Executive Board Meeting Present: Jerry Francis, Denise Francis, Phil Eidelson, Betty Cannon, Jack Hagner, Ross Mitchell, Andy Amsterdam, Ted Goldsborough, Lynne Kauffman, Bobbie McElroy. Excused Absences: Alison Graham, Dennis Montagna, Bruce Reed, Joan Roberts, S. Hamill Horne. Jerry Francis called the meeting to order at 6:55 P. M. and Ted Goldsborough led the Pledge Of Allegiance. President's Report: Jerry Francis noted that the exposure of the Society has been expanded beyond our local press outlets with recent interviews for stories that have appeared in the "AP News," "USA Today," the "Yiddish Daily News," "A&E," and "CN8." The meeting rooms in the Academy building continue to be in demand. Several other groups are now using the building, including The Lower Merion Conservancy and various neighborhood groups. Just recently, the basement has been remodeled as a locker room for Bala Cynwyd Middle School football team. Treasurer's Report: Jack Hagner presented the Report as of August 31, 2005, showing that we are in good shape. Total Assets are $61,303. Jerry discussed "The First 300" book, how many we printed and how many are still left to sell. It was moved and seconded to accept the Treasurer's report, as presented. Approval was unanimous. Education Report: Ted Goldsborough reported that in late August he participated in a narrated bus tour of the Township for the "50 new teachers and staff in the Lower Merion School District. Ted was the narrator one bus, and 2 School District employees did the other two buses. Ted represented the Historical Society at a luncheon held by Friends of Autocar, at their headquarters in Exton. He accepted praise for the Historical Society from the former employees of Autocar. Programs: Jerry Francis reported for Ann Bagley that representatives of the Historical Society presented 42 lectures or events, during the past year, attended by 2,212 people. The next event is the "Fairmount Water Works" tour on Sunday, October 9th. Denise Francis and Ann Bagley will do the guiding. The next program "Past Times Present" will be presented on Thursday, November 3rd, at Waverly Heights. Library & Website: Jerry Francis reported that the website keeps growing and continues to be a resource of interest to the community. E-Mail inquiries are still coming in, about 10-15 a week, which need to be followed up. There were 91,000 visitors to the site last year. So far, this year, there have been 127,400 visitors, mostly researching their genealogy, but also our local burial records and local biographies. We are currently upgrading our G4 computer to the new operating system OSX 10.4 (known as "Tiger"). We have completed negotiations with Advantagecom.net (our ISP) for new pricing, and to take advantage of their reduced rate(s), we had our files moved to another server. Back in January, Jerry made a proposal to the Board to add the "First 300" to the website and received approval for a $1,200 budget for this project. As we got into this conversion project, due to the custom design of each page layout, we learned that we could not use the "template" approach but had to custom design each electronic page. The webmaster re-estimated that it will cost another $2,000 to $3,000 more to complete this project. It was moved and seconded to adjust the cost of the project from $1,200 to up to $4,000, to finish the book online. Approval was unanimous. Andy Amsterdam suggested we raise the retail price of the "First 300", for the last 1,000 copies. Bookstores sell the book at different prices. Phil Eidelson asked where the money would go. Also, Jerry noted that there are many updates and corrections that are being made to the electronic version of the book. It was suggested and voted on that we raise the retail price $5.00 to $44.95. The recommendation was approved. Membership: Denise Francis had nothing to report. Old Business: The R6 Cynwyd Train Station, which is owned by SEPTA, remains in a deteriorated and unsafe condition. The Township has a health and safety concern about this building and has hired the engineering firm of Pinonni & Associates to do "Property Condition Assessment." The conclusion of this study report was that the cost to refurbish the station would be ~$860,000. The Township will be applying for various grants to help fund this project. New Business: Dorothy Fetterolf, a resident of Beaumont, recently passed away and in lieu of flowers, requested that a donation be made to the Historical Society. To date, ~$1,300 has been collected. A discussion of how to best use these funds concluded that we would expand our atlas collection and acquire a 1948 atlas. Andy Amsterdam could print copies from his master copy and make them available to the Society. Ask the President: Jerry Francis reported on the plan for a hiking/walking trail, the idea of a Lower Merion graduate, Harry Olson, class of '44. The trail would be on our side of the Schuylkill River, where there is still a right of way from the abandoned old River Road. This trail would be part of the Township's Open Space Plan. A hearing will be held on October 5th on how Lower Merion could best develop such a trail. The meeting was adjourned at 8:15 PM. NEXT MEETING: TUESDAY, JANUARY 17, 2006 |