MINUTES OF THE BARNES AREA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION MEETING

OF OCTOBER 19, 2006

 

 

President Dave Pease called the meeting to order at 9:10am.

 

Members present: Dave Pease, Carol Pease, Helen Ruprecht Quentin Ruprecht, Kurt Kuhlman, George Martin, Bob Oberstar, Linda Oberstar, Nori Newago, Jon Harkness and Lu Peet.

Guest present: Teri Danielson-State Farm Insurance Agent.

 

The minutes had been distributed to all of the members. Motion (Helen Ruprecht / Carol Pease) to approve the minutes as presented. Call for discussion. Motion carried.

 

Linda Oberstar gave the Treasurer’s Report as follows:

Checkbook Balance as of 9/21/2006                                                  $          5,699.86

Centennial Book Sales                                                           $                           50.00

Note Cards                                                                                       $               60.00

Miscellaneous                                                                                   $               31.00

Donations                                                                                         $               20.00

Nori Newago                                                                                    ($            500.00)

Hayward Community Credit Union                                                    ($         1,345.00)

Hayward Community Credit Union Membership                                ($              25.00)

Checkbook Balance as of 10/19/2006                                                 $          3,990.86

 

 

CD One for $10,000.00 matures on November 29, 2006, at 4.32%

CD Two for $10,000.00 matures on February 16, 2007 at 4.32%

CD Three for $1,345.00 matures on November 18, 2007, at 5.5%

 

 

Linda said she would be able to keep better track of things from now on. She also said that she was finally able to get the bank charge removed. Motion (Carol Pease / Quentin Ruprecht) to approve the Treasurer’s Report as given. Call for discussion. Motion carried. Nori Newago said that we need to keep an accurate account of our tickets for the raffle. There was a discussion on the books. The books have been paid for and all sales are now profit. There was discussion about having a book or books as prizes at the raffle. It was decided that the books should be the good ones, not the misprinted ones.

 

Linda also handed out a copy of the Annual Financial Report to the members as follows:

As of September 2005                                                                       $        27,829.71

Book Sales                                                                                       $          4,802.62

Memberships (26)                                                                             $             560.00

Donations                                                                                         $          1,289.00

Flea Markets                                                                                     $          1,345.00

Note Cards                                                                                       $             108.00

Miscellaneous                                                                                   $               45.00

Two CD’s purchased                                                                       ($        20,000.00)

Operating expenses as reported                                                         ($        10,279.47)

As of September 2006                                                                       $          5,699.86

Land Report: Jon Harkness said he was trying to reach his contact with Mosinee Paper Company. Bob Oberstar said he had not yet talked to Fritz Barnes, but that he intends to do so.  There is nothing new on the town site either. This needs to be an on-going issue.

 

Carol Pease asked Nori if the paperwork for the 501 (c) (3)     has been sent in. Nori said that it has been filed.

 

There was discussion on the Cable Museum and what they are doing. There was discussion on the comparisons between the Cable Museum and our proposed museum.

 

The State Farm Insurance Agent, Teri Danielson, spoke to the group on the importance of having the error and omissions insurance for the board and the bond for the treasurer. There was discussion if the insurance could be done in stages, as we don’t have buildings or land yet. This is Ok. Only the board and directors are liable, not the regular members. Teri gave us forms to fill out. Lu and Linda will get them back to Teri. Teri was unable to provide us with a cost figure at this time as this depends on what coverage we will need. Motion (Carol Pease / George Martin) to approve of proceeding with the insurance for the board and treasurer. Call for discussion. Motion carried.

 

Dave Pease spoke on the Mission Statement and also on what we want to do with our museum. There was discussion on having a committee to do this and Nori said there are guidelines available. Carol Pease said that she has copies of forms from other organizations for keeping track of donated items, etc. that we could use as a guide for us to go by. Jon Harkness, along with Kurt Kuhlman and Quentin Ruprecht, will refine the statement in the By-Laws and come up with a simple, but effective Mission Statement. [The By-Laws were not available for us to vote on due to a computer glitch] There was discussion on some of the artifacts that the historical association has in its possession now.

 

Elk Report: Quentin Ruprecht gave the following report:

Elk Committee Report

October 18, 2006

            1. A new Elk Brochure is being developed with the latest up-dates.

            2. The AMS radioactive test on the elk has been completed and released. The results showed

                an age of about 500 years old. That is about the same as the first test. This means that the

                animal lived and was hunted between 1400 and 1600 AD.  As this seems to be disappointing,

                it just changes the investigation trail. One of the still remaining questions is why the Clovis

                fluted spear point, which is believed to be 9,000 to 11,000 years old, was found at the site

                with the animal bones. Also, evidence leans toward the possibility that the spear point, or one

                like it, was used to help kill the animal. Was this point recycled?    

                After one puts the results in perspective, one realizes that this test indicated that the animal

                might have been killed around the time that America was being discovered. This still makes

                the elk-find a “Big Deal” for Bayfield County, the Eau Claire Lakes Area, Barnes Area and

                BAHA’s Museum. This is a “big deal” because the animal had to be killed with stone and

                wood instruments. Back in July-August 2005, when we were beginning the search for

                information on the elk, it was stated that the animal could be 400 years old, at least before

                1850. The thought at that time was “this animal could be that old”.

                It still can remain the central attraction and a “drawing card” for a source of moneys for

                BAHA’s Museum.  For example; we still can use the elk-find to develop an educational

                history of elk in Wisconsin. We might be able to get the DNR [they have recently showed

                interest in the find]; the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, NRA or whoever, to help sponsor

                the display and information.

