The Pulaski Area Historical Society Meeting
Minutes from
Monday, September 28, 2020
Present: Larry Puzen, Rock Mannigel, Pam Mannigel, Steve Peplinski, Maria Deau, Roger Brzeckowski, Mike Brzezinski, Norine Heuser, Ron Maroszek, Chris Jaworski,Tammy Brzeczkowski, Bob Olson (Guest)
Excused: Steve Karcz, Katie Walters
Call Meeting To Order: The PAHS September, 2020 meeting was called to order by President, Larry Puzen. The secretary’s minutes from the meeting in August were revised. A motion to approve the secretary’s report was made by Norine Heuser. Chris Jaworski seconded it. All in favor. Motion carried.
Treasury’s Report: Norine Heuser shared the Treasurer’s report. A motion was made by Rock Mannigel to accept the treasurer’s report. Chris Jaworski seconded it. All in favor, motion carried.
OLD BUSINESS
Newsletter: Tammy is waiting for some information. Chris Jaworski is writing an article for the newsletter. Steve Peplinski might also write an article, time permitting. Since the PAHS Annual Dinner will be held on zoom and the board is in the process of making videos, the newsletter will come out in November to prioritize work for the Annual dinner. The PAHS would also like to put an article in the newsletter for Tom Laplante about all his generous donations to the museum.
Video Presentation Update: Tammy is working on getting all interviews with the board done and only has one person left. We plan to send postcards out to all members pertaining to the annual dinner.
Board Vacancy: The board has 3 openings available. We have had some interest from the community but in order to be on the board, all nominees must first belong as a member to the PAHS. We have multiple people interested in being on the board. If we get more than 3 nominees, we will send out ballots since we cannot gather together at our usual annual dinner meeting.
Endowment Fund: Chris Jaworski reviewed three documents that the board needs to approve in order to establish an endowment for the museum. The first document is titled, “Pulaski Area Historical Society Resolution Authorizing an Endowment Fund”. This report states that the proposed endowment’s future income would be considered, unrestricted, which means the museum could use income generated by the endowment for any purpose. Secondly, the endowment would have to grow to $100,000 before any income could be distributed to the museum. The $100,000 would consist of donations made to the endowment plus growth of principal. Only after the endowment reaches this $100,000 milestone could it then start paying out earnings to the museum. The report went on to say the endowment subcommittee would have to give an accounting to the museum board at least once per year. The second document that needs to be approved is titled, “Pulaski Area Historical Society Endowment Investment Policy Statement”. This report states that the endowment may invest in stocks, bonds, and cash and also use mutual funds consisting of these types of securities too. It also states no security purchased can make up more than 5% of the portfolio and it should not be allowed to appreciate to more than 10% of the portfolio. The last document is titled, “Pulaski Area Historical Society Gift Acceptance Policy”. This report allows the museum to accept not only cash and securities for donation to the endowment fund but also tangible asset such as property or vehicles. The museum is also, allowed to decline any gifts at its discretion. After reviewing these reports it was discovered that none of the board members could open the electronic files sent to them. Chris promised to resend all three files to each board member and would take yea or nay votes on the proposed documents after our board meeting. If approved, he would then proceed with establishing an endowment. Lastly, Chris thanked all the board members who served on the endowment subcommittee. They included: Tammy Brzeczkowski, Rock Mannigel, posthumously Larry Szymanski, and Chris Jaworski.
NEW BUSINESS
Museum Use Responsibility: A friendly reminder to all m board members with keys to the museum that you always sign in at the booklet, lock EVERYTHING up, and please do not turn off the furnace. Please treat the museum like you would your own home. We have had some trouble with this in the recent past.
Website: Tammy shared the website information with the board. We had 281 searches that found us on google, 486 views, 495 users, 486 new users and the average time spent looking at the website is 1 minute and 26 seconds.
Preservation Award: Tracey Johnson will get the preservation award this year for her work done on a house.
Accession Committee: Steve P and Steve K are on the accession committee. The new document will be uploaded to the website. They will add a part to talk about the artifact so we know what it is and what the artifacts history is. We love receiving pulaski’s artifacts, but the board would also like to inform the community that we also have the option to deny any artifact presented to the museum. In some cases, we have replicate items or items that seem irrelevant to Pulaski’s history, in which case, we would like to donate the item elsewhere.
Board Member Comments:
- We need at least 4 more brick orders.
- We have no volunteers to sit for 3 hours. We might possibly be able to do volunteer hours from 3-5 on tuesdays.
Chris Jaworski made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Ron Maroszek seconded it. The meeting was adjourned.
Next meeting: November 30(Virtual)
