MINUTES OF THE DOGTOWN HISTORICAL SOCIETY
March 13, 2010

CALL TO ORDER – President John Corbett called the meeting to order at 10:04 a.m. at the home of Tom and Lucy Corbett at 1411 Tamm, St. Louis, MO. Ten members plus two guests were in attendance; Bob Corbett, John Corbett, Lucy Corbett, Tom Corbett, Tom Haller, Michelle Kennedy, Rose Kennedy, Carol Nemeth, Mitch Scherzinger, Sally Sharamitaro and our two guests; Ronald Schodrowski and Gene Palmisano.

Meeting Minutes -A motion was made and seconded to approve the minutes of the October 19, 2010 meeting. A vote was taken, the motion passed and the minutes were approved.

Treasurer’s Report – Bob Corbett presented the most current treasurer’s report. The current balance as of 2/26/10 is $3,470.70, of which $2,262.63 is in the bench project fund. A motion was made and seconded to approve the treasurer’s report. A vote was taken, the motion passed and the treasurer’s report was approved.

GENERAL BUSINESS

Officers and Board Members – Two of our current officer’s terms expire this month of March 2010; 1) President- John Corbett and 2) Secretary- Sally Ryan Sharamitaro. Therefore, the first order of business was to open the nomination process.

Motions were made and seconded for nominations for both offices. Another motion was made and seconded for a vote by acclimation for the only two names that were nominated. The vote was taken and passed. Both officers were re-elected with terms to expire in March 2012.

There are also two open board positions, and a motion was made that a vote be taken to leave both board positions open indefinitely. The motion did not pass however as one member opposed leaving the board positions open indefinitely. Another motion was made to table this vote. A vote was taken and the motion to table was approved.

Archives/Donations- – Bob announced that because no one volunteered to give a lecture or presentation next month, he was happy to announce that he will go ahead with his plans to give a lecture on Father Thomas Butler, an earlier pastor of St. James who wrote two books of narrative poetry.

Bob then announced that for June, there would be no lecture, but an open house at which time he would welcome DHS members and any guests interested to his home at 1419 Tamm Ave., where all of the unframed paper Dogtown archives are organized, filed and stored in separate binders by subject; Schools, Churches, Sports, Businesses, etc..

A question was asked about whether Dogtown and Cheltenham were ever the same? Discussion followed on the history of Dogtown and of Cheltenham. Bob added information on his 1900 U.S. Census project which prompted the setting of boundaries for Dogtown. Boundaries that were only revised once, for a neighborhood area south of Manchester.

Bench Project - No Report

Century Home Committee – No Report

Ghost Sign Project – No Report

Living History Project – No Report

Membership – Bob mentioned that our friend and founding member, Henry Herbst, chairman of DHS Membership functions, died earlier this year, and that nothing has been done since with his position or on the membership functions. Bob will follow up to see if Henry left updated files on the current membership and the forms he used.

CURRENT BUSINESS

Labor Day Parade – John updated the members on the situation with the Labor Day Parade. He reported that the St. Louis Labor Day Parade was moved to O’Fallon MO and that the reason for the change in location was the increase in fees covering security services for parades and festivals.

John explained how the St. Louis Police Department found that they could no longer afford to provide the same security services at local parades and festivals as in the past. John said that for Dogtown it means that the Hibernians are going to face the same problem in planning future St. Patrick’s Day Parades. John urged the DHS to look into ways to help keep the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Dogtown. Discussion followed on various options for fund raising.

NEW BUSINESS

Street Musicians Festival– Nothing has been done, but John is still interested and will follow up.

Dogtown Motor Club – John has been in contact for years with car collectors around the neighborhood about starting a Dogtown Motor Club. He sees the possibility of up to 40 members and is suggesting that it become a sub-organization of the DHS. There would be no dues, but it would be suggested that each member of the motor club become a DHS member.

John mentioned a newspaper article about the group that appeared in the St. Louis Suburban Journal. The Journal reporter attended their car show on the day before they re-opened Hwy 40. The article told about some of the collectors and the name of the club. The article can be found here:http://suburbanjournals.stltoday.com/articles/2010/03/11/south/news/0303sc-carclub.txt/

A motion was made and seconded to approve The Dogtown Motor Club as the first sub-organization of the Dogtown Historical Society. A vote was held and the motion passed.

DHS Grant Program – Mitch gave a report on applying for grants and he included information on seminars that are available for those wanting to learn more about the process and requirements. He opened a discussion on options or ideas that the DHS might find appropriate for their use.

Of the ideas he heard, John commented about archeology investigation or ‘digs’ and what might be found. Bob thought about the scanning of documents in the DHS archives and then uploading them to the internet for future research. Another idea mentioned is the possibility of a building to house the DHS and its archives, where the framed items could be displayed. Mitch will follow up.

The meeting adjourned at 11:30a.m. The next business meeting will be Saturday, May 10, 2010, at 10:00 a.m. at 1411 Tamm Ave, St. Louis, MO 63139

Respectfully submitted,
Sally Sharamitaro
Secretary
Dogtown Historical Society