LAKE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Board Meeting June 8, 2013 10am
Nice Clubhouse, 3000 Lakeshore Blvd, Nice
Present: Phil Smoley, John Parker, Patricia Wilson, Vi Smoley, Floraine Chalk, Kevin Ness, Tony Marchese, Jackie Ridgel, Bonnie Skee, Catherine Quistgard, Randy Ridgel, Vonn Fuqua, George Stimson, Ruby Glebe and Voris Brumfield.
The meeting was brought to order by President Phil Smoley at 10:04am. Randy led the Pledge of Allegiance.
The minutes of the April 13, 2013 board meeting and the April 28, 2013 general meeting were opened for discussion, Jackie moved to accept the minutes with one change, which was to remove the names of the individuals related to the Gibson Library project from the April 13th minutes, John 2nd and the minutes were approved.
Treasurers Report: Phil visited with Florence Peck who has promised to contact Linda Lake soon. Florence had several problems including the fact that her computer crashed. We reviewed our current bank balances. Our State Farm Bank money market account has a balance of $79,354.76 and the Westamerica Bank general operating account balance is $3,474.40.
Phil received a letter of resignation from Kevin Engle as he no longer lives in District 1. John moved to accept his resignation, Catherine 2nd and the board agreed.
Since Voris Brumfield does live in District 1, Catherine nominated Voris to serve as our District 1 director, Kevin Ness 2nd and the motion carried. We will vote on this at our next general meeting.
Phil appointed Kevin Engle as our digitization chair.
Gibson Library: A proposed memorandum of understanding (MOU) was distributed. Nothing is binding at this time. There are concerns about the financial impact. Voris stated that the Gibson Library project should be financially neutral to the Historical Society. The focus would come from the south county. The Gibson Library would be an additional location. Phil appointed Voris as liaison between the Gibson Library and the LCHS board.
John moved to move forward on the MOU, Bonnie seconded. It will now go to Supervisor Jim Comstock who will take it to County Counsel Anita Grant for revisions. It was approved to move forward.
Membership: Ruby gave a brief synopsis of the evolution of the LCHS. The Society was formed in the mid 1950’s with about 70 members. By the mid 1970’s there were 800 members then in 1997 the membership was down to less than 200 and Ruby was asked to dissolve the organization. Ruby rejected that idea and enticed Randy Ridgel to take over as President. By 2002 we had 700+ members. Currently we are down to 351. Ruby just wanted to make us aware how quick things can change and that we all need to recruit new members.
Jackie and Bonnie both spoke about protecting and keeping the members we have in addition to recruiting new members. Catherine suggested a way to send out letters to those whose memberships are expiring, in addition to previous members. Our membership chair will need help on this. Phil will schedule a meeting with Nick Voegtly to discuss this. We also need to get a membership drive going and all of us are responsible for promoting the Society.
Phil passed out calling lists that Nick had provided to all District Directors to call for the upcoming picnic at Ely on June 30th.
Nice Clubhouse: We had a recent break in to the clubhouse. Our sound system, computer, a tent, 4 tables and some photo albums we stolen. We have an alarm but it was not set. John moved to re-key the building and to put a steel plate on the front door up to $200, Bonnie 2nd and it was approved. Phil will handle that.
John also made a motion to approve for Phil to purchase a new sound system while we are waiting for the insurance to pay. The approximate cost is $840, Catherine 2nd and all were in favor. Voris said the Middletown group has some extra tables that they will donate to us.
Phil responded to the City Manager of Lakeport who is looking for a use for the Lakeport Carnegie Library. It would be great if we could make a deal with them and move out of the Nice clubhouse.
By-laws: John provided the proposed amended by laws. After review by the board, John moved to approve having them printed and put in the Pomo bulletin that will be mailed soon so that the members can have time to look the changes over then vote at our upcoming general meeting. Patricia 2nd and it was approved. Catherine moved to allow up to $85 for printing, Bonnie 2nd and motion carried.
Nominating Committee: A nominating committee was established made up of Phil, John and Bonnie. This year the offices we are looking to fill are President, Recording Secretary, possibly District 1 Director and District 3 is up for election.
Scholarship Update: Tony reported that they had 2 exceptional essays both from Middletown. Each was awarded a $500 scholarship. Cheyanne Horvath presented an essay titled “Lake County History” and Jacob Gill’s essay was on the “Legacy of the Sulphur Bank Mine: Social and Environmental Justice”. Tony will invite both of them to our picnic.
Ely Stage Stop & Country Museum: Trish spoke about the upcoming fundraiser on June 22, 2013. It will be a “picnic on the porch” and tickets are $30. She also reported that an electric golf cart was purchased by one of the docents for $1000. We will need to reimburse him but they are looking at further fundraising to pay for it. The golf cart will be very helpful transporting people from the barn and up to the house for the restroom and for people that are unable to walk that far.
Books: Phil and one of his employees did a wonderful job sorting and labeling the bins for the books. He also placed a form on the top of each bin showing how many books of that kind we have and for people to sign out the number of books that are removed. There is one book that we have an abundance of and it was decided we will discount it.
Meeting adjourned at 2:15pm
Respectfully submitted,
Bonnie Skee, recording secretary