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Home My WebLink About09/18/2018 - Minutes r r r r r r RENTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY BOARD OF TRUSTEES RENTON HISTORY September18,2018 MusEUM Attending: Colleen Lenahan, Antoin Johnson, Pete Kalasountas, Jessica Kelly, Lynne King, Betsy Prather, and Elizabeth P. Stewart. Absent: Laura Clawson Call to Order In the President's absence, Vice President Colleen Lenahan called the meeting to order at 5:30 PM. Retreat Follow-up Information Trustees agreed to skip Retreat Follow-up to focus on the upcoming Dinner Auction. Public Comments Information There were no public comments. Board Communications Information There were no Board communications. Correspondence Information There was no Board correspondence. Correspondence Information There was no correspondence. Consent A�enda (Vice President) Action Item A quorum was present. • MOTION: Lynne King moved to approve the consent agenda as amended and Pete Kalasountas seconded. Motion passed, none opposed, none abstaining. Old Business Action Items (1) Committee reports: Fundraiser Committee: Committee Co-Chairs Lynne King and Jessica Kelly updated the Board on preparations for the History-Making Party on Sept. 26 and led a discussion about remaining tasks to be done. Most importantly: more tickets need to be sold. Food, linens, and auction baskets are ready. An anonymous (from Pat Auten) $750 gift can kick off the Raise the Paddle as a pace-setter; Lynne King volunteered to be the next highest bid. Trustees are needed for set-up at 3:30 pm, and will need to help a bit with tear-down, although Renton Youth Council is very efficient. Please remember your badges if you have them, and Liz Stewart will have generic "Board member" badges. Script has been distributed to those with speaking parts, and Colleen will take the President's role in Laura Clawson's absence. Raffle grand prize is the same as last year: overnight at new Hyatt Regency with breakfast. RHSMinutes_091818_approved Page 1 of 6 r r r r r r RENTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY BOARD OF TRUSTEES RENTON HISTORY September18,2018 MusEUM (2) Strategic Plan revision: In Committee Chair Laura Clawson's absence, Liz Stewart updated the Board on progress.The committee has formulated three top-level goals and will now work on appropriate goals. We will circulate the draft for comments from the full Board after the fundraiser. Discussion Action Items (1) Q2 Financial Report:Treasurer Jessica Kelly reviewed the 2nd quarter financial report, which had been distributed before the Board meeting. Much of our income from fundraising, memberships, and grants comes in the 3rd and 4t" quarters so that's not reflected in Q2. Still, income and expenses are on track for this time of year. The bookkeeper just added the 2018 budget to Quickbooks and Jessica identified an error in addition that understated total income; that has been corrected. Mission Moment Information Liz Stewart reviewed programs coming to support the WWI exhibit, On the Battlefront& the Homefront in October and November. Adiournment Antoin Johnson moved to adjourn, Jessica Kelly seconded. Meeting adjourned at 7:00 pm. Antoin Johnson, Secretary Renton Historical Society RHSMinutes_091818_approved Page 2 of 6 r r r r r r RENTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY BOARD OF TRUSTEES RENTON HISTORY September18,2018 MusEUM Renton Historical Society Board of Trustees Meeting Agenda Tuesday Renton History Museum August 28, 2018 235 Mill Ave S Trustees: 5:30—7 pm Renton, WA Laura Clawson, President 1. Call to Order and Introductions (Secretary Antoin Johnson) Colleen Lenahan, Vice Pres Jessica Kelly,Treasurer 2� Retreat Follow-up Antoin Johnson, Secretary 3, Oral Communications/Public Comments Pete Kalasountas Lynne King Note: Five-minute limit per person;maximum of three persons eetsy Prather permitted to speak to each side of any one topic. Elizabeth P.Stewart, Museum Director 4� Board Communication 5. Correspondence Sta�}Contacts: 6. Approval of the Consent Agenda Elizabeth Stewart 7. Ongoing Business ■ Committee Reports estewart@rentonwa.gov ■ Fundraiser update (Fundraiser Co-Chairs) 425.255.2330 $. Discussion/Action Items ■ Treasurer's Q2 Report 9� Mission Moment 10. qdjournment ; Next Board Meeting:Tues., Oct.30,5:30—7:00 pm, Renton History Museum ; � ❑ Weds., Sept.26, 5:30—8 pm: History-Making Party, Renton Senior Activity Center � � ❑ Thurs.,Oct. 11,6 pm: Washington at War Readers'Theatre w/Lorraine McConaghy � � � ; ❑ Sat., Oct. 13, 11 am:Knit Your Bit ; � ❑ Sat., Oct.27, 11 am: Tales That Go Bump in the Night(Halloween stories) � ; _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ � Wheelchair accessible.American Sign Language(ASL)interpreter available upon request. For this or other assistance,please call 48 hours in advance:711(TDD)or 425.430.6600(voice). RHSMinutes_091818_approved Page 3 of 6 r r r r r r RENTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY BOARD OF TRUSTEES RENTON HISTORY September18,2018 MusEUM MUSEUM REPORT For August 2018 Compiled by Elizabeth P. Stewart, Director Sarah Samson, Collection Manager Kim Owens, Public Engagement Coordinator Nezanet Tewolde, Museum Office Aide Operations Visitors in August: 151 Visitor numbers reflect members and researchers as well as paying visitors. There were no tours during this period. Administration Public Engagement Coordinator position: In the absence of a Public Engagement Coordinator, duties have been spread across the remaining three staff inembers; Sarah has been working on intake of new volunteers, Nezy continues to schedule Saturday greeters, and Liz is covering duties relating to programming. August is a slower time, so we are