The Pulaski Area Historical Society Meeting

Monday, August 24, 2020

Present: Larry Puzen, Rock Mannigel, Pam Mannigel, Steve Peplinski, Maria Deau, Roger
Brzeckowski, Mike Brzezinski, Norine Heuser, Ron Maroszek, Chris Jaworski, Katie Walters,
Tammy Brzeczkowski, Steve Karcz, Bob Olson (Guest)

Call Meeting To Order: The PAHS August, 2020 meeting was called to order by President,
Larry Puzen. The secretary’s minutes from the meeting in July were revised. A motion to
approve the secretary’s report was made by Tammy Brzeczkowski. Chris Jaworski seconded it.
All in favor. Motion carried.

Treasury & Report: Norine Heuser shared the Treasurer's report. The museum has raised
$600 in brick sales this year! Let us know if you would like to buy a brick! A motion was made by
Rock Mannigel to accept the treasurer’s report. Steve Peplinski seconded it. All in favor, motion
carried.

Comments:
● Our annual American Association for state and local history membership is due. They
give us a discount for software by being a member, we will continue to be a member.
That will come out to $98.00.
● Wisconsin Document Imaging has donated repair on our printer and gave us 3 copy
machines and donated a new toner cartridge.

OLD BUSINESS
Donations: Katie Walters has, through her company Premier Bank, donated $100 to the
Museum’s scanner project through Premier’s Pay it forward program. Thank you Katie!

Newsletter: Chris and Steve Peplinski are working on some articles for the next newsletter.

Video Presentation Update: Tammy and Maria are working on a video presentation for our
annual dinner that the museum puts on for their members every year. Maria will be putting
together a virtual walkthrough of the museum video. Some spots in the museum we would like
to touch on are the kitchen and Steve Peplinski’s family display. Tammy is working on
interviews with the board members. She still have to do Katie, Ron, Steve Peplinski, and Chris.
We will use Zoom as our presenter for our members.

Purchased Scanner: This scanner will scan our documents and make them searchable on the
internet. We will need hosting fees to put our articles online. The hosting would cost
$1,500/year($250/month) which would be too much for the museum to keep up. If we do a
Pulaski News archive we would have to pay $3,000 upfront and an additional $1,500 for hosting
from our website provider. It would come out to be $3,300 to convert our microfilm to digital
images which the State Historical Society would do. The only way we could do this to raise the
money for it by possibly reaching out to the Pulaski News Alumni, a news release, or increasing
our PAHS Membership fee. We will form a committee for how to proceed with this project.
Brick Orders: Only 6 bricks have been sold this year and they will be printed in November. In
total, there were 187 bricks sold. Pam Mannigel sold 81 of those bricks.
Museum Hours: We might have the museum open the first part in October and see how it goes
depending on how school goes for our volunteers.

NEW BUSINESS
50 Year Celebration 2022: The board will start ideas for how we would like to celebrate. If you
have any ideas let us know!

Website: Tammy shared the website information with the board. We had, on average, 226
google searches per month, 123 people found us using the search bar, 64 users, 61 new users,
102 page views and we have a total of 301 members on our facebook page!
Board Vacancy: We need a nomination for Katie’s spot as she will not be returning after her
term is up.

Membership Updates: At the last annual dinner we had 342 members and 328 renewed since
then. We had 5 of our members pass away and received 2 new members this year and have 8
lifetime members. We would like to recognize our lifetime members if we get their permission to
do so.

Board Member Update: Katie Walters will be stepping down from the PAHS board. We will be
needing a new nomination. Mike Brzezinski will continue to be a board member.

Board Member Comments:
● Linda Blohowiak would like to purchase a tribute to Mike. The board is trying to come up
with ideas on how to do this. Some possible ideas are buying a larger brick than the rest
with his name on it and in a different color that we could possibly put above the door,
getting a plaque of some kind, or a bench with his name on it. If you have any ideas on
how to honor Mike Blohowiak please let Pam and Rock know.
● Bats are coming into the museum. We need to find where they are coming in and block
the holes.
● The furnace fan is running continuously
● There is a container of disinfectant wipes by the copier, please clean it after you use it.
There are also gloves to use for touching the copier.
● The endowment committee will hold a meeting shortly to be included in the next
meeting.

● Steve Peplinski and Tammy will work on the fundraising committee for the Pulaski News
digital articles for the website. They might get one newspaper up and see if they can
gauge interest for fundraising.

Rock Mannigel made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Steve Peplinski seconded it. The
meeting was adjourned.

Next meeting: September 28 (Virtual)