The Tuesday, October 25, 2011 meeting of the Washington Island Historical Archives

Committee was called to order by Chairman Charlotte Hansen at 3:30 PM in the Rutledge Room of the Community Center.

Present were Kirby Foss, Arbutus Greenfeldt, Eric Greenfeldt, Charlotte Hansen, Merrill Lundberg, Richard Purinton, David Raup and Connie Sena.   Absent was Jeanette Young.  Also present were Archivist Janet Berggren and, on behalf of the Board of Directors of the Trueblood Performing Arts Center, Jay Ward, Bunny Buxton and Jackie Rader.

Approval of Minutes

Upon motion made by Dave Raup and seconded by Connie Sena, the minutes of the meetings of May 17, 2011 and June 24, 2011, as previously sent to members of the Archives Committee, were approved.

Discussion with TPAC Representatives

Jay Ward said that the TPAC Board is trying to figure out how to best use the TPAC facility as a community resource.  He noted that the recent improvements include a state-of-the-art projector and better insulation to make the building suitable for use year around.  The Board has been studying the economics of comparable operations in other communities and is prepared to negotiate with program sponsors in order to use the facility effectively and maximize its benefit to the Island community.

The TPAC representatives mentioned various sorts of programs that the Archives Committee might consider.  The TPAC Board is working on a fee schedule but their first purpose is to use the facility effectively.  Next year will be somewhat experimental as they develop ideas and get a feel for the economics of the operation.  The short season is an issue, as much of the activity takes place in July and August and some of the dates in that period get crowded with community events.  They are aiming to have a schedule of TPAC events by March but some programs can be added later. 

 Janet thanked the TPAC representatives for their ideas.  She noted that the choice of a venue for our programs is largely determined by the size of the audience we expect.

Program Committee

Dick Purinton reviewed the process for programs sponsored by the Archives Committee.  Since the Archives Committee meets just twice a year he works with Dave, Eric and Janet.  He suggested that E-mail communication with members of the Archives Committee would be helpful.  The programs this year worked out well.  We had 53 in attendance for Tryg Jensen’s presentation and 85 for the baseball program with Matt Foss.  We had receipts, from donations and sales, which exceeded our costs for these programs, although profit is not the overriding objective.

Dick said that the venue for our programs depends on the size of the audience.  A smaller setting works better for smaller groups.  Our audience is typically in the range of 60-80.  We should try to establish dates by mid-February or so.  Wednesday may not be the best day of the week.

Some ideas for future programs were mentioned.  Kari Gordon could be asked to do a program on the history of the Scandinavian Fest.  A program about the Island camps could be considered.  Janet noted that we have some audio tapes that small groups might enjoy, or they could be merged in a CD.  Some of the old letters are quite fascinating, and next year will be the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Fishing Museum.  Dave and Eric will continue to work with Dick on the Program Committee, with Janet’s assistance.

Fund Raising Letter

Dick will work on the annual fund raising letter again.  It was tentatively decided that we will not offer a premium for donations this time.

Treasurer’s  Report

 In the Treasurer’s absence, Janet presented her report and the proposed budget for 2012.  A copy is attached to the minutes.  Eric noted that the budget for equipment would allow for purchase of one or two lockable file cabinets which could hold our book stock in the Archives office, freeing up some space on the shelves in the storage vault.  Following this discussion, upon motion by Dave Raup and seconded by Kirby Foss, the proposed budget was approved.

Archivist’s Report

The Archivist presented her report for 2011.  A copy of the report is attached to the minutes.  Janet confirmed that this report will be printed in the Observer in January.

Election of Officers

Following discussion, upon motion by Dick Purinton and seconded by Connie Sena, it was decided that the present offices would be re-elected and that Kirby Foss would be elected as the Vice Chairman.  The officers of the Archives Committee, accordingly, are as follows:

                        Chairman – Charlotte Hansen

                        Vice Chairman – Kirby Foss

                        Treasurer – Jeanette Young

                        Secretary – Merrill Lundberg

Accession Policy

 Dave Raup observed that the operations of the Archives Committee under Janet’s management are drawing an increasing amount of material contributed by Island organizations and individual members of the community.  Space considerations will be an issue.  We do have a form to be signed by those who make contributions of materials and we need to make it clear that the Committee has the right to make decisions about what to keep and for how long.  So far we have not had to make hard decisions.  Dave, Eric and Janet will try to put together a description of our accession policy to be considered at our meeting in May 2012.

Dick Purinton asked whether we should be seeking help to decide what the Archives space will look like in the future.  Janet said she would like to have more time to think about this, and Dave encouraged her to look at other archives operations.  Eric acknowledged that we will need more space at some point, but there will also be more scanning and on-line operations which may reduce the space required to store hard-copy materials.  Dave encouraged us to keep thinking about on-line operations.  This works well for photos and is generally harder for documents.  The master file probably               does not work very well as an on-line tool for use by members of the public.  Janet will look into any help we could get from the State Historical Society.

2012 Calendars

Janet said we have about 110 of the calendars left and we should try to sell these soon.  It was decided that we should use a boxholder for Island addresses before Thanksgiving, and offer the calendars at $12.  The calendars will also be offered on the Archives page of the Observer, and we might have an open house at the Archives office on an afternoon when it is open offering the calendars as well as the other items in stock.

Date of Next Meeting

The next meeting of the Archives Committee will take place on Tuesday, May 15, 2012 in the Rutledge Room at 3:30 PM.

 Adjournment

 The meeting was adjourned at 5:25 PM

 Respectfully submitted,

Merrill C. Lundberg, Secretary