6/26/19 Charlotte Shelburne Hinesburg Rotary
guests today: Bob Irish, Orla O’Donnell Ramirez, Dorothea Penar, Paul Irish
Erik, in his last meeting as president, led us in the 4 way test. Erik has done a fantastic job as president, bringing lots of enthusiasm to the role. Thank you Erik!
There will be no meeting next week due to the July 4 holiday. While members are out and about at BBQ’s and such, think about inviting friends to a Rotary meeting!
Phil Denu was our “why I belong to Rotary” designee this week.
Phil started off in 1929 Cleveland Heights Ohio (groans ensued, but he moved on in years quite quickly…) Phil was invited to attend a Rotary meeting in 1966 and has been going ever since. Everyone in his Club was earmarked for something and Phil started with a blood bank in town, then moved on to polio efforts. He noticed there was a common theme- Rotarians are good people, wherever he went. He’s been in Rotary for 64 years and he could go on and on, but he wishes us all good fellows. John Hammer will be up next.
Rotary will be hosting about 90 guests at Shelburne Farms with set up starting at 1:00 on Saturday. Buy your ticket! Sign up to volunteer!
Club dues are due now with $140 for dues and $90 for meeting space. Please be sure and let Ric Flood know if you are not planning to renew by July 1!!
Standing invitation to the farmer’s market- see Todd for details!
Keith has been exploring moving our Club meetings to a half hour later with a meeting start time of 8am with the speaker going first. The main reason for this is to allow for parents of school age kids to be able to join. He recommends the Club members consider this and discuss at a later date. Please share your concerns with a board member.
Sergeant of Arms John Dupee collected Happy Fines.
Of note:
Jessica is happy to be going to the Vermont Lung Association to celebrate the efforts made to reduce E cigarettes use among young people
Guest is happy for circus camp
Susan Grimes is happy to celebrate her 25th wedding anniversary
John Hammer is happy to have Bill Irish here with us and for Bob Sanders for figuring out Club Runner (yay Bob!).
Richard Fox’s daughters made their stage debuts at summer camp in a gender bender production of Cinderella
Trafton is happy for Erik and his work as a president over the last year
Erik is happy for the opportunity to be president- he thanks all the members for their support over the last year.
Dorothea Penar, President and Paul Irish, Board Member from the Shelburne Historical Society joined us today.
Dorothea is a native of Detroit, Michigan. She received an art history degree and did her graduate work in art preservation. She and her husband moved to Vermont in 1988 and lived in Shelburne for 27 years.
Paul grew up in Ithaca NY and he and his wife moved to Shelburne in 1976. Paul taught at CVU for many years. He retired in 2015 and subsequently joined the Board of the SHS managing IT.
The Shelburne Historical Society was incorporated in the spring of 2014.
The recent efforts of the Shelburne Historical Society include:
Establishing a membership program
Articles about local history in the Shelburne news
Speaker series with 100 guests- local and lake history
Several exhibits including shipyard, civil war and cemetery exhibits
The SHS is currently commencing a new phase moving into the newly renovated town hall, with exhibit space, vault space, storage, office and event space.
SHS received a grant from the Champlain valley National Heritage Partnership to establish a digital archive program. The grant monies total $7800 total with grant and matching donations for digital archiving, exhibit development and outreach and education.
The scope of the grant encompasses many aspects of historical preservation and education including:
Funding of a class from the New England Document Conservation Center: Preservation 101, the focus of which is to:
- Preserve the content of decaying materials and images;
- preserve materials in obsolete formats;
- provide better access to community and researchers.
Paper has an inherent element that causes it to decay over time- digitizing is important in preserving paper documents that would otherwise naturally decay.
Photographic content also has challenges with physical preservation. Negatives are delicate and may chemically disintegrate over time. Photos fade with sunlight exposure.
One interesting challenge with archiving involves the obsolescence of playback equipment, making digital archiving critical given today’s technological advances. More than scanning and capturing, archiving involves setting up hardware and software, electronic storage and backup processes.
The grant will also allow for outreach and education efforts with 10 90 minute sessions open to Shelburne, Hinesburg and Charlotte residents.
In addition, the grant allows for increasing and improving exhibits and exhibit displays through:
- Development of exhibition materials;
- Movable for changing exhibits;
- Display cases through a Shelburne eagle scout service project.
The grant will also fund the offering of the Second Wednesday speaker series.
Starting in 2020, this series will celebrate women’s history, offering programs on
- 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment
- Women of Shelburne: community builders, past to present-
- Creating a curriculum project for middle school students around the women’s suffragette movement
Fundraising and community engagement efforts for the SHS include:
- Matching funds for the grant
- Membership, business level support
- Raffle for Shelburne day
- Underwriters for speaker program
- Donation wish list- audio recorder, digital camera
The Shelburne Historical Society is a 501.c.3 nonprofit
Paul and Dorothea appreciate Rotarians helping get the word out to let people know about the great work the Historical Society is doing!
Carol noted the great history of the Shelburne News as a woman founded and run organization. Dorothea said Ros is the director of PR and does a fabulous job- she can’t live without her (who can?).
Thanks to the Shelburne Historical Society for sharing their work with us!