Greater
November 20, 2008
The regular meeting of the Greater Dover Historical Society was
called to order by President Madelyn Shermeyer at 7:05 p.m. at the
The October minutes were presented and President Shermeyer asked
for any additions or corrections to the minutes. A
motion to accept the minutes as presented was made by Harry Shermeyer and seconded by
Lucia Hrinyak. All voted in favor and motion
passed.
TREASURER’S REPORT
The treasurer’s report for October 2008 was presented by Joyce
Law:
Balance as of October 1, 2008
$8,747.99
Deposits for October
1,934.68
Expenses for October
186.00
Outstanding checks
100.15
Balance as of October 31, 2008
$10,396.52
There was a motion by Gayle Heagy to approve the treasurer’s
report as presented and seconded by Jeff Koch. All
voted in favor and motion passed.
Joyce Law reported that the budget meeting was held on November 6
and she presented the budget to the members. Joyce
stated it is a very lean budget due to the economy. An
adjustment was made under office supplies expenses – adding $145.00 for membership
badges. This expense was inadvertently omitted
at the November budget meeting and was added into the budget using reserve funds.
Archivist Report -- Assistant Archivist Gayle Heagy reported she
had a copy of the photograph donated by Fern Collins (circa mid-1950’s) showing Davey
Brillhart driving his sheep across the fire company parking lot. He brought his sheep to the lot to feed on grass
every Sunday after church. At the September
2008 meeting, Gayle had reported she received the original photograph of Mr. Brillhart
from Fern Collins.
Webpage Report – Brett Pfleiger was absent. President Shermeyer asked if Brett had submitted a
request for reimbursement for the website renewal fee.
Joyce Law said she did not receive anything from Brett to date.
Historian Report – Cindy Snyder did not have a report.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
Blood Root – no report
Board of Directors – Gayle Heagy reported the following was
discussed at the November 6 board meeting: 1).
Minutes for the September meeting were approved. 2).
The Board decided to hold off approving the request from Joyce Law for the updated 2009
Quicken Premier bookkeeping program until a new treasurer/bookkeeper is appointed. Joyce stated she has already purchased and
installed the new program so it must be approved.
Joyce stated the Board usually gave her the approval every 2 years for
the upgrade, but Gayle said it was not approved this time.
3). It was decided to have a holiday sale until December 31 for the
blacksmith shop replicas at a discounted price of $14.00 each. 4). The Board voted to approve permitting Brett
Pfleiger to pay the annual website fee and submit the invoice for reimbursement. 5). The Board made a decision to sell (by sealed
bids) the timbers stored in the archive shed since the weight of the timbers is causing
the shed to sink. Gayle Heagy will send out
bid specification packages to local contractors who perform restoration work on historic
buildings. The timbers must be moved out of
the shed to the grassy area so anyone interested in placing a bid can look at the timbers. The bid specifications will state the highest bid
takes the timbers off site at their cost. Gayle
asked for comments from the membership regarding the proposal to sell the timbers. Harry Shermeyer stated he did not believe all of
the timbers came from the original blacksmith shop and feels if we need to replace any
timber in the blacksmith shop, we can have a local sawmill reproduce an antique log easily
given today’s technology. All members
present agreed to remove the timbers from the shed and advertise them for sale. Gayle Heagy reported she spoke to Carol Jones to
advise her that the Society will not be using her barn to store the timbers, but would be
interested in storing the boxes of slate there. 6).
Gayle asked permission from the Board to request additional shelving space in the Township
office for the archive storage. President
Shermeyer spoke to the Township Manager and the request was approved. 7). Gayle reported on correspondence received from
the York County Heritage Trust concerning information sessions for historical societies to
share information, exchange ideas, creating collaborative programming and developing joint
marketing opportunities. The contact person is
Joan Mummert and Gayle will contact her for additional details. 8). The Board reviewed a proposal from the Arcadia
Publishing Company offering to partner with the GDHS to publish a book of photographs of
Dover Township history and provide royalties to the GDHS.
The Borough and Township already published history books and the Board
decided to decline this offer.
Adopt-a-Highway – Melanie Green was absent – no report.