Respectfully submitted,

Quentin Ruprecht

 

Quentin also gave us a copy of the email he had received from Dr. Hudson

 

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Jean's last e-mail with her thoughts and opinions is 
forwarded below.  
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jean Hudson" <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, October 17, 2006 9:51 PM
Subject: elk thoughts for BAHA
Quentin -
This is just a stray thought about BAHA's plans for the museum.  I  would encourage everyone to hold onto the thought of the museum, even though our radiocarbon date makes the elk younger than the 
fluted point. Each of those finds-the elk and the fluted point-add in fascinating ways to our understanding of the Barnes area.
In many ways, one of the threads of interest that ties you all together is your shared passion for Barnes' history, and the last 400 or 500 years is just as interesting as the Ice Age times.  There is still good evidence that the elk was hunted-just by someone living between about AD 1440 and AD 1640-and that is an interesting story for historians and biologists, as well as historic
archaeologists.
I wonder if there might be a way to bring in the DNR and some of its 
funding sources for the museum.  Perhaps they could contribute to an elk display as part of their educational outreach-the part of the 
DNR that deals with herd management and re-introduction of an elk herd might be a good match for that. And I do have an offer from the new DNR archaeologist for help with getting a cast of the fluted point, so replicas could be made.
In terms of financial matters, I'm thinking of your key costs as being 1)the museum building or space in a shared building like a 
library; 2) the cost of the displays; and 3) the cost of a state-approved museum person to provide oversight for the maintenance of the displays(hopefully part-time, or shared with some other local museums).
We've chatted about this before, but if you started small with the museum space-even a separate room within a public library, so you didn't have to duplicate costs for electricity etc.-you could always move to some thing bigger later. And if you divided up the displays, you might find separate donors that would contribute a single set amount to have their name on that particular display-for example, one display on the ice age and the fluted point, one display on
the elk, one display on historic hunting and trapping and fishing, one display on the clothes and tools of daily life, one display 
on the regions natural beauty (via your photos)...  Then you could limit the BAHA membership drive to just funding a part-time museum person and other on-going costs.
Also - if no one has done this yet, they might follow up with the 
Milwaukee Public Museum and just ask them for information about what you would need to do offer an internship opportunity for one of MPM's museum certificate students. I think that might be another way to bring the overall costs down, and provide a nice educational exchange.  I think you'd still have to have a more permanent person "in charge" but they could be supported by a student intern as well as community volunteers.
I'm just brainstorming as I type.  I had a phone chat from a DNR person down here near Milwaukee who apparently has several elk 
skeletons in a bog down here.  I'll learn more about that one tomorrow. Sharing information has a nice way of leading you to more information.  The paper on the Silver Beach Elk site was well-received at the Midwest Archaeology Conference last Saturday, and 
I gave a presentation at the Wisconsin Archaeological Society last night, which also had people interested in Barnes and its lakes.  
There's one more presentation to do this Saturday, to the Wisconsin 
Underwater Archaeology Association. In the process I've had several 
students volunteer to help with the lab work at this end, so that's a good thing, and others that would love to volunteer if we do more underwater fieldwork at the site in the future. All of which makes me think that your museum could capture the interest of lots of
folks. So good luck with it!
I just thought of another possible angle - there's a big new museum down here, Discovery Center, and they may be interested in doing some outreach to other parts of the state.  One of our grads works there-I'll ask him what he thinks.

 

Another email from Dr. Hudson said that she had some other ideas that she would like to expand upon regarding the elk.

 

Quentin also spoke on the Elk Brochure. It was the consensus of the group that the name “Silver Beach Elk” be used in the literature. There was discussion on the Clovis point. Motion (Carol Pease / Jon Harkness) to give permission for Quentin to go ahead with the brochure. Call for discussion. Motion carried. There was discussion on how the By-Laws affect expenditures. Motion (Dave Pease / Bob Oberstar) to approve the cost of the brochures after it has been set. Call for discussion. Motion carried.

 

On C. Page 3 of the By-Laws, we have to define who makes the decisions for the group. There was also discussion on7 B., if all meetings were considered as board meetings, with all members able to attend and give their input, but not be able to vote on the issues. These issues will be clarified and Nori will get the changes to the By-Laws back to us for a vote.

 

Kurt Kuhlman said that he has had computer problems and has had to postpone the E Bay posting of the Centennial Books, but he will follow up on this. He will include information on membership and brochures such as the “Elk Brochure” and other centennial information, if possible.

 

There was discussion on what to put on the Calendar of Events for the BAHA. We will include the regular meeting days [the third Thursday of the month], the flea market in July that BAHA will sponsor [formerly sponsored by AARP], the Annual Meeting of BAHA, the “Big Ca$h Winter Fest Raffle and any other events that might come up before the Calendar goes to press or not noted here.

 

Motion (Linda Oberstar / Jon Harkness) to adjourn the meeting. Motion carried. The meeting was adjourned at 11:20am.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Lu Peet

Barnes Area Historical Association Secretary