HMC Family Association

Present: President Barbara Kerr, Treasurer Louis Rodge, Secretary Joanne Shipley, Christine Cranmore, and President Emeritus Elma Hewitt.

Absent: Shilah Bauer and Rae Ann Nelson.  Shilah reports that she is resigning from the Family Council at this time.

Meeting was called to order.  Letters from Ken and Helen Kirkwood, Olive Merry, Don Rivara and Mel Moss were received.

Minutes of the November Meeting were read and approved.

Treasurer reported a balance of $4,966.15 as of 3/24/2009.  The accountant has filed the annual form 990.

Discussion continued regarding receipts for future donations for the silent and oral auctions, and donation cans at the reunion.  We need confirmation from the State of Oregon regarding our tax-exempt status.  Louis is following up with phone calls to Dennis and Dan Matheny and to the State of Oregon to see if we can obtain the original paperwork.  Cost to file would be $30, if we can’t confirm previous paperwork.

Newsletter: Next edition will be available on the website.  Please send us your email address!  Printed copies will also be mailed, unless members indicate that having them on the website is good enough.

Elma will call Barbara with additional email addresses from the Reunion sign-in books, so everyone can be notified that the newsletter is available on-line.

New and changes of addresses need to go to our new Registrar, Sylvia Fiscus at registrar@hmcfamily.org.  She will keep all current contact information.

The possibility of bulk-mail is being investigated.  One member of the family will offer an estimate of costs if she does it through her agency.  If we can get a copy of the filing with the State of Oregon for tax-exempt status, we may reduce the cost substantially.  More information to come.

Historian: To maintain privacy, historian, Don Rivara, will keep all family records and lineages at historian@hmcfamily.org.

Communications: If you wish to contact one of the council, please use one of the following addresses:

council@hmcfamily.org (Barbara Kerr),
secretary@hmcfamily.org (Joanne Shipley),
treasurer@hmcfamily.org (Louis Rodge),
Elma@hmcfamily.org (Elma Hewitt),
registrar@hmcfamily.org (Sylvia Fiscus), and
historian@hmcfamily.org (Don Rivara).
Your email will automatically be forwarded to the correct person.

Website: Please let Barbara Kerr know if you have any trouble getting into the website.
An on-line tour of the area will soon be available – see upcoming information for ways to use it, and to add to it from your family’s archives.

Publications: Elma has some beautiful illustrations for Into the Eye of the Setting Sun.  They will be incorporated into the copies that will be available at the reunion.  There was discussion about how to recognize or reimburse the man who did them.  No decisions yet.

Discussion continues about publishing Into the Eye of the Setting Sun.  Christine will speak with her mother, and Elma will speak with Julie Jones, in order to collect more information about the history of the work.  Mel Moss has found newsletter references to Ruth Stout working on it extensively with Julia Jones.

2009 90-year Reunion Celebration:

Mike has reserved our regular site with the shelter.

Brian Hewitt will be auctioneer.  Louis will be cashier and clerk.

Readings, singing, food and photography are all on the schedule.

Please bring your little “I remember” booklets, or email a family story to secretary@hmcfamily.org so we can add current family stories to our memories.

Elma is requesting each family to bring old photos on poster board, with labels, to be displayed on the walls of the shelter.

The council adjourned, with great thanks to Barbara for all the planning and research she has done in preparation of our coming celebration.  Next meeting will be at the Reunion.

Respectfully submitted,   Joanne Shipley, Secretary

Treasurer’s Update

THE AUCTION This year at the reunion the oral auction will be monitored by the treasure to help insure the person who wins the item is identified and receives the correct item and the correct dollar amount is collected.
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RE: NONPROFIT STATUS The Hewitt-Matheny-Cooper Family Association is not a “non-profit” or a “not for profit” classified organization.  Therefore donations to the H-M-C Family Association are not tax deductible.  We are in the process of filing/declaring a “not for profit” status with the IRS.  However, we will not be a “charitable” organization and donations will still not be tax deductible

• Date: Nov. 15, 2008

• Present: Barbara, Louis, Rae Anne, Elma, Mel, Joanne

I.  Discussion regarding policy on privacy: Privacy regarding personal information includes:  name, address, phone number, email address, birthdate, and mother’s maiden name.

1.   It is our policy to continue to publish names of members of the family (for example: in newsletter articles), with no additional contact information, without any specific permission.

There are two exceptions to this policy:

A.  Elected council officers (President, Treasurer, and Secretary) names and contact information (address, phone, and email) will be listed in all published newsletters, on the inside of the newsletter (no longer on the back cover).

B.  Anyone who submits an article to the newsletter and requests his or her contact information appear with the article.

2.   It is our policy to never publish birthdates or mother’s maiden name

There are 2 exceptions to this policy:

A. We will continue to publish written lineage information at the end of articles, indication the lineage of the subject of the article (Example from a recent article about Jean Kerr: Henry and Elizabeth Matheny Hewitt>James Andrew Hewitt>Sylva Hewitt Kerr>William Henry (Hank) Kerr & Jean Kerr.)

