Port Colborne Historical and Marine Museum Board Meeting Minutes

Meeting #:

Date:

Tuesday, September 17, 2024

Time:

7:00 P.m. - 8:00 P.m.

Location:

Roselawn Centre

296 Fielden Ave, Port Colborne, ON L3K 4T6

Members Present:

• B. Heaslip
• C. MacMillan
• T. Huffman
• C. Brema
• J. Piniak
• G. Hoyle
• A. Lessard
• B. Schneider
• L. Brazeau
• M. Heaslip
• E. Beauregard, Councillor

Staff Present:

• M. Mason, Museum Curator
• Tami Nail
• S. Powell Baswick, Director of Museum and Culture

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1.

Call to Order

The Chair called the meeting to order at 7:00pm.

2.

Disclosures of Interest

N/A

3.

Adoption of Agenda

• Moved by C. MacMillan
  Seconded by B. Heaslip

  That the agenda dated September 17, 2024 be confirmed, as circulated or as amended.

  Carried

4.

Approval of Minutes

• Moved by
  Seconded by L. Brazeau

  That the minutes from the July 16, 2024 be confirmed as circulated or as amended.

  Carried

5.

Business Arising from the Minutes

Stephanie reported that the Board Member clothing will be available by Christmas. 

Anna, Darius, and Jasmaya cleaned up the Cemetery and stones requested by Lynn Millar. They took it upon themselves as they were preparing for Cemetery Tours. 

The next step to improve the acoustics in the Archives will have be putting the project back into the capital budget.

WiFi has been set up at the Tea Room and there is a working phone for the volunteers.  Still waiting for more accessible parking in front of the Tea Room.

6.

Correspondence

Tami reported that there were two pieces of correspondence received:

Two thank you cards from the Canada Communities in Bloom judges, one for Michelle Mason for providing tours to Roselawn and the Museum and one for Michelle Vosburgh took them on the West St Walking Tour.

Cheryl also gave kudos to the newsletter.

7.

Council Report 

Councilor Beauregard reported that Council is going into budget meetings soon and that he will provide updates.  He also apologized for his absences due to conflicting Council meetings.

8.

Curator's Report

Michelle reported that Nicole Berry and Malakai Turner are continuing at the Tea Room on weekends during September.

We were grateful for the assistance of the students this summer and now  Darius, Jasmaya, Avery, Olivia, Miles, and Cristina have all returned to university.

Darius Maddalena accepted the part-time, temporary Visitors Services Assistant at Roselawn.

Tami changed the exhibit in the Marine Exhibit Lighthouse, "Message in a Bottle".

Elyse has completed the revamping of the Neff Steam Buggy exhibit.  She also created and installed a new exhibit in the council chambers, "Pathway to the Stars: 100th Anniversary of the Canadian Air Force".

Canada Communities in Bloom judges came to Roselawn, Archives (tour of West St with Michelle Vosburgh), and the Museum.  The chosen city for the awards will be announced in October.

Ontario Creates visited the Museum and Roselawn to see if it could potentially be a space to film movies. 

Stephanie, Tami, Michelle Vosburgh, and Michelle Mason will attend the third session of the City of Port Colborne's Professional Leadership Development Certificate Program tomorrow at the Operations Centre. 

We are starting to plan the Corporate Drive. If you have any connections with Port Colborne businesses that could be potential donors, please reach out to Michelle Mason. 

Michelle also gave the Archives report on behalf of Michelle Vosburgh.

Darius Maddalena and Jasmaya Echlin completed their 16-week Young Canada Works placement on Aug 30th.  They digitized more than 10,000 images and we are now well on our way to having our entire photographic collection digitized.  They also helped with other tasks in the archives, along with creating an online postcard exhibit of Port Colborne.  Darius will work on completing the timeline for that exhibit while working at Roselawn, and the exhibit will then go live.  For Canal Days, they created a popular kids' Scavenger Hunt and put together a model ship pop-up exhibit in the Archives.

