City of Jacksonville Heritage Cultural Center Board met March 4.
Here is the minutes provided by the board:
The meeting (held in the Jacksonville Municipal Building Mayor’s Conference Room) was called to order at 5:17 p.m. by David Blanchette, Chairman. Those present included David Blanchette, John Clancy, Patsy Erickson, Diane Hollendonner, Laura Marks, Lynne Phillips, and James Pisell. Absent were Cynthia Boehlke, Michael Burke, Kyla Hurt, Charles Rice, Samantha Sauer, Brittany Henry (Ex-Officio), and Judy Tighe (Ex-Officio). Steve Varble attended as marketing consultant.
The minutes of the February 6, 2020 board meeting was approved as distributed.
Treasurer James Pisell reported that the checking account held a balance of $17,934.84 on January 31. After paying bills for purchases at Home Depot for flooring tiles and window covers for the “safe” storage room, the balance is now $17,303.01.
It was noted that Rand Burnette passed away on March 3. David Blanchette will follow up on a memorial contribution.
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
Administrative: The February 22 collections move was successfully completed. Jim Pisell has been sorting through the boxes and arranging items by category into different rooms and shelves. He will be meeting with Samantha Sauer and her assistant to look over the items and develop an itinerary for her IC Museum Studies students who will come in for 3 hours on March 17.
Electrician Aaron Scott turned in an estimate for $4500 on conduits, outlets, and other related electrical work. Blanchette turned the information over to Gerald Halligan and Bob Sibert for them to review.
No updates on grants or proposed exhibits.
Board members have sent in corrections to the membership list and it is being updated. Kyla Hurt is still working on procedure manuals. Blanchette has been reminding local service clubs about the need for volunteers, and has a meeting scheduled for March 18 with the Master Gardeners to work on a low-maintenance landscaping plan.
Collections: On display was the baby scale that Dr. E. C. Bone used to weigh approximately 4,000 newborn babies from Jacksonville and surrounding areas. The scale is on loan to the museum by Dr. Bone’s family, and David Blanchette is working on a podcast with David Bone on memories of his father’s work as a local physician.
Blanchette has received items from Dr. Susan Weller (dentist logs, opium authorization forms) and Russell Scholfield (Old Post Office forms, etc.).
Exhibits: Laura Marks put together a new traveling exhibit about the Capps Factory for the display case at Lincoln Land Community College. Varble is trying to get good photographs of all the traveling exhibits to publicize their locations.
Jim Pisell reported that he has been sorting through the GTE telephone display items, including lots of pamphlets and books. Patsy Erickson will meet with him to explain what the collection contains and group items together.
Work continues on the audio/visual program and the Mrs. Tucker children’s puzzle.
Promotion: Steve Varble distributed packets with information on Facebook followers, page views, popular postings, and interaction with followers. The Facebook page has a new header, and new photos/stories are being posted on a regular schedule.
Blanchette and Varble have produced two podcasts so far with interviews featuring Ruth Linear and former postmaster Russell Scholfield. When five are completed, the “library” will be launched into a distribution program that will probably charge around $12/month to make podcasts available to the public.
Logo files are now completed and Varble will get business cards made using Blanchette’s contact information for board members to hand out when talking with prospective donors, volunteers, etc.
OLD BUSINESS: None.
NEW BUSINESS: Laura Marks has a collection of photographs featuring her grandfather, former mayor Robert Dubois, including one of Governor Otto Kerner eating a hotdog.
David Blanchette is meeting to tour the Old Post Office building with friends experienced in fundraising to generate ideas.
Patsy Erickson has a light belonging to the Woodson post office that is over 100 years old and used to be kept lit on the front porch of Ethel Finch.
There were no public comments.
The April 2 meeting has been cancelled due to the current COVID-19 precautions. The next meeting will be held on Thursday, May 7, 5:15 p.m., at the Old Post Office building, 301 E. State Street.
With no further business or announcements to discuss, the meeting adjourned at 6:23 p.m.
http://cms6.revize.com/revize/jacksonvilleil/city_government/boards_commissions_and_committees/docs/Boards%20Commissions%20Committees/HCC_Minutes/2020/Minutes%203.4.2020.pdf
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