LAKE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Board Meeting – April 12, 2014
Gibson Museum – 21267 Calistoga St, Middletown, CA
Officers & Directors Present: John Parker, Bonnie Skee, Jackie Ridgel, Nick Voegtly, Trish Wilson, Bob Kauffman & Kevin Ness.
Committee Chairs present: Kevin Engle & Val Onellion. Guests: Nina Bouska, Vonn Fuqua & Dean Enderlin.
John Parker brought the meeting to order at 10:05am in the absence of our President, Voris Brumfield and 1st VP Catherine Quistgard. John also led the Pledge of Allegiance.
The minutes of the February 8, 2014 meeting were opened for discussion. Trish moved to approve, Nick 2nd and all approved.
Treasurers Report: Linda Lake was unable to attend, however she sent a report stating our Westamerica Bank account balance as of April 11th was $8,996 after a sizeable deposit that Ely made. The State Farm Bank money market account balance is $74,736. Vonn asked if the treasurer can provide Ely Stage Stop a monthly credit and debit report. It was agreed that Ely & Gibson should get that type of report at each board meeting.
Bob moved to have Ely and Gibson write their own thank you letters with a copy being sent to Jackie. All approved.
Gibson Museum: Bob reported that the archive room has been insulated. New wooden windows have been installed and they are thrilled to have the Al Neuman fence back in Middletown. The museum will be ready in time for the opening in 3 weeks. Harry Gibson has sent an additional donation of $10,000. They are looking for a large flat screen TV.
The ADA door will be installed soon. The cost for the ramp and door was $15,400 of which the County of Lake paid $15,000. Nina was told that Hardester’s will be featuring the Gibson Museum on the cover of their next flyer. Martha Webster declared the building to be historical in 2001.
Ely Stage Stop & Country Museum: The whiskey tasting event is tonight and is sold out. The Science Camp will be on Saturday, May 3rd. The next docent meeting is Wednesday April 16th and the docents will be meeting at Konocti Growers on Big Valley Rd where we have many items stored. They would like us to move our things out so those who have trucks or trailers are asked to bring them. The Ely sign is being installed today. Kevin Ness is working on the Randy Ridgel memorial.
Nice Clubhouse: The committee plans to do an inventory June 1st. Trish talked to someone at the County and they are going to take care of the water problem at the clubhouse. The LCHS chairs and tables need to be moved back to Nice. No one in attendance seemed to know where those items are at the present time. Val needs to have them in one place to pick up for events.
Val conveyed that we need to thank the folks at the County of Lake for all that they have done. It was suggested that we invite them to our June 22nd picnic. Kevin Engle suggested we try to have live music at the picnic. Vonn thought maybe the Fiddlers would play and she will check with them.
Membership: Since February 8th Nick has received 30 renewals and 4 new memberships. We have 332 active members of which 242 are dues paying members.
Digitization: Kevin E is working with Linda Lake who found we can use a scanner I believe the County owns. He spoke to someone at the Friends of the Museum about the newspaper collection and found out the State has copies.
Kevin is also working on certain properties to be declared historical. He found that the State may declare Ely a historical site even though it has been moved.
Events: Val is ready to take this on again! She is in need of business cards, membership cards and membership lists and is working with Nick on that. She would also like to have updated Ely and Gibson brochures. Val is scheduled to attend Earth Day at Calpine and have a table at Lower Lake Daze. We decided not to participate in the 2 day Memorial crafts fair at Natural High in Lakeport. She will look into the ice cream social event that is taking the place of Wild West Day in Upper Lake.
Descriptions for officers and committees: John is compiling that.
Ascensioning procedures: No report
Books: No report
Insurance committee: No response. Bonnie will try to get information from someone at each location to make sure our insurance business personal property amount is as accurate as possible.
Corporate & Business sponsorships: The committee had a meeting this morning before the board met. Nick will report back to the board at the June 7th meeting.
Historical Network: Kevin E would like to have an event with several groups in the County, possibly early fall. Kevin will chair that event.
I believe it was John that reported that the feasibility study began on the Carnegie Library in Lakeport.
Pat Ridgel is applying for a Department of Labor grant for troubled youth and would like to use the Ely barn for 2 weeks this summer. It would be a day camp probably in August. The board passed a resolution in support of the proposal and all agreed it sounds like a good program. The consensus was that one of the Ely staff will need to be on site during the program operation hours for security purposes. Due to the number of hours, this is not something that we can expect of volunteers. We asked that Pat consider adding funds in the grant proposal to pay for one of the Ely staff for their time.
Vonn requested that the HS fund a grant proposal and writing class for her & Nina. The cost is approximately $100 each. Trish moved to approve the request up to $300, Nick 2nd and all were in agreement. In order to write grants a business plan and a line item budget is required.
We need to get a speaker lined up by May 1st for our June picnic. John & Catherine Quistgard are in charge of that.
John is going to look into getting a cargo container or two to place at Ely for storage. We will need to disguise the container or the County will not approve it and none of us would approve either.
The meeting was adjourned at 12:05pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Bonnie Skee
Secretary