OLD BUSINESS
Webpage (Blacksmith Shop link) – President Shermeyer reported
that Brett Pfleiger has the link complete and he did a very good job. Lucia Hrinyak did the editing for the site. Joyce Law asked if there was any reason to keep the
old information on the blacksmith shop on the webpage since the new link is available. President Shermeyer will check with Brett to go
over the areas of the website to be updated.
Suggestions from November 2007 – President Shermeyer reported
that in November of 2007, the issue was brought up as to how the Society could attract
more members and get our young people involved. From
the discussions on this issue, the following were suggestions made by members: 1). Reach out to the young people at the Dover Fair
and during the open hours at the Blacksmith Shop. 2).
Lucia Hrinyak had suggested we reach out to a senior credit or senior focal projects for
high school students that may require historical research to get high school students
involved in our Society. 3). Judy Worley
suggested we could speak to someone in the high school history department or perhaps Cindy
Snyder could pass out information about the Society to her advanced placement class
students. President Shermeyer questioned
whether any of these suggestions have been accomplished.
Vice President Stitley stated that family members of Dr. Board were at the
fair this year and asked questions about the history book on display because it contained
the family photograph. They were interested in
acquiring a copy of the history book (
NEW BUSINESS
Borough Christmas Tree Lighting – Norma Botterbusch was not
present so President Shermeyer asked Ron Botterbusch if he had any information to report. Ron said the tree lighting will be held on Black
Friday, November 28. Vice President Stitley
stated they are looking of volunteers to donate cookies and help serve at the tables.
Election of Officers
President Shermeyer appointed 3 members to be vote counters for
the ballots – Mel Miller, Larry Law and Zita Smith.
President Shermeyer asked Ron Botterbusch to handle the nominations from the
floor process. There were no nominations from
the floor for the following officers: president,
vice president, secretary, treasurer/bookkeeper and historian. For the Board of Director’s position, 1
nomination from the floor was made by June Kinsey and seconded by Lori Koch – the
nominee is Harry Shermeyer and he accepted the nomination.
The nomination process was closed by Ron Botterbusch and written ballots
were distributed and tallied. The following
officers and Board of Directors will serve for the year 2009:
President – Madelyn Shermeyer
Vice President – Kay Stitley
Secretary – Lori Koch
Treasurer/Bookkeeper – no candidate
Historian – Cindy Snyder
Board of Directors – Ron Botterbusch, Lois Slothower, Harry
Shermeyer
President Shermeyer announced the executive staff appointments as
follows: Gayle Heagy, Assistant Archivist; Jo
Ott, photographer; and Lucia Hrinyak, editor.
QUESTIONS/SUGGESTIONS
President Shermeyer reminded members to pick up the volunteer
hours sheet and turn in the completed forms to Joyce Law in order to file the IRS form
990. These hours are very important to
maintain our 501(c)(3) status.
Cook stove update – President Shermeyer asked for an update on
the stove. Vice President Stitley reported the
bottom part of the stove was taken to Bob Stitley’s shop; it has been welded and needs
to be taken to the blacksmith shop or wherever. It
was discussed that the bottom part of the stove can be put into the blacksmith shop for
now and when the timbers and boxes of slate are moved out of the archive storage shed, the
stove can then be stored in the shed. President
Shermeyer said the line shaft which was donated by Mr. Hoffman will have to be stored
somewhere, possibly the shed. Mr. Hoffman said
he will keep it in his garage until the Society can take it.
After a brief discussion on how, when and who will move the stove to
the blacksmith shop, it was suggested we contact Don Baughman to see if he would be
willing to use his heavy equipment to move the stove for us.
Gayle Heagy will contact Mr. Baughman. The
folding tables currently in the blacksmith shop will be moved to the archive storage shed
and put the stove into the corner. A
suggestion was made by Lucia Hrinyak to contact the York County Heritage
Trust/Industrial-Agriculture Museum to inquire if they would be interested in displaying
the Hoffman line shaft for the Society until we have a proper place to store it. President Shermeyer asked Gayle Heagy to contact
the YCHT archivist to see if they would be interested in displaying our line shaft, on
loan from the GDHS, at their museum.
There being no further questions or suggestions from the
membership, the meeting was adjourned at 8:20 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Lori Koch
GDHS secretary