Oconee County Historical Committee minutes of last nights meeting

The Oconee County Historical Society needs our support, donations and attention. Please consider taking your children to the Touch a Truck event this Saturday at Heritage Park and tour the three historic buildings on the grounds as well.

Subject: minutes of last nights meeting

MINUTES

2010

March 15

ATTENDANCE:  Sheila Jackson, Linda Bernard, Melissa Piche, Dory Brown, Lisa Douglas, Ben Jackson, Richard Pendergrass, Peggy Sommer

OLD BUSINESS:

1. Grant application:  Richard reported that he did not sent in a grant application to the Watson-Brown Foundation this year because he could not find some old pot belly stoves that matches what was already available in Central Schoolhouse.  It was decided that we would all keep an eye out for some and maybe try again next year.
2. Meeting location:  We agreed that we would continue to use the OCAF facilities for meetings in the future.
3. History Village Planning:  The next meeting of the Rec. Dept committee on Heritage Park is March 24^th 7pm. Richard set up a time for out committee to meet at his Elder Farms home at 2pm on March 20^th.  Committee members are Richard, Ben, Brent, Peggy; but any other members interested in helping are also welcome.                                                
4. Touch a Truck:  March 20 10-1  We agreed to gather at 9:30 so we could get organized before the event started at 10:00.  Here is a list of things people have agreed to do:  Richard will print out more copies of the flyer about Central Schoolhouse and fix a bucket and sign for collecting donations for the hayride. Rather than charge a specific amount we decided to just ask for donations. Lisa and Peggy will see if they can locate the short summary that was prepared last time about the cabin.  Lisa will also send out the word to the DAR to see if anyone there wants to help with activities at the cabin.  Peggy will bring copies of our print, note cards and the banner.
5. Signs for Heritage Park:  There was a lively discussion about the signs and the consensus seems to be that we could come up with something that was longer lasting and better than what William White originally proposed.  One suggestion was a sign near the highway that said "History Village" with a sign for each building hanging from that sign.   This would allow us to add a new sign each time a new structure was added.  Then next to each structure should be put a sign with more detail about the building that the current plan includes.  Another point was that the Oconee County Historical Society should get recognized on the sign(s).  Richard suggested we talk with Lisa about signs before the meeting on the 24^th.
6. The following items were on our agenda under old business but no action was taken on them because the people involved were not present.  Our oral history project, Albert's idea of a Partron's group and some possible fund raisers, Alex's work on a logo and Ruth's work on our web site.

NEW BUSINESS:

            The rest of the meeting was spent discussing several things such as

1. "What was the possibility of having some sort of program at meetings?"
2.  "Was the society interested in doing something about preserving other structures in town that are currently in danger of falling down?"  The specific example was the house next to Memorial Baptist Church. 
3. "What did we think about sponsoring an exhibit of historical artifacts in the library?"
4. "Could we establish some sort of library that would help researchers?"

1. Ben agreed to contact Gary Doster to see if he would do a program for us on early history in the area for our next meeting (or the May meeting or a part 1 & 2 talk at each meeting). We set the time of the talk for 7:30 with the ideas that we would gather at 7 to set up and hold a quick business meeting.
2. In the process of discussing this item it was mentioned that there was a new degree at UGA in historic preservation and that maybe they could help us.  Melissa offered to see what she could find out about the house mentioned and Richard said he would contact the person at the University in charge.
3. All of us agreed that this might be an interesting thing to do and that it might be a way to get the public involved by asking them to bring in items.  Peggy mentioned that she had heard that the county had some items that they were storing somewhere in hopes of someday putting them in a museum.
4. We discussed some possible books and needs but came to no conclusion. 

The next meeting will be April 19^th at the OCAF building.