The autumn Speakers Series is in full swing.  On Sept. 7, Jessica Linzel, Director of Community Engagement at the John Brown Homestead, spoke about her research on the 1792 tornado which devastated parts of the Niagara Peninsula from Burlington Bay to Fort Erie.  This coming Saturday morning at 11am, Archives Assistant Anna Carlsen will be speaking on the unique aspects of the Victorian mourning practices, with Registrar Katelynn Best sharing a few items from the collection.  Michelle has completed the research for a one-hour Victorian Mourning Cemetery tour at Oakwood Cemetery to follow the presentation Saturday afternoon. Oct. 26th Michelle will be speaking about some of the explosions, some small, some large, which have rocked Port Colborne since its settlement.  Finally, Nov 9th will be our contribution to the Welland Cabal Bicentennial series when Michelle will be sharing her research into the 1820s debate over the location for the southern terminus of the canal.  All talks are free admission.  Posters are available at the archives. 

With autumn there has been an increase in the number of research inquiries, which keep Anna and Michelle busy, along with supporting the Heritage Committee.  Michelle has also been working on researching and writing three additional scripts for the upcoming Lantern tours.  Today, Michelle was invited to attend the NCO-Wilson Foundation second symposium on Niagara economic history at Brock.  She has also received invitations to three local historical societies to speak in 2025.

9.

Auxiliary Report

Marianne reported that the Tea Room has a new stove compliments of the City. 

July the Tea Room had over 500 visitors, August had 487, and so far in September they have had 117 visitors.

The Tea Room has 3 new, much needed volunteers. Volunteer Appreciation is on October 21 at 2pm. 

The ingredients for the Christmas puddings have been ordered. They will have their Christmas Pudding bee November 4th-6th.  December 2nd-7th, 2pm-4pm will be Shoppers Week.

One of the Viking Ships ambassadors offered the Auxiliary a tour and lunch of the ship next time it is in port. 

10.

Friends of Roselawn Centre Liaison Report

Arlene thanked Terry, Claudia and staff for their help with Music on the Lawn.  Friends of Roselawn Centre raised $578 with the 50/50 draw.

The Travelling Art Exhibit is now open and looks great. 

A planning meeting was held on September 4th for the Fall into Fashion Show and Tea on September 29th. Tickets are 80% sold.  Four students have volunteered to help.

Applications have been sent out for the Christmas Makers Market happening on November 23td from 10am-4pm.

11.

Committee Report

11.1

Finance Committee

Bonnie reported that we have received $1,373 in members fee including Life Patrons ($1,140 not including Life Patrons), and $2,146,89 in donations, including from Canada Helps. 

11.2

Membership Committee

As of today we have received 8 new Life Patrons, 26 Family memberships, 11 Individual memberships, and 45 Senior memberships for a total of 90.  The museum has around 145 Life Patrons now.  Michelle will bring an accurate number to the next meeting. 

11.3

Building and Property Committee

Brian reported that the cedar roofs on all the buildings have been treated, cleaned, and oiled except for the Sherk House as the roof needs to be replaced next year. 

The School House's squirrel damage has been repaired and mesh has been put in the gables to help keep them out. 

Work on the Carriage house is progressing with some boards still to be replaced, painting is in progress, and soft spots in the floor have been re-enforced. 

11.4

Programme Committee

Cheryl gave the report provided by Public Programmer Sloane.   On August 13th there was a private ghost tour for 8 at Roselawn partnered with the Paranormal group.  The family paid a rental fee for the tour.  On August 26th, St. John Bosco visited the Museum with 24 people. On August 28th, Sloane attended the Library Summer Reading Club Party with games and activities for the kids. 

Upcoming events: 

September 21: Lincoln Museum Harvest Festival. Sloane will be bringing the printing press and marketing materials.

September 28:  Hamilton Civic Museum Apple Fest. Sloane will be bringing the printing press and marketing materials. 

October 18 & 19: Paranormal Tours at Roselawn with the Paranormal Association at 6pm & 9pm.  Tickets going on sale soon.

