OCONOMOWOC HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Board Minutes/September 10, 2007

Museum

 

OHS Members Present:  Pam Thomas, Duane Hoffmann, Terry Ladwig, Hilton Neal, Nancy Lins, Ed Johnson, Don Wiemer, Margie Krauski, John Fishleigh, Betty Hancock, Chuck Herro, Fran Durkin, Barb Hirsch, Dorothy St. Thomas and guest Sue Bickler.

 

President Hilton Neal opened the meeting at 4:09pm.

 

Secretary’s Report: Don Wiemer moved to accept the minutes of the August 13, 2007 Board meeting and Margie Krauski seconded the motion. Motion carried. One spelling correction was noted in the Artifacts report. It should be Wegner not Wagner, correction will be made.

 

Treasurer’s Report:

  • Margie Krauski moved to accept the August 2007 financial statement. Ed Johnson seconded the motion. Motion carried.
  • Note: the Ice Cream Social made around $1,000 and the raffle around $1,300. We should see a profit of $2,400 after expenses are taken out. Thank you to Diane Johnson for a job well done…and thank you for offering to chair it again next year Diane.

 

Administrator’s Report/Museum Operations:

  • Visitors: 220 people visited the museum since the last board meeting. The museum was short three days for docents and some days were short on hours because docents weren’t available. We should seriously consider filling in with greeters.
  • Committees: Exhibit committee is planning the new sign for the front yard. Hopefully it will be done before the first frost. Education committee is planning a presentation for the 4th grade teachers.
  • Programs: Trek Bike Raffle winner was 5 year old Aliza Felder from Concord, picture is in the file. The Ice Cream Social was successful but Diane requested no sale of candy next year.

 

Art Fair weekend we had good visitor turn out but the shuttle bus did not come to pick up people waiting at the bus stop.

  • Correspondence: Numerous emails from Mike Brooks looking for info on Captain Parker. Was able to help him with photos and research. He paid us $45 for the info. Don Wiemer will send him additional pictures that he has.
  • Exhibits: The Elk arrived in great condition on August 5th. It was uncovered on August 18th for the art fair. Thanks to Jeff Lins and Hilton Neal the fencing was put together and completed. The Exhibit Committee is working on alternatives to paintings on the windows as well as the new museum sign outside.
  • Repairs/Maintenance: Alarm system has been malfunctioning and someone will be here tomorrow to look at it.
  • Misc.: Margie Krauski and volunteers have been working on the 2008 fundraiser.

 

The garbage collection service problem was solved at the Executive Committee meeting previous to this meeting.

Three hundred items have been added to the museum database this year. Ninety items were found in the museum, 182 are books in the library exhibit and the remaining were new accessions.

Membership:

  • No report

 

Artifacts:

  • No report

 

Local History Committee:

  • Dorothy St. Thomas is the new chair of this committee. They will be meeting on the third Thursday of the month at 10:30am at the Oconomowoc Village Hall. Many of the former members are willing to remain on this committee. If you would like to attend, please come with suggestions for new projects.
  • Bill Marris asked that the board be informed that over the past month over $600 ($522 net) was brought in from sales of the books and posters. Ben Franklin has sold out of everything and Books and Company and the Gift Box were almost out.

 

Education Committee:

  • The biggest initiative is for 4th grade teachers from public, private and home schooled to meet on October 9th. There is a potential for 55 teachers and 1,000 students to visit the museum if this works. The prime goal of this meeting is to listen to what the teachers need for their classes. A number of groups are scheduled to come in at the end of the month.
  • Barb Hirsch also reported on the suggestions for their committee from the Focus group. The first three items are being done now and the rest of the items are feasible but not at this time. What is not feasible is having a person costumed in the 1st person to docent.
  • Barb reported she was in the museum when we had visitors from California who told her we had one of the nicest museums for a community our size that they have ever seen.

 

Exhibit Committee:

  • No report—sign being worked on.

 

Elk Project:

  • Duane read the wording that would be on the Plaque in front of the elk. He suggested a black metal plaque with gold lettering. The plaque itself would run $375-$400 with the lettering being the most expensive part. Ed Johnson moved to set aside $500 to pay for the plaque. John Fishleigh seconded the motion. Motion carried. Dedication should be in October at the annual meeting.
  • Duane reported he had contacted all the delinquent members on the membership list and handed in a list of those members who wanted to be contacted about continuing their membership.
  • Special Report: at this time President Hilton Neal called on Duane Hoffmann to come to the front of the room. Hilton then presented Duane with proclamation “Resolution No. 2007-2” which extended our thanks and appreciation for all his efforts and dedication in the restoration, transportation and placement of the elk signed by the Executive Board of the Historical Society. A copy will be put in the Historical Society’s files.

 

2008 Incentive Plan and Status:

  • Margie Krauski reported on the progress of the 2008 incentive songbook. She got nowhere with the artist of the LA recording of After the Ball, so she ordered the recording from the Library of Congress. Margie was thanked for all her efforts to make the 2008 incentive a reality.

Landscaping Report:

  • Letters have been written to the people who donated money for the window murals. They were told that plywood on the efface was not a good idea and asked if they would like to apply their donation to the landscaping fund instead.
  • Judy Stark has looked at the museum property and sent pictures with notations of what those areas needed. #1 priority is putting bushes around the elk with #2 priority making the west side  fence less visible.
  • We currently have no landscaping committee…Hilton and Jean Neal currently have been taking care of this.

 

Executive Committee Report:

  • All committee chairs have received a list of recommendations from the Focus Groups. They have been asked to report at the October board meeting.
  • Attendance policy, budgeting and the 2007-2008 committee structure was discussed.

 

Speakers:

  • October 2007—Chuck Herro “The Gilded Age-Extended”
  • January 2008—Don Wiemer m

 

OLD BUSINESS:

  • None

 

NEW BUSINESS:

  • Two applicants applied to use the museum for meetings. Betty Hancock’s sorority and Green Oconomowoc Committee have been approved to use the museum at no charge. The Green Oconomowoc Committee has invited everyone to the meeting.

 

Margie Krauski moved and Nancy Lins seconded a motion to adjourn the meeting Motion carried.

 

Next meeting will be Monday, October 8, 2007 at 4pm at the museum.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Pam Thomas/Secretary