Larry Puzen called the meeting to order at 6:32 pm at the museum. Those attending were Larry Puzen, Larry Szymanski, Chris Jaworski, Tammy Brzeczkowski, Sharon Bauer, John Mihalko, Roger Brzeczkowski, Marian Schroeder, Claudia Ryczkowski, Mike Blohowiak, Kate Walters and Norine Heuser.
Secretary’s Report – Mike made a motion to accept the secretary’s report. Sharon seconded. Motion carried.
Treasurer’s Report – Larry Szymanski reported the check book balance is $7,912.05. He explained a graph showing about a 45% increase in interest at the museum over the past 5 years. Larry Puzen had asked him for a breakdown of expenses and after explaining what he found, he suggested needing an extra $1,000.00 per year. Various discussion followed on how to raise or cut current funding to get the extra money. Tammy suggested a “donation button” added to our website or getting advertising for the site. Claudia suggested taking our newsletter to various businesses as we had in the past. She also said we could possibly make use of the chamber’s website and not have our own. Mike said rather than cutting something out, why don’t we “add to the pot”? If everyone would sell a brick, we would only need 12 bricks to cover the shortfall. Marian suggested doing our “
Tammy presented the January report of the usage of our website. We had 273 views and 130 sessions.
Larry passed around the mail and various communications. Chris Jaworski got a thank you from Don Winter for his article in the newsletter about the Square Deal Cheese Factory. The book, Polka Heartland, has been purchased per Marian’s request. We received 8 coupons for 20% off the admission price to any Wisconsin historic site. Norine said she would like to include those next year in the thank you cards for the membership drive. Claudia asked if we could also include a membership card that people could show at various sites to prove their membership for the discount. Larry reported he sent the annual report on 2/11/16 and it was approved on 2/12/16. The annual income taxes were submitted and approved on 2/2/16. On 12/1/15 he deposited a jump drive in our safe deposit box with a copy of our 2014 FY records. On 12/7/16 we changed our insurance coverage from Society Insurance to State Farm Insurance and we now have a local agent. We received a letter from the Wisconsin State Historical Society regarding possible grant money. Claudia will look into that. We also received a request for a $15.00 donation for the Wisconsin Council for Local History. Roger made a motion to give the $15.00. Tammy seconded. Motion carried.
Larry Puzen said he has asked the village for part of the stadium rebate we will be receiving but he has not heard anything yet.
Larry Szymanski suggested donating a brick in honor of Dr. Shippy. Roger made a motion to go ahead. Claudia seconded. Motion carried.
Norine will contact his relatives to see how they would like it worded.
Brick Sale – Mike said he has one brick waiting to be printed. He will also start contacting the 100 year farms in the spring.
Heirloom Plant Sale – Mike debated when it should be held. It was decided May 14 and May 21 from 9:00am to 3:00pm. He will be needing volunteers to help with the sale. He has a new list of available plants and will have the list ready to post at the museum for the Village Wide Rummage Sale. He will also design a flyer and advertise it.
History Walk – The National Railroad Museum is having an open house and would like to include our museum as part of their event. Greg Smurawa suggested to Tammy to have a History Walk for Polka Days which would include a map showing the old buildings in Pulaski along with an explanation of what they had been used for in the past. Claudia said Waubeno has a lot of vacant buildings similar to ours and they have a picture of the building along with a story about it hanging in each business window.
Spring Newsletter – Tammy said they will be meeting next week. Marian said she has a couple articles she would like included. Norine handed out copies of our Officers/Board Members and our various committees. Claudia reported that she and Marian have been working on organizing various areas. In the office, there are now file drawers marked for Families, Schools, Events, etc. Once they are done sorting all the paperwork, the individual files will need to be sorted through. She also reported that with the $500.00 anonymous donation Marian received, they purchased a flat screen tv with USB capability, a DVD/Cassette player, a scanner/printer and paper and ink. They still have about $40.00 left. She showed us how to look up the various obituaries we have in binders. A spreadsheet shows them by name and then the binder and page number are given.
Casimir Pulaski Week – Tammy handed out a copy of a brochure of events for the week. Among them will be the dedication of Casimir Street, window decorating contest for businesses, scavenger hunt, dance, and a polka mass. T-shirts are being printed as well as other souvenirs. Larry Puzen suggested donating $50.00 to Promote Pulaski, which is the group planning this event. Katie made a motion. Chris seconded. Motion carried.
Larry Puzen suggested the village should proclaim that week as “Casimir Pulaski Week’. Roger will bring that up at their next meeting.
Membership – Norine reported we have 21 new members for a total of 318. She had sent out letters to 6 new businesses and 28 new residents. From those, we added one new business and 5 new members. This count also takes into effect the 12 complimentary businesses we removed.
Marian reported they have high school students coming to do our spring cleaning at our museum as part of their community service. That will be on March 2 from 9:00am to 2:00pm. Claudia will work with one of the students to get the accession forms in the computer system. Marian would like us to invite the village board to one of our meetings to make them aware of what we offer. She said we loaned several props for the high school musical Fiddler on the Roof. She had a request to send any information we had on the bank robbery that occurred in 1933.
Roger mentioned the village is having an informational meeting regarding the old Franciscan printery building for input on what to do with it. He asked if anyone would like to represent our society at the meeting. After much discussion, Larry Puzen said he will go.
Our next meeting will be March 21, 2016 at 6:30 in the PACE room.
John made a motion to adjourn. Roger seconded. Motion carried.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:51pm. Minutes taken by Norine Heuser, recording secretary.
