Meeting Minutes: 3/2/13

LAKE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Board of Directors Meeting
Saturday March 2, 2013
Calpine Visitor Center, Middletown, Ca
Directors, Board Members and Committee Chairs present: Phil Smoley, Catherine Quistguard, John Parker, George Stimson, Patricia Wilson, Vi Smoley, Kevin Engle, Floraine Chalk, Nick Voegtly, Val Onellion, Bonnie Skee, and Jackie & Randy Ridgel.

Guests present: Vonn Fuqua, Pete & Mary Chappars, Nina Buska and Lola Westridge.

President Phil Smoley brought the meeting together at Calpine at 10:30am after visiting the Middletown Library. John led the Pledge of Allegiance.

The minutes of the November 10, 2012 Board Meeting and the November 18, 2012 General Membership meeting were opened for discussion. Nick moved to approve, Jackie 2nd and they were approved.

Again we have no Treasurer present. Linda Lake has volunteered to take over that job from Florence Peck and they are working on the transition. Kevin suggested we may need to change our board meetings from Saturday to another day to accommodate Linda’s schedule as she works on Saturday as does our Pomo Bulletin editor, Jan Cook.

The by-law committee consisting of Phil, Catherine, Vonn and Kevin are still working on changes they will be submitting to the board. Jackie asked about an assistant treasurer. That is one of the changes the by-law committee is suggesting we eliminate. Also the Events Chair and the Refreshment Chair may be eliminated from the by-laws.

Ely Website Update: Docent, Pete Chappars reported that he is meeting with Bit Sculptor on Monday to fine tune the website which is www.elystagestop.com. The LCHS website is www.lakecountyhistory.org. The Historical Society website is to educate and the Ely website is mainly to get visitors. Nick advised that he received a smug mug report stating we had 6 orders (photos).

Catherine was contacted by Larry Robey who wants to sell us a movie about the Resort industry, specifically Austin Beach. John said we need more information unless he is willing to give it to us. If he wants to sell it we would need to be able to preview it first then decide.

Kevin reported that Al Sainsbury, a local photographer in Lower Lake, has offered to convert our videos of speakers from our general membership meetings to CD’s for the price of the CD’s. Kevin made a motion to approve not to exceed $50. John 2nd, Jackie noted that we really shouldn’t approve spending any money until we get a Treasurer’s report, however the motion was approved.
Middletown Library: County Supervisor Jim Comstock offered the Middletown Library building to the LCHS as the new Middletown Library is almost ready for occupancy. The old Library is a historic building and because of its age has several problems including the floor and the bathroom. There is also a termite problem but Kevin says he has spoken to Carolyn Chavez, the Lake County Public Works director, who said the County would take care of the termites.

Kevin feels we should accept the building and use it as a research library and display area. John said archeology digs could then remain in the County. The average utility bill currently is approximately $320 which is open 5 days per week, 5 hours a day. Those in favor of the Middletown Library plan to give up the Nice Clubhouse and move everything from Nice to Middletown. Kevin spoke with the Alarm Company and was told it would only cost us between $100 to $200 to move the alarm system from Nice to Middletown.

Guest Nina Buska from the Middletown Historic Society felt that Mr Comstock offered the building to us too soon as the Middletown group has been waiting for a building for a long time. After much discussion Ms Buska said they would like to work with us on this but didn’t want us to forget Middletown. They are just getting their organization back together and have very few members and no money. The Middletown group will try to get people to help staff the building.

Ely docent Pete Chappars invited Nina and Lolo Westridge to their next Ely committee meeting.

John proposed to approve the concept of the HS taking on the Middletown Library with final plans to be subject to financial feasibility and being able to work it out with the Middletown group. Nick 2nd the motion carried.

Scholarships: Tony Marchese polled the board by phone who agreed we would offer one $500 scholarship again this year.

Phil brought up the subject of the number of piano’s we have acquired. We have 2 at the Nice Clubhouse and 2 in Upper Lake that need to be moved very soon. John suggested we keep 1 and sell the rest. All agreed we will accept no more pianos. The most recent one that Kevin thought the people donated, may actually go back to the donor as we didn’t get the proper paperwork. Greg Dills may want the player piano for the Ely Stage Stop depending on the size of it.

The upcoming General meeting will be March 10th at the Lakeport Courthouse Museum. Phil Smoley will be our speaker.

