City of Jacksonville Area Museum Board met Feb. 2.
Here are the minutes provided by the board:
The February board meeting was held at the Jacksonville Area Museum (Old Post Office) with a teleconferencing option available. The meeting was called to order at 5:15 p.m. by Allan Worrell, Chairman. Those present included David Blanchette, Chad Boehlke, John Clancy, Lisa Hall, Diane Hollendonner, Rebecca Houston, Kyla Hurt, Nick Little, Jo Ann Nelson, James Pisell, and Allan Worrell (by phone). Absent were Patsy Erickson (Emeritus), Laura Marks, Brittany Henry (Ex-Officio), and Judy Tighe (Ex-Officio). Also present were Manager McKenna Servis and Consultant Steve Varble.
The minutes of the January 5, 2023, board meeting were approved distributed.
In the absence of treasurer Laura Marks there was no formal treasurer’s report. McKenna Servis reported that the museum collected between $100-200 in donations during the month of January, with 381 visitors counted. The LEGO exhibit was very popular and drew in a lot of families.
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
Administrative: Chairman Worrell welcomed new board member Lisa Hall (filling Greg Olson’s unexpired term).
The board members were satisfied with the previously announced committee assignments. There are currently no museum use requests.
In her report, manager McKenna Servis announced that the museum received a request from Loren Hamilton and Troy Taylor wishing to conduct a six- hour ghost survey of the building in exchange for a $600 donation. They would like access to the museum probably from 10:00 p.m. – 4:00 a.m. to perform tests. The event would not be open to the public, no museum artifacts would be harmed, and someone from the museum would need to be present while they were in the building. McKenna was asked to request further information from the ghost hunters and report back in March.
McKenna requested immediate action on selecting a museum design and clothing selections for board members, volunteers, and her own use, expressing the need for presenting a more cohesive, professional look to the public .Steve Varble outlined the steps to take for digitizing the logo and ordering shirts, with a preference for black clothing with an orange and white logo. It was voted to move forward to digitalize the museum logo at a cost not to exceed $125 from the miscellaneous supplies line item.
McKenna also requested additional archival supplies. It was voted to approve the expenditure not to exceed $2000 for archival supplies from Gaylord. Chad Boehlke pointed out the urgent need to explore grant funding for museum archival and storage supplies since so much is needed to properly care for the museum artifacts.
Jenny Barker-Devine from Illinois College has two students, Elena Buckley and Ren Parks, starting an Archival Methods internship at the museum on February 4. They will focus on the
Greene Vardiman Black collection, attend board meetings, and eventually present a plan for storing and displaying the artifacts.
Steve Varble reported that ID Signs of Springfield examined the sign post and gave an estimate of approximately $2186 for the entire preparation and installation of the museum sign at the northwest corner of the property. He also displayed a picture of the proposed design. It was voted to instruct ID Signs to proceed with sign preparations (based upon the June 9, 2022 authorization of up to $1000 for a sign). David Blanchette suggested that the JAM Foundation and the MAC Foundation might contribution towards the sign and Allan Worrell will check with them. Steve also added that he is waiting for warmer weather and less wind to hang the vinyl sign at the front entrance but hoped to get it up soon.
Exhibits: Winners of the LEGO exhibit contest will be announced on February 4. They are Noah Middleton (Best Kit Build), Carter Meyer (Best Kid’s Build), and Danny DeVine (Best Original Build). Each will receive a $100 LEGO gift card and a $10 LEGO set. JoAnn Nelson offered to put together “participation” prizes for the other entrants. David Blanchette has a press release prepared that will go out to area news media immediately following the ceremony.
The Dominican Sisters’ exhibit will be displayed April - July. Nick Little reported that the LEGO exhibit will be dismantled over the weekend and will be replaced by a wall of photos from the Jacksonville Developmental Center (Old State Hospital) with an explanation that this is a developing exhibit without extensive interpretation at this time. Text from Greg Olson’s writings about JDC will be included. Kyla Hurt has talked to Mayor Ezard about getting possession of a time capsule from JDC and McKenna is also trying to get the sign letters for JDC for the museum. There are doors from the Old Main Hall in the museum basement and might be an addition to the exhibit if they can be moved upstairs and propped up securely.
Fundraising: David Blanchette attended the check presentation on January 23 for the Jacksonville Children’s Foundation’s $14,450.00 grant to the museum for a ferris wheel seat, a rug for children’s programs, museum stickers, and a photo station outside. He will contact Eli Bridge to order the ferris wheel seat.
McKenna reported that the JAM foundation has around $145,000 in contributions so far for Phase II. There were three new museum memberships in January.
Dave Blanchette talked to Benton & Associates and the report on Phase II is not ready yet due to the engineer recovering from an eye injury.
Collections: It was voted to accept the following donations into the museum’s collection: Helen Cox nursing license, photos of Passavant events, 1954 graduation program, nursing school diploma and cover, and Passavant newsletters. Steve Varble noted that the bandstand at Nichols Park is scheduled to be demolished and we should ask the mayor for the small top piece on the roof. Blanchette will contact the mayor and make the request.
Promotion: Steve Varble reported that the LEGO exhibit posts on Facebook received a lot of interest, but the announcement of the Morgan County Bicentennial posted strong response with lots of views/shares. In the last 28 days, 6484 Facebook accounts have been reached with 12759 views. There will be several posts scheduled with the results of the LEGO exhibit contest, followed by a little “quiet time” before posting any major announcements.
OLD BUSINESS: Events for the Morgan County Bicentennial including display of the Lincoln documents will probably be scheduled for the summer and fall.
NEW BUSINESS: Jim Pisell would like to schedule training on Past Perfect software for board members and volunteers. Rebecca Houston announced that Illinois College has a new archivist, Ron Keller.
PUBLIC COMMENTS: None.
The next meeting will be held on Thursday, March 2, 5:15 p.m., at the Jacksonville Area Museum, 301 E. State Street. Social distancing rules will be observed and call-in option is available upon request.
With no further business or announcements to discuss, the meeting adjourned at 6:50 p.m.
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