Fisher House Board Meeting

06/02/04

Minutes

 

Attending: Jim Fisher, Carol Blyberg, Patty Deetjen, Bob Slaven, Jonathan Ashcroft, Bill Petry, Amey Dodge,  Deale Salisbury, Gary Vencil, Linda Hoskins, Rob Nolan (by phone)

 

Fisher Moment - recounting the Gibbs visit of 5/23/04 and the Fisher Genealogy

 

Minutes:

·        Misspelled Bob's last name on page 2

·        Minutes accepted as amended.

 

Opening Reception - Bob Slaven reporting

·        Amey has prepared a very good contact data base

·        Patty and Carol are organizing the reception

·        Deale is working on Name Tags

·        Badge and Bob are working on staffing the event

·        400 invitations sent on May 27, 2004

·        Committee meeting will be Wednesday June 9, 2004 at 1:00 PM

 

Pot luck will be held afterwards

·        Jim - Bread, Indian Pudding

·        Carol - Lasagna

·        Deale - Popovers

 

Action items:

·        Clean up - Tuesday June 22 at 9:30 AM

·        Filling display cabinets

·        Setting up the house, paintings, etc.

 

Ship Exhibit – discussion mostly tabled to the July meeting

 

August 15th Downeast Magazine Event – this might be combined with the model ship exhibit

·        Publicity - Out and about - deadline is July Amey will contact the Ellsworth American

·        Penobscot Maritime Museum – might be a place for a promotional poster

·        Publicity will be discussed again at the June 9th meeting

·        Jim will contact Downeast Magazine to learn about other participants.

 

Maintenance

·        Storm doors and windows - Jack Grindle can do this, or volunteers. 

·        Boards on the boardwalk need to be replaced – Jim can do this

·        Cleaning - one good cleaning then guides maintain during the summer - Lisa Ladd?

·        Furniture – can be cleaned with “lemon oil or nothing at all” according to Bill

·        Squirrel nests - in basement (Jim)

·        Clear out bathroom

 

Heating fuel - Amey

Garden - Badge may still need to contact Linda Elder about cleaning up the garden

 

Archive room - thermostat is broken, may need to get a new one at home depot $150 on sale (110 volt circuit)  Jim will look into a new one.

 

Management

 

Jonathan Ashcroft presented ideas of projects he could pursue this summer

 

Archival work

·        Photographing materials and adding images to the database and web site

·        Scanning documents – adding to database and web site

·        Identifying significant items not in the Fisher House – such as the library and private collections

·        Improving database

 

Historical Interpreters

·        Management and training

·         

·        The Fisher Kitchen

·        Bob Slaven - willing to work on the kitchen question.  May not be able to resolve this quickly.  

·        The current kitchen represents a progression after Jonathan Fisher.  Need to consider whether we would eventually want to create a kitchen that is historically accurate.

·        Bill thinks that there may be pictures of the original kitchen - Eric may have received pictures. 

 

Office managerial - membership, filing,

Publicity

·        Publicity packets

·        Table tents with historical society for restaurants

·        road side signage

 

Jonathan's preference - archival work

 

Bill Moves that Jonathan work primarily on archival work to see it through to completion

The motion was amended to say that during museum hours Jonathan would help with training and organizing interpreters and might give occasional tours.

We would try to have interpreters between 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM

Bill's motion passed.

Gary proposed that we seek volunteers for some days - Jonathan can prepare a calendar for people to sign-up.

Jonathan left the meeting so that we can discuss details.

·        Starting on Monday, June 7.

·        Salary - $12

·        Up to 40 hours and $5,000

·        40 hours would cost approximately $500 per week

 

Bank Safe Deposit Box  Bill reported on the contents

·        Safe deposit box has 40 share of Proctor and Gamble stock. Purchased in 1962.

·        Betty Spaulding -

·        Smuckers Stock -

·        Deeds to the house

·        Decision is to leave items there for now, but consider selling stock to put funds into the managed accounts.  No capital gains taxes are required for non-profit organizations.

 

Annual Meeting

Will probably hold the meeting in September again

Possible speakers

·        Richard Carter - completed his thesis

·        Might be a speaker at the Annual Meeting

·        Marty Harmon

·        Jonathan Ashcroft - archival work

 

Treasurers Report

Spent $1,000 to date

Prepaid for fuel

Tom Smith - who handles the 990 form is ill and may step down

 

New Board Members  - would be proposed on a slate for the September annual meeting

·        Linda Hoskins (attended this evening)

·        Maureen Rawding

·        Both are encouraged to attend some meetings in the mean time to see if this will work out.

 

Newsletter

Sent one off in May.  Need to have another out in time to promote a September Annual Meeting

Possible articles:

Genealogy - Peggy Gibbs Burton

Ted Hoskins - Minister, Speaker, Sea Coast Mission, Fisheries

 

Meeting adjourned at 9:40 PM (ouch)

 

Following the meeting

·        Jim removed the squirrels nests in the basement (no sign of squirrels)

·        Jim removed the broken air conditioner and took it home.  He will either fix or replace it.

 

Respectfully submitted, Jim Fisher