Our President, Phil Smoley, read a letter stating he would be resigning the end of this year but is hopeful we can find a replacement before then. His work and many other obligations just don’t give him enough time to do them all. Therefore a nominating committee will be needed.

Books: Vi Smoley reported that we have had sales of over $500 recently from the 2 local museums.

Ely Stage Stop & Country Museum: The barn is really coming along and is ready for siding. The catered dinner they had last October made an $1800 profit which went back to the HS for partial payment of the Stage that was purchased last year for $5000. Great job!

Our Pomo Bulletin editor, Jan Cook, is working with Elizabeth Larson of Lake County News to print articles from our older Pomo Bulletin’s. All were in favor of that collaboration.

Events: Val mentioned that she needs business cards and membership cards. She will look into that either by having an individual or Pac & Mail print them.

Membership Report: Nick reported we have 345 current members.

Meeting adjourned at 1:50pm.

Respectfully submitted,

 

Bonnie Skee

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Saturday, September 18, 2010 10:00am

Nice Clubhouse, 3000 Lakeshore Blvd, Nice

707-274-8323

Directors, Officers and Committee Chairs present:  Mildred Pickersgill, Phil Smoley, Tom Pelandini, Patricia Wilson, Valerie Onellion, Melissa Bentley, Ruby Glebe, Nick Voegtly, Vi Smoley, Jean Beeson, Bonnie Skee, KC Patrick and Kevin Engle.

Guest present:  Vonn Fuqua.

The meeting was brought to order by President Phil Smoley at 10:05am.  Tom Pelandini led us in the pledge of allegiance.

The minutes of August 14, 2010 were opened for discussion.  Jean moved to accept the minutes as presented, Vi seconded and the motion carried.

Lake County Fair Report:  Jean reported that we took in $413.75 at the fair.  Included in that amount were 25 books sold for $320.75.  This does not include memberships, which were not available.

Bluegrass Festival:  A total of $265.75 was collected which includes $80 for memberships.

Our next General Membership meeting will be October 3rd at the Grace Evangelical Free Church on Live Oak Dr in Kelseyville.  Our main speaker will be Don Anderson who will discuss the murder of Lake County Deputy Sheriff Richard Hellbush in 1981.  Phil will try to contact anyone that was involved and invite them to take part.

Nominating Committee:  Phil asked former president Ruby Glebe to be on the committee and she agreed.  Phil will contact Randy Ridgel and Tony Marchese to see if they will serve along with one other person they can appoint.  All of the Board seats are up for election as is District 5 Director.  Phil appointed Valerie Onellion to be District 2 Director as that spot has been vacant.

Jean motioned to give Michael Anderson an honorary life membership and Val seconded.  After discussing that we no longer sell life memberships, we were all in agreement that we can give one with approval of the board.  Jean is in charge of getting a plaque for Michael and for Randy Ridgel.  We approved spending up to $100 for the 2 plaques to be presented at the Thanksgiving meeting.

Pomo:  As previously announced, KC Patrick will be the editor of the Pomo and will work closely with Melissa Bentley and Mildred Pickersgill.  Ruby Glebe is also working with that group.

Due to the previous board decision to add the membership chair as a voting member, Phil will ask Jackie Ridgel to rewrite the by-laws as that was voted on and approved at the General Membership meeting April 25, 2010.

Phil has requested that the video camera and equipment be brought to the Nice Clubhouse.  A discussion of giving videos of meetings to TV8 was launched.  There was no decision on that, but it will be considered at a later date.  Phil will contact Kevin Engle and Donna Howard to return any and all videos they have that belong to LCHS.

The video camera we have is 7 or 8 years old.  We will consider purchasing a new camera at a later date.

Website:  A website task force was formed consisting of George Stimson, Phil Smoley, Tom Pelandini, Kevin Engle and Vonn Fuqua.  They will meet on Wednesday, September 29th at Phil’s office.  They requested a wish list of what we would like to see on the website.  Jean told of her frustration for selling books and memberships online.  Vonn Fuqua will get the information on non-profit websites to Phil before the meeting.

Disposition of items from Upper Lake Clubhouse:  Valerie is getting a group together to determine the disposition of those items, date to be determined.

