Hope Historical Society Minutes
November 19, 2024

The meeting was called to order by Vice President, Marie Berry, at 7:03 P. M. There were 13 members in attendance: Marie Berry, Margaret Morse, Gwen Brodis, Linda Hillgrove, Regina Lucchese, Bill Jones, Catherine Pease, Cindy Della Penna, Judith Jones, Jim Della Penna, Ron Howard, Ron Smith, Linda Black and Bruce Linthicum. Guests were: Jim Ostiguy and Scott Pease.

SECRETARY'S REPORT: The October 15th report was emailed to all members by former secretary, Cindy Della Penna. A motion was made and seconded to accept the secretary's report.

TREASURER'S REPORT: Treasurer, Gwen Brodis, reported an Income total of $1,152.29; Expenses were $879.33; Balance in Checking, $3,035.42; Balance in Savings, $6,235.36. Gwen reported around $1,500 was received from the Appeals Letter she mailed recently. The motion to accept the treasurer's report was made and seconded and accepted by all present.

OLD BUSINESS: Margaret Morse is continuing to work on rearranging the names to correspond with the pictures in the Veteran's Cabinet located at the Town Office. Catherine Pease brought up the subject of a community calendar for 2026 to raise funds for the HHS. She brought in examples of calendars from Liberty and Jefferson. Jefferson members formatted their calendars in black and white which decreased the cost. We discussed the cost and labor of having someone format and print them or doing the formatting and putting into a PDF ourselves before going to the printer. The calendar would include business ads and a directory of governmental offices. It was mentioned that people buy them for souvenirs or functionality. Cindy Della Penna explained how involved it was for her to do the cookbook and the cost. A motion was made to do the calendar which was seconded with two abstentions.

Gwen Brodis reminded us that she takes returnables to Union and Coastal Opportunities or they can be left at her home. If we take them to Coastal Opportunities they need to marked as: Hope Historical Society.

The list of Committee Members was reviewed and the members unable to attend will be contacted to see if they want to hold their positions for the next year.

NEW BUSINESS: Marie Berry gave us an update on sales from the Food, Crafts, Cookbook and Raffle Ticket sales held on Voting Day, November 5th. Total sales for the Bake Sale was $967.50; Craft sales, $304.50; Raffle sales, $213 on Tuesday with $696 overall for raffle sales. Andy Rowe was the winner of the $300.00 Hannaford gift card.

The Building and Maintenance Committee provided the list of improvements and repairs that will be needed in the coming years.

The Christmas Brunch, to be held on December 10th at 9:00 A. M., due to lack of space, will be held at the Hope Fire Department. Bring food to share. Coffee and juice will be provided and guests are welcome.

A motion was made to adjourn the meeting at 7:08 P. M. the motion was seconded and approved. Refreshments were provided by Gwen and Marie.

Our speaker for the evening was Peter Ogden, Curator of the Maine Armed Forces Museum in Augusta, which is open every Wednesday and Sunday. There are display cases there showing memorabilia from the Revolutionary War, Civil & Spanish American Wars, WW1, WW2, Korean Conflict and Vietnam Conflict. He examined the uniform donated by Robert Hall's family and found the shoulder patch very interesting and said he would investigate its origin.

Respectfully Submitted,
Linda Ludwig Hillgrove, Secretary