2010 Meeting Minutes
December 11, 2010:
The meeting was called to order by President Donna Tauber at 11:00 in the Elks Lodge. There were 22 people present.
The minutes for the previous meeting were read and approved. The Treasurer reported a balance of $735.94 in the checking account.
A motion by Carol Jones was made, seconded, and passed to retain the current officers for another year after appropriate nomination motions were made for each officer.
A motion was made by Linda Clarkson to give Julie Newhouse a Life Membership for her pro bono work on our
Non-Profit Application. The motion was seconded and passed.
Pam Steed reported that she has four programs lined up for the new year with Al Hodge leading off in January at
the Rush County Historical Society. His program will be on the historical society’s oral history project.
The meeting was then turned over to Jeannie Regan-Dinius. She is the Special Projects Coordinator for the Indiana
Department of Natural Resources. Her extremely information and interesting program covered the laws governing cemeteries and their restoration.
The meeting was adjourned at 12:20 p.m. after a reminder that next month’s meeting will be held at The Rush County
Historical Society at 11:00 a.m. on January 8. We hope to see you all at that meeting.
Carol S. Jones,
Secretary
November 13, 2010: (Membership and Board Meeting)
The meeting was called to order by President Donna Tauber at 11:00 in the Rush County Historical Society. There were 11 members present.
The Treasurer reported a balance of $735.94 in the checking account after the Secretary discovered she had left the minutes of the last meeting at home. The requisite 40 noodles was administered.
President Donna reported on a note card Susan Huston developed from a picture she took of a tombstone ornament. It was thought we might develop a series of these note cards to raise money for the society. In the process, we also discussed the possibility of appointing a marketing committee to develop ideas for fundraising.
Since time was now too short for a December Open House, President Donna suggested we postpone it until after the first of the year.
Pam Steed reported that the Civil War project was going very well and, when asked, reported that their publication date target was November 11, 2011.
President Donna announced that Jeanne Regan-Dinius will present a program on Pioneer Cemetery Legislation at our next meeting.
Karen Pruet brought up the idea of possibly offering a “Genealogy 101” class as a way to gain more public attention. A discussion followed on the possibilities and how we would want to approach this, but no action was taken at this time.
The meeting was then adjourned so that Steve Mahan could give us a most interesting tour of the building; focusing, in particular, on the military display he has been helping to put together.
Carol S. Jones,
Secretary
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The board meeting was called to order by President Donna Tauber at 9:45 in the Elks Lodge. The five board members plus Susan Huston were present.
We discussed cooperation with the Rush County Historical Society and felt that we needed to meet with their Board in order to facilitate that cooperation.
President Donna raised the subject of possible membership in the Chamber of Commerce. We will check on the cost of membership, but it may be more than we want to spend right now.
Susan Huston presented a note card that she developed from a picture she took of a tombstone ornament. She thought we might develop a series of these note cards to raise money for the society. In the process, we also discussed the advantages of membership in our Society. We decided that newsletters, discounts on sales materials, networking, and meeting programs were the main advantages to membership.
After a discussion of the possibility of erecting a Heritage Cemetery sign at East Hill Cemetery, it was decided that we should invite Julie Newhouse and Barbara Harcourt, who are on the cemetery Board to our next meeting where a program on Pioneer Cemetery Legislation will be presented.
The meeting was then adjourned at 10:30.
Carol S. Jones,
Secretary
October 9, 2010:
The meeting was called to order by President Donna Tauber at 11:00 in the Elks Lodge. There were 13 members present.
The minutes of the last meeting were read and approved and the Treasurer reported a balance of $984.11 after writing a check to the IRS for $750 for our nonprofit application.
An amendment requested by our accountant, Debbie Ripberger, to bring us into IRS compliance was read. A motion was made by Pam Steed, seconded by Myra Alexander-Pavey, and passed unanimously.
President Donna announced that Jeannie Regan-Dinius has agreed to speak at our December meeting.
She then announced a number of events that were coming up in the near future. These included:
Artisan’s Day at the Rush County Historical Society on Oct. 16. The Historical Society has agreed to allow us to have a table at this event and Karen Pruet agreed to man the table.
Media Relations Day is being held by the Henry County Historical Society on Oct. 17.
The Indiana State Library will host the Second Annual Indiana Genealogy and Local History Fair on Oct. 23. The event will be held in downtown Indianapolis and is free to the public.
