April-2006
Kaukauna Area Historical Society, Inc.
Board Meeting – Minutes -
The meeting of KAHS was called to order by President Craig Lahm at
Board members in attendance, Julie Coenen, Tom Duescher, Rev. Harvey Kandler, Craig Lahm, Tom McGinnis, Jim Severson, Carol Van Boxtel, Rebecca Welhouse and Diane Wittman.
President Lahm reported on the Oral History Project that he and Julie Coenen have been working on. So far they have recorded stories with Robert Knapp, Shirley Hurst and Lorenz “Corn” Mayer. President Lahm thanked Julie for all her work.
Future KAHS Board meetings will be held on the second Wednesday of
each month at
Jerry Kroll is working on scanning the library's photo collection so the photos can be placed in the Past Perfect software program.
Tom Duescher has agreed to be Webmaster for the KAHS. The work he has completed on the website so far is awesome.
We would like to try to sell "Glimpses of Kaukauna" and "A Walking Tour of Kaukauna" booklets on our website. Back in the 1980's Tom McGinnis while employed at Thilmany produced a book "A Little Ways Ahead" and Craig was told they still have copies stored. If possible we would like to get access to those books and sell them on the website.
We will contact the State Historical Society and local historical societies with our web address.
Tom Duescher will contact Paul West to try to get a CD of photos of cemetery stones at Holy Cross. Carol offered to work on transcribing the information since we have been told the transcription was discarded. Tom McGinnis will check on the information from St. Mary's cemetery. There was some discussion that the Green Bay Diocese is considering changing the amount of cemetery information released to the public.
Rebecca Welhouse, Newsletter Co-editor asked about the Board's expectations for the newsletter. The newsletter will contain special interest articles, information from the web site, contributions from the membership and follow-up of photo identification. We will encourage members to contribute to the newsletter. Rev. Kandler mentioned he is a member of the Sheboygan Historical Society and their newsletter always contains one upcoming event and one historical item.
President Lahm discussed an offer to KAHS from the OCHS. OCHS is offering to rent the blacksmith shop at the Grignon Home to KAHS for $1. David Day, the blacksmith at the Grignon Home has funds, work materials and volunteers to run the shop. Items produced in the blacksmith shop could be sold with proceeds to go to KAHS. Last year David Day gave three workshops on blacksmithing which brought in approximately $800 to $1,000.
Tom McGinnis noted that the city donated city employee time to help construct the blacksmith shop.
The OCHS would like to have the Blacksmith Shop open when the Grignon Home is open which is Friday from 12-4 and Sunday 12-4 during the summer months.
Craig checked into the cost of liability insurance and it was suggested that OCHS add the KAHS to their liability insurance policy.
There will be a modest charge for electricity and marketing costs.
Motion by Rev. Kandler, seconded by Julie Coenen to proceed with the rental. Motion carried unanimously.
President Lahm will prepare a "Statement of Understanding" with the OCHS.
The KAHS has some items from the John Lawe house stored in Dick & Helen Van Epern's barn. These items need to be removed because the barn is being razed.
Motion by Julie Coenen, seconded by Rev Kandler to find a place to store these items and keep them. Motion carried unanimously.
President Lahm will talk to Jim Cops and ask if they can be stored in their building.
Kaukauna Utilities is considering a
President Lahm asked for help in planning general meetings. It mentioned that according to our by-laws we will skip meetings during the months of July and December.
We will check into the possibility of holding our meetings in the meeting room at St. Paul Home instead of the Konkapot Room at City Hall.
The May meeting will be the annual meeting of the KAHS and we will also have photos to identify.
We may want to have the digital recorder at the monthly meetings to record stories told by members.
We may be able to get Don Swetz to discuss the development of the canal since he was involved in a book project regarding that issue.
The next board meeting will be Wednesday May 10th and the next KAHS meeting will be May 17th.
Meeting adjourned at
_____________________________________________
Diane M. Wittman
Recording Secretary