EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING MINUTES I. PLACE/DATE Wednesday, October 22, 2003, 7:30 PM at The Lower Merion Academy II. PRESENT Jerry Francis III. PURPOSE General Quarterly Meeting IV. NEW BUSINESS Item Subject Description 1. MINUTES - After the Pledge of Allegiance CJ noted that the November 5th program with Ed Lawler will be held at the Main Line Art Center, not Waverly Heights. The minutes were then accepted from the June 18th meeting meeting. 2. PRESIDENT'S REPORT - JF complimented TG for placing the space heaters in the room as the school district has not yet turned off the heat nor adjusted the outside lights to correspond to the early darkness. The circuit breakers tripped twice due to the extra power draw. 01.03 TREASURER'S REPORT - JF read the financial report as JH is out of town. The FinancialPosition Statement and the Budget were in the board package.TG asked about our cash-flow position. JF informed him of the lag time of 60 to 90 days for Keystone grant reimbursement and that we were asked to resubmit our requests due to the end of the commonwealth's fiscal year. We will delay paying the project contractor until our reimbursement is received. 01.04 ACADEMY BUILDING - RM stated that the construction project was completed at the beginning ofthis month and we have received our occupancy permit meaning we are now officially permitted to use the building as our new headquarters. We have been extremely satisfied with the quality of work from our contractor, McCourby/Overholser and our job foreman, Jim Easter, in particular. Our architect, Linda O'Gwynn from Purdy O'Gwynn Barnhart also did a great job successfully guiding the project through the code process and coordinating with the contractor and us. The project has come in on-time and under budget. 5. EDUCATION - TG reported that TG and JF teach classes and give tours andIntergenerational lectures to the school district. TG, JF & CJ will meet with JM to work out the details to the educational programs. TG gave a historical bus tour to all new teachers. JF stated that we have given 40 lectures & events with a total of 2,490 attendees. JF will be speaking at the Wynnewood Civic Association fund-raiser. 01.06 LIBRARY & WEB-SITE - JF called attention to the web-site statistic sheet. We have and average of175 hits per day. And 51,247 hits for a 10 month total. 284,653 pages have been downloaded. Anyone can view the statistics with the proper access code. Genealogy and maps are the biggest draw. The military is the largest group user. Not much web development occurred over the summer. LE & PE indexed the information we received from William Alan Morrison from his Houses & Estates Collection. Our web-site is far advanced compared to others. Thanks to HH for his work on collecting cemetery information, AA for his work on the maps & PE & TG for their assistance. AA suggested that we study other web-sites for revenue enhancement ideas. We have the original Academy school desk. AB & JF are inventorying and packing our object collection from Ashbridge according to conservation standards. There is an ongoing conservation program using proceeds from the sale of non-Lower Merion related objects as per our Collection Management Policy. The Button collection was sold after two offers were received for $1,000 & the World War One Helmet collection was also sold after receiving two bids for $1,000. JF stated that he donated a glass plate photo-slide collection of Girard College to the College. RM asked if we should assign a monetary value to donations for possible use in grant applications. It was asked when we would vacate Ashbridge. JF stated thatthe date was not firm but by January or at least by our opening in the spring. Ashbridge should be put on the endangered building list after we vacate the premises because of its deteriorated condition. 7. MEMBERSHIP - DF informed us that we have about 300 members as of 10/31. TG & DFwinnowed 37 members from 1999, 2000 & 2001 who have not paid dues for two years as according to our by-laws. There are 45-50 complimentary members who need to be sorted through to determine their viability. Somewere temporary thank you memberships. Second notices went out in June with good results. DJ asked if we should raise the dues from the current rate. 01.08 PROGRAM - CJ stated that the Autocar event was a big success. TG & DJ were a greathelp. Event was co-sponsored by the Friends of Autocar who overcame adversity in the weeks before the event. There is now a marker on Lancaster Avenue commemorating the site with our name on it also. Main Line Life had a good story on the event. Friends of Autocar named us the official repository of their archives. 130-140 people attended the luncheon. CJ liked the small dump truck very much. Program committee will meet to plan for annual meeting. It will be a big meeting to celebrate our grand opening and re-dedication of the Academy and our 55th anniversary. We will work with the school district. National Register plaques will be placed on each school building. 4/18/04 will be the school district's opening ceremony. Caro Rock will place an advertising section in the Main Line Life announcing the celebration. There will be two plaques on the Academy. DM will advise on plaque placement. Ed Lawler will speak on the G. Washington house and the slave quarters at Main Line Art Center on 11/5. Next program will be Barnes Foundation tour on 2/22/04. There will be a May or June joint meeting with the Haverford Historical Society. 01.09 PUBLIC - CJ sends out press releases to the local papers and distributes copies of RELATIONS Milestones. Politician Dayton Leach asked us to help him decorate his new office window in Ardmore. 10. PUBLICATIONS - DJ presented an excellent mock-up of a proposed post-card book we are considering publishing. The project is a revenue enhancement opportunitybased on a "Now & Then" theme using our postcard collection. We will need photos taken of the "now" sites & we need text and captions written. AA suggested including map sections with each site listed. Project will be a joint venture with Franklin Maps as a partner doing the printing with their 4 color press, Pete Bannan will do the photography, Rod Keller will do thescanning & touch-ups & LMHS will supply the post-cards. Board approved the formation of a book committee consisting of DJ, JF, DM, PE & TG. DM introduced the motion & AG seconded it. The board approved the motion unanimously. 11. STRATEGIC PLANNING - JF stated that older groups are disbanding. The King of Prussia Questors gave us a donation as they disbanded. LM-DAR is also disbanding and will give us their archives. We are doing more programs with the LM Conservancy. We are active with the Cynwyd train station preservation project. We are providing assistance to those concerned with Bryn Mawr Hospital demolition/expansion project. We need to plan for our future hours of operation, funding sources and we will need to change our official address from the Ardmore PO Box. JF has joined the LM Society for the Detection & Prosecution of Horse Thieves & the Recovery of Stolen Horses. He suggests that we team up with them for publicity and outreach. AA suggested that we should consider a security policy to protect our books and archives from theft. MEETING AJOURNED VIII. CONVENTIONS, ABBREVIATIONS AND FOOTNOTES Symbols and Definitions: Discussions within brackets [ ] have been added by the author subsequent to the meeting as clarification. 2. Abbreviations used in meeting minutes: AA Andy Amsterdam |