After an extensive discussion of possible future programs including a presentation by Al Hodge from the Historical Society and a presentation on the Civil War by Steve Mahan, it was agreed that Linda Mahan would ask Steve to make a presentation at the November meeting.
Susan Huston pointed out that we really needed someone that was in charge of securing a program presenter for our meetings. Pam Steed volunteered after President Donna and Susan assured her they would help her.
Susan Huston then presented a program on Brick Wall Strategies with several excellent methods for getting beyond the wall. Several members also offered some suggestions on tracking down difficult individuals.
The meeting was adjourned at 12:05 p.m. The next meeting will be held on November 13 at the local Elks Lodge.
Carol S. Jones, Secretary
September 11, 2010:
The meeting was called to order by President Donna Tauber at 11:00am in the Elks Lodge. There were 15 members present.
The minutes of the last meeting were read and approved with one minor correction and the Treasurer reported a balance of $1734.33 in our checking account.
President Donna began by following up on publishing meeting notices and minutes. Carol Jones indicated that she has placed reminders to herself to get the meeting in the Happenings column of the Rushville Republican. She also noted that she would try to get the minutes published in the Republican.
Carol Jones then reported that she had obtained all of the necessary documentation for the Nonprofit Application and hoped to meet with Julie Newhouse on Monday to finalize the application. She would also ask Julie about the bill we had received from Julie.
Susan Huston then began a discussion of the Civil War project. Only one Rush County Civil War ancestor has been submitted for the project. Again, it was noted that only those who lived in, enrolled in, or were buried in Rush County were eligible for inclusion. The discussion turned on how to encourage participation and other publications were mentioned to help in the project. Susan will also write an article on the project for the newspaper.
Susan was enthusiastically congratulated on the excellence of the newsletter. She is doing a great job with this project.
President Donna suggested inviting someone from the paper to visit our next meeting to learn more about us and do an article on RCGS. She appointed Susan Huston to contact the paper and arrange for this presentation.
In discussing the cemetery heritage project, President Donna asked Cecilia Mathews if Ben Davis Church had acted on our request yet. Cecilia said the response was that they had too much on their plate right now and deferred the project. We will pursue the project, however. President Donna noted that the application process does take two to three months and would like to get an application submitted this winter in order to complete the task in the spring weather.
President Donna then asked about the Find-A-Grave project in Rush County. The response was nothing had been done recently because of the extremely hot weather and would be continued when the weather broke.
Pam Steed then handed around a number of queries received on our website and asked if anyone could respond to these queries. Myra Alexander Pavey and Terri Stevens agreed to research these queries. Pam was asked to post the responses on the website so we would know they had been completed.
President Donna asked if we should have another Meet and Greet event. After extensive discussion, it was decided to try to hold a Field Day event at the Historical Society in November and try to hold a Meet and Greet at the Historical Society in December. Everyone approved of this plan.
In an effort to gain more publicity for the RCGS, it was decided to invite a person from the Rushville Republican to our next meeting and ask Jeannie Regan-Dinius from the DNR to discuss cemetery laws and regulations. This way we would learn more about what can and cannot be done in a cemetery and gain some publicity also. President Donna agreed to contact Jeannie Regan-Dinius if Susan Huston would contact the newspaper. This will be a public meeting in October. Along those same lines, Linda Mahan said she would ask Steve Mahan, a Civil War buff, to make a presentation at the November meeting.
The meeting was adjourned at 12:00pm and the next meeting will be October 9.
Carol Jones, Secretary
August 14, 2010:
The meeting was called to order by President Donna Tauber at 11:00 in the Elks Lodge. There were 12 members present. The minutes of the last meeting were read and approved and the Treasurer reported a balance of $1719.11 in our checking account.
In discussing ways to increase awareness and attendance of the meetings, President Donna asked that the meetings be published in the Rushville Republican’s Happenings section and attach a copy of the minutes to the next meeting notice. We will also ask Pam Steed to post the meeting on Facebook. We will also send a notice of the meetings to the Historical Society.
Carol Jones and Bill Baetz reported on their recent attendance at the Roots Genealogy Conference noting the good sessions and a couple of bad sessions. Carol also showed the “Pocket Tree” she had purchased. It is a
five-generation chart that folds up so it can be carried with you to the cemetery, conferences, or on research trips.
President Donna asked for a report on the Heritage Cemetery signs. Bobby Lee reported that he had no luck in getting in contact; they were playing phone tag. President Donna noted that Mary Hughes will pick the signs up in Indianapolis for us when we order them. It was also suggested that churches and associations might want to get involved in this project. Linda Mahan suggested that we try to put one up in every township as a form of advertisement to get help with the rest of the cemeteries.