B. Obituaries taken from newspapers (public record) or submitted by members will be printed including any personal information present.

The council asks that family members let us know quickly if there is any objection to either of these policies.

II.    Discussion regarding income from publications:

1. Our policy regarding distribution of publications is:  whatever we distribute shall pay for itself and make a profit. (The size of the “profit” is not determined at this time, and may vary according to type of material, format of material, and to whom the material is being distributed.)

Respectfully submitted,    Joanne Shipley

• Date: October 25, 2008

• Present: President Barbara Kerr, Treasurer Louis Rodge, Secretary Joanne Shipley, RaeAnn Nelson, Mel Moss, and President Emeritus Elma Hewitt.  Absent:  Shilah Bauer and Christine Cranmore.  Shilah reports that she is full time National Guard now, doesn’t expect to be deployed to Iraq at this time.

• Meeting was called to order.  A letter from Don Rivara was read, letting us know he has recently moved to Texas to be closer to his daughter.

• Minutes of the Reunion Meeting were approved.

• Treasurer reported a balance of $5134.20 as of 9/24/2008.  The accountant has finished his work, and has been paid in full.  Our tax-exempt status has been re-established under our current association name.  We will now need to file a form 990 annually to maintain our status.  Our Federal Tax ID number is 93-6034592.  We paid a total of $446 for the service.  Other recent expenses: newsletter printing and mailing -$395.  Books printed – $187.

Discussion was held regarding how we might provide tax-deductible receipts for future donations for the silent auction, the oral auction, and for the donation cans at the reunion.  No decision was reached at this time.

Council voted unanimously to send our $100 contribution to Yamhill County Museum again this year.

• Newsletter: Available soon on the website.  More details to follow.  Printed copies will also be mailed, unless members indicate that having them on the website is good enough.

Elma has family genealogy forms that can be mailed out in the newsletter, for people to fill out and return.  That will allow us to update the albums more accurately.

• Website: Please let Barbara Kerr know if you have any trouble getting into the website.

• Reunion Review: Mixer: the goal is to acquaint people with others at the Reunion, but most people don’t take sheets to fill out.  We conclude that most attendees either aren’t comfortable, or don’t share our goal.

Songs: suggested simple song sheets for the 90^th Reunion – maybe two or three songs from 1919.

Storytelling: need to make more people aware of the activity and the area

Dramatic readings: thanks to reader, Dorothy Coombs, and thanks for costume accessories.

Signs: signs were great, need a schedule posted where it is easy to see, “clean up” signs seemed to produce good effect – lots of folks helped clean up this year.

Audio system:  still haven’t solved the feedback problem.  Tables need to be arranged so people can hear better.

Original location is better because of shelter, even though farther from restrooms.

Scheduling/reserving the shelter space – we need a long term solution.  Maybe conversation with the Parks Department.

Set up and clean up:  we need to continue to offer more help for Mike, who does the majority of the work.

Name tags – need examples of how to make them, and a simple family tree so people can see who their “original family ancestor” is.

Historical ancestor albums – Mel said no one filled out any update forms this year.  We need to be sure update forms are readily available again next year.

Muffins – thanks to whomever brought them!

Oral auction – needs separate auctioneer and cashier/recorder in order to keep everything straight, make sure everyone pays for items and receives their items.  Need cards with info about each item so the auctioneer will have some relevant things to say about them.  See if Brian Hewitt will be auctioneer.

Raffle – Thanks to everyone who brought donations!  It’s a great help.  For future reunions, it helps if everyone brings something.  We should keep doing the raffle, don’t try silent auction again.  Raffle is much simpler to handle.

Business meeting – ran a bit long.  Will try to rein it in a bit for next year.

Hewitt Challenge – video tape it next year, and post the video on the website.  Have categories for ages of jumpers.

• 2009 Reunion: Suggestions were made about a photo timeline, map displays, an interpretive sign at the shelter at the park, publicity, etc.  We will need people to begin on these right away.Park Ranger Bonnie is willing to talk about Park history at the next Reunion if we wish.

Elma shared copies of the Metzger map of Donation Land Claims in the Hopewell area, which will appear in a future newsletter.

Stories:  Please bring or mail your stories about current family members, older family members, so that we will have lots of them in the books for people to read next year at the Reunion.  See the most recent newsletter for examples.

Activities: Arnie and Sue Young (Charlotte Cooper) want to donate a pinata for 2009.

See review of 2008 Reunion for addition information.

• Next meeting:  Nov. 15, 11:30 AM to 2 PM at Barbara’s.  Elma will bring a hot dish, Joanne will bring a salad, Barbara will take care of the rest.

• Discussion will be about publications.  Privacy issues, Family Association Goals, Concerns, Next Steps.  Barbara will send us information to read ahead regarding these issues.

Respectfully submitted, Joanne Shipley