able to cover the duties, but some tasks have been set aside of necessity. After reviewing applications, Museum Director Liz Stewart set up interviews with eight good candidates for the Public Engagement Coordinator position. She and Sarah conducted a few interviews August 29 —31. We narrowed the field to two candidates, checked their references, and offered the job to recent UW Museology Program graduate Kate Dugdale. Kate has a B.A. in History from Colgate University and an M.A. in Museology from UW. She interned at numerous history organizations, including the Burke Museum, New-York Historical Society, MOHAI, and the National World War II Museum in New Orleans. She has a particular interest in teen programs; her M.A. thesis was titled Good Vibes, Interesting History: Teen Programs in Museums (2018). Kate will start here on Tues., Sept. 18, and we'll be very excited to have her on board. We'll be sharing her with the Burke Museum's Education Department. Strategic Plan Committee: There was no progress on this initiative in August. ` � � � Annual History-Making Party: Staff continued to support the ri �� Board's efforts to organize a successful fundraiser on • ,�� , September 26. Sarah designed invitations which went out on � � �`_ '��k Sept. 6. She has also been accepting donor forms and updating --� l�`^�'�� '�� the donor spreadsheet. Museum Office Aide Nezy Tewolde has , � *r � � . , I,� ��.�� . � '�'� been selling tickets and updating the guest list. At this moment � -- " .��=�� RHSMinutes_091818_approved Page 4 of 6 r r r r r r RENTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY BOARD OF TRUSTEES RENTON HISTORY September18,2018 MusEUM we have sold 49 tickets. Liz has also been promoting the event on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. September newsletter: Before she resigned, Kim Owens was able F�ENTON HISTORICAL to wrangle the RenTeens' final projects into good shape to feature �OCIETY �. MUSEUM � ti , in our September newsletter.The newsletter includes four extra ` -`"``�� ' � , pages, and it features three of the students' projects exploring the ,�� . �`-� _ � _ theme of murder in Renton: a comic strip; an article about women ''��""'" � ' and mental illness in the 1930s; and a creative series of letters 4 ,� .,y �' exploring the crimes of Bluebeard James P. Watson in 1919 — 1920. (Raven Klingele produced a play around her crime that we i� • � �� - ..`.� hosted during Renton River Days.) Students selected their own ... ...0 �-�� ._�.R..y.,� �,.r topics, researched them, and decided how to interpret them. �,- �T��z- � Reception to the special newsletter has been very positive so far. �`� � �� I� � �e_ � ,. 4 �� I 4 i,_� Exhibits Ongoing: On the Battlefront& the Homefront:Rentonites in the Great War: Liz gave a talk to the Upper Rainier Beach Presbyterian Women on the WWI exhibit on September 12, and they were very interested in the city's experience during WWI. From Switchboards to Selfies: Our next UW student- curated exhibit, From Switchboards to Selfies:A Look � � � ` � E� Back at How We Connect, opens on Nov. 29. Sarah has a - scheduled a series of ineetings in September with the ' � ream of UW students working on the exhibit so that we � � � �� Il�F� can hammer out the final script and object list. Once we have a Public Engagement Coordinator in place, we will start looking at educational content and programming. Youth Speaks: Accompanying the Switchboards to Selfies exhibit will be another student- curated exhibit by youth from Cry Out!, the youth after-school program that helps students tap into their creative energies through music, art, and spoken word performance. CryOut! performed during the Sorting Out Race exhibit and we knew we wanted to continue to showcase their important work. This exhibit will be their take on the theme of communication, information, and the importance of speaking out about their personal experiences. Collections RHSMinutes_091818_approved Page 5 of 6 r r r r r r RENTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY BOARD OF TRUSTEES RENTON HISTORY September18,2018 MusEUM Grant opportunities: Sarah Samson is moving forward with plans to get new will soon be working with WorkPointe to get wall racks installed for textiles and two-dimensional art. This project is funded by a grant from the 4Culture Cultural Equipment grant program, and will allow her to expand storage in the existing building. , New acquisitions:The WWI exhibit has been the catalyst r--� for several donations of WWI-related objects and also, - ��''�''�� surprisingly, Vietnam-era objects and archives. Sarah has �-_� ,..- R � � ' accepted a collection of letters home from a soldier in �-`�" `�- --_� Vietnam and his family's letters in return. The collection � __ ��a��i � includes photos and military pins. Volunteer Barb , � . '� �'�'� '�� Horton's oral history with Craig Lande, the last owner- _..a�.- _�-— operator of the now-defunct Lande Feed business, also � '�� '" stimulated the donation of numerous objects relating to the feed store including photos, accounts receivable and payable ledgers, a feed sack with the Lande logo, and other items. Volunteers Volunteer Committee: Liz will met with the Volunteer Committee on Thurs., Sept. 13, and they turned over the items for an auction basket for the fundraiser.The Volunteer Committee scheduled a field trip to the Elections Board in Renton for Monday, Nov. 5, and Nezy has been promoting that event and keeping a list of attendees. Volunteer Program: In August 22 volunteers contributed 137 hours of service, on activities that included preparations for the annual fundraiser, other Board service, oral histories, collections projects, and Saturday greeting. RHSMinutes_091818_approved Page 6 of 6