Susan Huston asked for feedback on the Newsletter so she could make improvements, if needed. She also asked for members to submit articles for publication. She then indicated they are trying to put together a book on Civil War Soldiers for the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. After much discussion on the project, it was decided that only Rush County soldiers should be included and that this would be a good project to share with the Historical Society in order to foster a spirit of cooperation between the two organizations.
It was then brought up that we need to have speakers or presentations at the meetings in order to encourage attendance at our meetings. President Donna asked Susan to invite the curator or an officer of the Historical Society to join us at the next meeting.
The next discussion concerned gathering historical and portrait photos. When it was asked where we would store them, it was suggested that we scan them into a computer for safekeeping. We could advertise a date and time for people to bring in their photos for scanning.
Carol Jones mentioned that she had seen a book of mortuary records at one of the vendor tables at the Roots Conference and felt we might be able to use that as leverage at our local mortuaries. Linda Mahan reported that she has not heard back from Mrs. Hester about continuing the recording of the Wyatt-Moore records. It was suggested that perhaps Mrs. Hester forgot and Linda was asked to try to contact her.
The meeting was adjourned at 11:45am and the next meeting will be September 11.
Carol Jones, Secretary
July 10, 2010:
The Rush County Genealogical Society held their regular monthly meeting on Saturday, July 10, 2010 at the Rushville Elks. 11 members were present.
The meeting was called to order by President Donna Tauber.
Due to the absence of the Secretary, there were no minutes from the last meeting. The Treasurer’s report shows a balance of $1719.11.
Donna reported that the non-profit paperwork has been signed.
Several members attended the Historical Society’s yearly dinner meeting. Susan Huston suggested that we might want to work on a combined project with the Historical Society.
There has been some confusion over the meeting dates since the last 2 meetings have been postponed a week due to graduation and the 4th of July weekend. It was suggested that the secretary send a mass email notifying members of each
meeting. There was discussion on changing meetings to the second Saturday of the month to avoid some holidays and be consistent on the date. The membership unanimously voted to make the change.
There are no Indiana Heritage signs in Rush County. Bob Lee has contact Avis Brown about his family putting a sign at the Goddard Cemetery. Members talked about helping sponsor several signs, but no decision was made.
We need to use the newsletter to help attract new members. Publicity flyers for meetings need to be posted at the courthouse, post office, library, etc but there were no volunteers to do this.
Information and registration forms for the Midwestern Roots Conference in Indianapolis and Pioneer Reunion in Franklin County were made available to members.
Susan showed us an 1876 Rush County map. One point of note was that there were over 90 schools in the county at that time. Susan will also be meeting with Mary Roller and planning another genealogy workshop in October.
Bill Baetz read a note from the Indiana State Library thanking us for the donation of Marriage Record Books.
Pete Osting made a motion to adjourn at 12:00pm. Seconded by Myra. Motion carried.
Linda Mahan, Acting Secretary
May 8, 2010:
The short meeting to discuss our nonprofit application was called to order by President Donna Tauber at the Ben Davis Creek Church.
After a short discussion, it was decided that since the next scheduled meeting falls on graduation weekend, we would have an informal lunch meeting just to discuss our various genealogy problems, etc.
In discussing the nonprofit application, a motion was made that Society officers would serve without compensation. The motion was seconded and passed.
The question of what type of services we offer was answered that we provide cemetery heritage signs, cemetery restoration, and abstracting vital records.
Bob Lee made a motion that we ask for clarification on the private operating foundation discussed in Julie Newhouse’s letter, Karen Pruet seconded and the motion carried. The secretary will pursue this with Julie in order to finalize our nonprofit application.
Carol Jones, Secretary
April 3, 2010:
The meeting was called to order by President Donna Tauber at the Rushville Elks Lodge.
Since Secretary Carol grabbed the wrong binder, the minutes will be held over until the next meeting.
Treasurer Linda Mahan gave the financial report which shows a balance in our account of $1492.11.
Old Business
President Donna handed out flyers for the Henry County Pioneer Cemetery restoration effort and invited members to join them at the Henry County Public Library Auditorium on April 29.
After some discussion about whether to hold the regularly scheduled meeting in May since it was so close to our May 8 restoration project at Ben Davis Cemetery, it was decided to forego the May meeting. It was also pointed out that members should go on Rootsweb to review the how to’s of pioneer cemetery restoration.
