Executive Board Meeting / Marlow Historical Society / Oct. 2, 2007, The Chapel

The meeting was called to order at 6:35 PM. Present were Mary Blank, Gen Ells, Loisanne Foster, Pam Little, and Art Schmid. The Secretary's Report for September's Executive Meeting does not exist as the Secretary was absent for that evening. However, it was the meeting at which the Executive Board decided to work toward focusing less on fundraising which eats a tremendous amount of time and energy, and more on fulfilling our mission of preservation and sharing Marlow's historical treasures. As part of that effort, the has Board decided to institute a new category of membership, Sustaining Membership, for those who are willing to contribute $100.00 a year. We already have several sustaining memberships and, when we have twelve, we will have cash flow to cover basic expenses such as rent, insurance, and heat. This will allow us to concentrate on research, conservation, and communication. The Treasurer's Report was read, explained, and accepted as read.

Old Business:

Our main focus reflected the words of our speaker of the last General Meeting: In this age of easy entertainment and instant information, how can we convey the importance of the mission of our Society in such a way as to grow our membership and encourage active membership? Gen said that the keys are to actively seek an infusion of new blood and to return to our earlier practice of producing a printed newsletter for our membership. She suggested that most people do not have the inclination to stay at the computer and read e-mailed news letters.

After some discussion, we decided to return to communicating with our membership through quarterly printed newsletters beginning in February. Each issue will include a calendar of coming events, progress reports on current activities, and articles of interest. It was suggested that each edition could feature a particular Marlow person. We decided to accept Dave Stewart's offer to publish the newsletter for us. Mary will do the calendar and all are welcome to submit articles. We will send the articles to Mary who will forward them to Dave who will enter them on a newsletter template and roll the presses! Dave will put it together free for us. We will pay for the materials. We are grateful to Dave for helping us in this way as well as for giving us plenty of space on his Marlow website.

New Business:

Mary read Maria Baril's Membership Report. We have several new members and several who are planning to join. Thank you, Maria, for chairing the Nominating Committee and the Membership Committee. We noted progress on gathering new memberships and sustaining memberships and agreed unanimously that the memberships we sign up this fall will be for through 2008. We decided that each of us would try to bring on board three new people or families. We also decided to hold a reception for new members on a Sunday afternoon in April 2008.

We discussed possible programs for 2008. Pam, as Vice President, is the new Program Chair. Gen Ells will be helping her in this. Pam asked if our usual Christmas program includes entertainment appropriate for children. We reviewed the past content of that program and our plan to produce a new Christmas skit along the lines of last year's popular Rudolph skit. With a view to getting people physically involved in Marlow's history, we renewed our plan to produce an up-dated Marlow walking tour. We discussed inviting the Perkins School fourth grade to a walking tour or museum visit. We plan to sponsor another New Hampshire Humanities Council Program in 2008. Gen suggested several cemetery walking tours.

We reviewed plans for the MHS Harvest Festival booth, what we will display and sell and who will preside there at various times, and we planned the logistics of the MHS-sponsored Art Show including the "hanging," the Saturday evening reception, and the show itself. Art Schmid reported that several people had volunteered to exhibit their antique cars and plans were made to bring out the 1910 Pumper and set it up beside the MHS booth. Again, we will share tent space with the Conservation Commission.

Some new small projects may be to further research the Marlow Telephone Association. (We have the minutes of their meetings which Mary has transcribed.) We need to set the plaque for the Liberty Elm Project in concrete. Because of lack of rain, we may need to water the newly planted elms. The three unplanted elms are healthy and will winter over again. Mary will change the photographic display at the Town Offices.

At 7:55 PM, the meeting adjourned.

Respectfully submitted, 
Loisanne Foster

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