October 25 & 26: Lantern Tours at the Museum starting at 6pm.  Looking for actors and tour guides for both nights. 

Tami reported on Canal Days.  Despite the rain for most of the day on Saturday we still had a great turn out of about 4500 visitors over the two days.  Popcorn and snowcones made more money than they have any other year.  There was a total revenue of $5,398.8, which is better than last year even though we had more visitors last year. We had a lot of great responses to the shaded area and moving the games closer to that area.  We seem to be the place for families to come and enjoy Canal Days.  The field was full of historical re-enactors, including 2 new groups, which were well received by visitors.  The re-enactor groups were very happy and are looking forward to coming back next year. Tami has compiled a list of things that went well and suggestions to improve next year. Please pass along any suggestions for next year on to Tami.

a.

50th Anniversary Committee

Cheryl reported that a meeting was held yesterday and a logo was decided on. The logo will be sent back to the graphic designer for final touches.  It will be used on promotional material. 

July 6, 2025 will be the main celebration.

11.5

Fundraising Committee

Claudia reported on the summer's Music on the Lawn series at Roselawn:

June 2, July 21, Aug 5 had a total of 681 attendees.  There were 59 staff, volunteers and board members who came together to make the series a success. The Seniors' Advisory Committee also had a table set up. There was $472.87 in snack donations, and $216 in donations at the reception desk.  The giftshop made $257 (mostly in Canal Day t-shirt sales).  Tami, Sloane, and Meghan each took a turn emceeing.

The next meeting will be on October 10 at 11am at Roselawn where we will plan the next series around the City's concert series. 

11.6

Policy Committee

N/A

11.7

Accession Committee

Terry reported that he speaks regularly with Katelynn to discuss the collection.

11.8

Heritage Committee

No report. Yesterday's meting didn't have quorum.

12.

Confidential Items

N/A

13.

New Business

Stephanie congratulated everyone on all of their good work, and recognized that Curator Michelle Mason celebrated her 15th Anniversary with the Museum.

Stephanie circulated the proposed 2025 User Fees.  The City requested a 5% increase for inflation for user fees for Archives, Roselawn, and the Museum.  Roselawn is getting more full day rentals of 12 hours  - so a full day rental will be double the current 6 hour fee. The Membership committee can decided if there will be a special rate for the 50th Anniversary.

Capital Budget is due to go to Council.  It is very competitive so we will have to present a list of priorities:

1. Sherk Roof

2. Fencing 

3. School House Ceiling 

The deposit on the accessibility ramp at Roselawn has been paid.  The site is being made off-site.  Although the construction will begin in 2024, it will not be completed in 2024.  Thank you to the chair of the Friends of Roselawn Centre who helped speed up the process by writing a letter. 

On September 23 Foreground Media will be onsite at the Museum, Archives, and Roselawn to film promotional video.  Once it is complete it will be available online, along with digital access to the collection. A sign-up page was sent around for anyone available in being in the promotional video.

The New Horizons for Seniors Grant has been submitted.  The grant will allow for projects to connect with seniors in the community.

Stephanie is also working with Caitlin from the Lighthouse Theatre to renew contract with Roselawn.  Lighthouse Theatre will be presenting at Council in October about the partnership and successes of reciprocal use of each others space. 

The Phoenix Circle (a group for large donors to the Niagara on the Lake Museum) visited Roselawn.  Gail Lord, who is one of the founders of the Lord Cultural Resources was in the group, was so impressed with Roselawn and the Board that she offered her resources to help plan for the next 5-20 years. Stephanie has a meeting arranged with Gail.

• Moved by
  Seconded by C. Brema

  That the user fees be accepted as presented and be brought to Council.

  Carried
• Moved by
  Seconded by B. Heaslip

  To present to Council a Capital Budget allocation of $120,000 with a list of priorities to be decided on by the Board

  Carried

14.

Adjournment

The Chair adjourned the meeting at approximately 8:31pm.