New Business
Carol Jones brought up the subject of a recent article she had read in one of her other genealogy magazines about a grandparent project. The article suggested that genealogical societies should go into nursing homes, assisted living homes, etc and obtain the stories of the grandmothers and grandfathers living there to preserve them for future generations. The idea was tabled until Carol had the proper information to pursue such a project.
The members agreed to make Brad Matzenberger an honorary member of our Society in return for his assistance with the Ben Davis Cemetery project.
Program
President Tauber asked visiting member Gary Crull to share some of his genealogy success stories with us since he has spent 40 years of research. Gary’s trials and tribulations of the five years he spent on the Zion and East Cemeteries inventorying the tombstones.
President Tauber then ran a video of some of the Henry County Cemetery restoration projects.
After some discussion on whether we should hold our June meeting as scheduled because it is graduation weekend, the matter was tabled until we gathered for the Ben Davis Cemetery restoration.
Carol Jones, Secretary
March 6, 2010:
The meeting was called to order by President Donna Tauber at the Rushville Elks Lodge.
Our newest member, Linda Mohr, from Shelbyville was introduced.
The minutes for the last meeting were read and approved.
Treasurer Linda Mahan gave the financial report which shows a balance in our account of $1492.11.
Old Business
President Donna returned to the proposed Cemetery Workshop discussed at previous meetings. She would like to schedule the workshop for May 8 at the Ben Davis Cemetery. She noted that Brad Matzenberger should be contacted to provide the expertise and some of the equipment needed for such a project. The rest of the equipment would be provided by our members. The project would be funded by approaching the Ben Davis Church for a donation of $100 plus using some of our funds. Cecilia Mathews agreed to approach the church since she is a member. Susan Huston suggested approaching the Historical Society on the possibility of a joint venture.
Carol Jones asked for an up-to-date membership roster in order to issue current membership cards. Pam said she would email the template for the membership cards in order to complete this project.
Carol also reported that she had met with Julie Newhouse in order to get us incorporated and to obtain the non-profit status with the IRS. The incorporation has been completed and Julie is now working on the massive non-profit application.
New Business
President Donna announced there will be an event on the history, significance, conditions, and restoration efforts of local Pioneer Cemeteries in Henry County. Dr. Tom Hamm, a professor at Earlham College, will be the featured speaker and the event will be held at the Henry County Public Library Auditorium in New Castle on April 29 at 6:30PM and encouraged all of us to attend this informative event.
It was stressed that when entering tombstone information on Find-A-Grave to be particularly careful about duplicating entries. A discussion of this topic followed with some good advice from Linda Mahan on how to prevent duplication of records. Cecilia noted that the cemetery information she provided Alex Wesling had not been entered yet and Lisa Winship said she would contact Alex.
Karen Pruet noted that one of her DAR ancestors was going to have a stone erected by one of her cousins and hoped to have media coverage of this event. She invited any who could attend to join them on this special occasion.
A discussion of Ancestry.com and documentation of records followed.
Our program for this meeting was “Sharing Success Stories.” Carol Jones led off with the story of the success of her first visit to Salt Lake City. Cecilia Mathews told us about finding out she had two half brothers and finally meeting them after all these years.
After deciding to invite members and the curator of the Rush County Historical Society to join us at the next meeting, the meeting was adjourned at 12:00PM
Carol Jones, Secretary
January 9, 2010:
13 Members present
Treasurers Report: $1009.00
Marianne Hughes gave a program about genealogical organization. She explained the difference between being a vertical genealogist (grandparents and down…direct line) and a horizontal genealogist (including kids, kids of kids, etc). She also suggested color coding each family file, capitalizing the family names of your direct line and checking into the National agricultural census.
Susan Huston then gave a program on Scrapbooking. She showed us some very interesting pictures that she has collected over the years. She passed out several sheets on scrapbooking including “The History of Scrapbooking” that gave a timeline of the hobby and “Products, Ideas and Newsletters” that listed several websites geared toward scrapbooking.
Discussions were opened about having another meet and greet, picnic style at a later date. A lot of interest was shown for doing a Cemetery workshop in which Ben Davis Cemetery or Little Flatrock Cemetery was mentioned. We also discussed doing a “Tell Me Your Story” in which we could have 3rd graders interviewing their grandparents.
Our next meeting will be February 6, 2010 at 11AM at the Elks Lodge.