimmerman, Barb Elwood-Goetsch, Don Wiemer, Nancy Lins and Mary Hart. Chuck Herro will be an ex officio member. Valerie will contact Denny tomorrow and let him know we are interested and have a committee in place.

 

Development Committee Report:

  • Minutes of the meeting with Nancy Nelson were discussed. Nancy had suggested at the end of the meeting we focus on only 2-4 things so we don’t get burned out. The board decided on the following:

ü      Public awareness…send weekly articles to the newspapers regarding museum, artifacts and Oconomowoc area history. Local History committee will start with an article written by Barb Hirsch. An awareness/anniversary committee is needed and will get started initially with the members that attended the meeting with Nancy: Ed Johnson, Valerie Davis, Ruth Behling, Betty Hancock, Marjorie Day, Barb Elwood-Goetsch, Duane Hoffman, Fran Durkin and Hilton Neal.

ü      PR—May 18 the Historical Society will co-host a business after hours at the museum. This will be a  perfect time to showcase the upcoming three anniversaries: 15 year anniversary of the current museum, 80 year anniversary of the first museum started in Oconomowoc and 100th anniversary of Pabst Farms. Initial investors from 15 years ago should be invited and honored as well as current businesses supporting the museum.

ü      Joint collaboration with Pabst Farms, utilizing signs at the new development (possibly by Star Bucks) to showcase the museum and upcoming events including the anniversaries. Possibly a DVD or postcard program could be shown at Starbucks.

  • The above targets will be critical to the museum next year as we have to raise an additional $30,000 to cover the amount we will no longer receive from the grant.
  • Valerie and Nancy are also working on the web page which will also be a critical piece of PR.

 

Museum Operations:

  • “Summer Hours” started on May 5th with 22 visitors. Museum was fully staffed for that weekend. May 11th the American Association of University Women will tour the museum. May 13th Milt Babinec will host docent training session. May 15th St. Matthew’s School will tour. May 18th Business after Hours will be at the museum from 5-7pm. All board members should attend if possible. May 31st St. Paul’s 2nd grade class will tour.
  • Energy consultant’s review stated ceiling fans and different light bulbs would be a big help as well as a space heater for the office so furnace can be turned lower during the winter. Nancy and Jeff Lins are checking into a compact fluorescent bulb that possibly one of their vendors would donate, otherwise they run around $10 each.

 

Artifacts:

  • No report

 

Membership:

  • Barbara Elwood-Goetsch reported several new members joined at the Quarterly Meeting and one couple has signed up to help with several committees. Barb sent out 90 postcards as reminders of  membership renewals and has received 30 responses. We currently have 332 members and 8 organizations.

 

Newsletter:

  • No report

 

Docents:

  • Milt Babinec will again head up the docents and is having an orientation meeting for them on Saturday morning, May 13th.

 

Speakers:

  • July, 2006: Keith Franz—Venerable Historical Fire Department Valerie will send invitations to area firemen.
  • October, 2006: April, 2006: Joe St. Thomas—Oconomowoc School System and/or Town of Oconomowoc.
  • January, 2007, Don Wiemer.
  • April, 2007 Chuck Herro on Marjorie Ward Baker????

 

 

PR:

  • Ray Maurer has made contact with WTKM and is working on other PR areas discussed with him previously.

 

Local History Committee:

  • Lavinia Rockwell letters: Don Wiemer decided to retype the letters for the book so reproofing is being done.
  • Tony Thorsen will be setting up a display in the Library for June.
  • Barb Hirsch has offered to write an article for the paper.

 

Special Events:

  • Ice Cream social is on track with Diane Johnson as chair.
  • Raffle license needs to be obtained. Bike should be here in June or July in order to get more exposure and sell more tickets. It will be displayed in several spots beginning with Chuck Herro’s office window.

 

Old Business:

  • Business after hours will be at the museum on May 18. Board is encouraged to attend. Chuck Herro will give information on the museum and Hilton Neal will recognize businesses that support the museum.

 

New Business:

  • Jean Neal has offered to plant the window boxes at the museum. The boxes are currently hidden by the bushes and it would take a lot of work to trim them. Valerie suggested that the urns be planted instead and the volunteers could water them. Hilton will relay the message.
  • The older computer with all our data needs to be replaced. Nancy Lins was able to restore everything after a power failure. Mary Hart made a motion to have Nancy Lins look into a new computer up to $700. Fran Durkin seconded the motion. Motion carried.
  • The docents are using the small office.  The bigger office will be locked on weekends so we will need to get an envelope for money collected on the weekends for Hilton.
  • We need to develop a 15 minute DVD or power point program to take to service groups, etc. for museum PR. Nancy Lins and Mary Hart will work on this.
  • Hilton Neal has taken care of mowing the west side of the museum for the last 4 years. The city mows the front and side. Would it be possible for the city to mow the west side too? Ray Maurer will check into it.

 

John Fishleigh moved and Betty Hancock seconded a motion to adjourn the meeting. Motion carried. Meeting adjourned at 5:33pm.

 

Next Board Meeting: Monday, June 12th at 4pm at the museum.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Pam Thomas/Secretary