Membership Update:  Nick advised the quick books program is just not working for him and Florence.  KC volunteered to work with them as she is familiar with that program

Nice Clubhouse:  A discussion of converting the kitchen to a commercial site for fundraisers was raised.  Tom advised we would need a business plan for that to be considered.  Jean checked with the County Health Department who informed her we would need a 4 compartment sink and a refrigerator that would hold large pans at 30 degrees.  It was estimated that we would need to serve at least 150 people to make a reasonable profit.  The building is just not large enough.  Kevin disagrees and says we can get a lot more people in there than we think.  Kevin will get some information as will Phil and Tom.

Phil will follow up with Kim Clymire about the County re-roofing the building before the rains start.

The Board approved spending up to $100 for curtains for the clubhouse.  Patricia is in charge of that.  Patricia also asked about getting garbage service, no action taken.   Kevin noted that the front door is unsafe and can easily be broken into.  Valerie will work on a door plate.  The picnic tables in front will be moved to Ely.

Kevin is currently enrolled at Yuba College to obtain a Servsafe Certificate that is required to operate a commercial kitchen.  Nick moved to reimburse Kevin the $100 fee he paid for the course once he gets the certificate, Patricia seconded and the motion was approved.  We may or may not need that designation but it will be good to have even if we do barbeques at the Ely site.

Tom reminded us that we need to notify him of proposed agenda items.

Books:   Nothing to report.

Events:  The Kelseyville Pear Festival is scheduled for the last Saturday in September.  Val is accepting signups for that event.

Our Thanksgiving dinner will be either November 14th or the 21st.  Phil and Tom are looking for a location and will let us know.

Herndon Cemetery:  Kevin said the County mowed the weeds and grass the minimum required clearance of 100 feet.

Patricia Wilson has done a remarkable job of cleaning the clubhouse, especially the kitchen.  Thank you Patricia.

Meeting adjourned at 12:30pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Bonnie Skee

Secretary

Saturday August 14, 2010

BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING

Saturday August 14, 2010 10:00am

Ely Stage Stop

Officers and Directors present:  Phil Smoley, Tom Pelandini, Patricia Wilson, Vi Smoley, Bonnie Skee, Jean Beeson, Kevin Engle, Jackie Ridgel and Florence Peck.

Committee members present:  Greg Dills, Valerie Onellion, Mildred Pickersgill and Melissa Bentley.

Guests present:  Kim Clymire, Dana Smalley, Greg Blinn, Linda Drake, Pat & Bill Vulgaris, KC Patrick, John Smoley, John & Cheyenne Parker, Catherine Quistgard, Vonn Fuqua and Amy Baxter.

President Phil Smoley brought the meeting to order at 10am.

The minutes of the June 12th board meeting were accepted as submitted.

Guest, Pat Vulgaris, asked to have a committee set up to review the by-laws of the LCHS.  Phil requested it to be carried over to the next board meeting.  Phil asked KC Patrick to compile a list of LCHS activities and what the by-law committee will be addressing.

Ely Stage Stop Special Report:  Kim Clymire, our Lake County Public Services Director, updated us on the progress of the Ely project.  He gave a time line beginning in 2004 when Bob Romigiuere met with county staff and agreed to contact Andy Beckstoffer for a donation.

The entire 5 acre parcel has been fenced and a beautiful wraparound porch with knotty pine underneath was added to the building.  The interior will have wainscoting up 4 feet and wall paper above.  Kim introduced Dana Smalley as the contractor who has been in charge of the project.  Dana explained why current materials have been used and that removing the lead based paint would be cost prohibitive.

Greg Dills told us of his Ely Stage Stop committee, some real movers and shakers of the community, that he enlisted from the Kelseyville Pear Festival committee last year.  Due to Greg’s connections, Jackson Equipment out of Middletown cut the roads that were needed at the site free of charge.  Greg is ready to move forward on the first barn.  Kelseyville Lumber gave him an estimate of $12,000 for building materials and $4,000 for the pad.

Greg also reported that a 4000 gallon poly water tank has been donated and Lake County Special Districts has donated a 5000 gallon redwood tank that can be used as a façade.

A new LCHS member, Amy Baxter, who is a member of the American Society of Interior Designers revealed her interest to be on the Ely committee.  Kevin moved to allow Amy to be on the committee, Phil seconded and the motion carried.  Amy described herself as a very talented designer.

Kevin inquired about article 38 regarding historical buildings or historical districts in Lake County.  John Parker, who is our liaison to the County Heritage Commission, reported that article 38 was set up to review sites that may be of historical interest.  Since the Ely Stage Stop building was relocated from its original location, it is not clear if it would fall under this article.

Kevin moved to have Jackie write a letter to the County of Lake, the Board of Supervisors and the Heritage Commission to designate Ely as historically significant, Florence seconded.  Tom requested we postpone this until the next meeting.

Tom also explained that any item needed to be voted on needs to be on the Agenda.

Board of Directors meeting:  Our next meeting has been rescheduled to September 18th, 2010 at 10am, location to be determined.

Insurance review:  Bonnie reported that since we no longer have the Upper Lake Clubhouse, we can drop that location and change the total business personal property to $30,000 coverage at the Nice Clubhouse.  We have a little over $20,000 in book inventory.  It is understood that the historical artifacts we have are uninsurable as we would not be able to replace them.  This change would reduce our annual premium with the Hartford from $1517 to $1000.  Jean moved to approve, Patricia seconded and the motion carried.

Calpine 50th anniversary:  Calpine will include our name in their celebration.

LCHS Logo:  Phil tabled that item until the next board meeting.

Books:  Jean’s account of the June picnic showed we had 66 members and 13 guests in attendance.  The opportunity drawing raised $100 which goes toward the Scholarship program.  Our wholesale book orders were $2093.50 from the Visitors Center, $285.58 from Watershed Books and $330.84 from the Friends of the Museum.

At the July 3rd event at Austin Park in Clearlake a total of $125.92 was collected from book sales, memberships and trinkets.

Damaged Books:  Shall we donate or recycle?  Jean feels they should be destroyed because they were paid for by the developer whose actions caused the flooding.  Phil suggested he may be able to get written approval from the developer to do as we see fit.  Jean also has concerns that if they are donated it may interfere with our book sales.  It was suggested we get a stamp stating “not for resale-damaged goods” and donated by the LCHS.  Bonnie motioned to approve donating them if Phil gets a written OK from the developer, Vi seconded and the motion carried.

Lake County Fair:  September 2nd through 5th, the theme is “Fun for the whole herd”.  We will be setting up on August 30th and the 31st at 10am.  Volunteers welcome.

Bluegrass Festival:  September 11th at Anderson Marsh.  See Jean Beeson for details.

Pear Festival:  The Kelseyville Pear Festival is September 25th.  Please volunteer to work a shift by contacting Valerie or Melissa.

Our next General Membership meeting was rescheduled from September 26th to October 3rd, location to be determined.

Herndon Cemetery:  Phil visited the site with Kevin.  Kevin was asked to go through Phil in the future before going to see Kim Clymire or the Board of Supervisors.  Anyone appearing on behalf of the Historical Society must be approved by our board.

Treasurers report:  Our certificate of deposit at Savings Bank is $42,283.56.  The Westamerica checking account has a balance of $3766.  Recent expenditures were costs for the Pomo $938.92, postage for the Pomo $153 and an Insurance premium of $916.60.  The State Farm Bank money market account balance is $104,951.45 which is set aside for the Ely project.

Florence also reported that we recently switched to Quick Books for bank accounts and for memberships, which is more user friendly.  Florence is sending the registration for our nonprofit raffles.

Mildred asked that the bulk mail permit be moved from Kelseyville to Lakeport.  Florence will take care of that to be effective 1/1/2011.  The post office box in Kelseyville for Michael Anderson will not be renewed.  Jean requested we pay current and 2011 membership dues for Michael Anderson who was in charge of the Pomo for 10 years.  All were in agreement.

Membership:  Nothing to report as Nick was not in attendance.

Website:  Tom & Phil will try to meet with George Stimson.

Nice Clubhouse:  A crew of 12 to 14 people moved all the items from the Upper Lake Clubhouse to Nice.  Valerie and KC Patrick went through the items and they are enlisting some of the long time members to get together to see what should be kept and what to do with the rest.

Jackie volunteered to be in charge of the photo albums.

Pomo Bulletin:  KC Patrick has volunteered for the Pomo job.  Melissa Bentley is also interested.  Phil appointed KC, Melissa and Mildred to take on the job at this time.

The County of Lake will be 150 years old on May 20, 2011.  Mildred is working on that celebration.

Meeting adjourned at 1pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Bonnie Skee

Secretary