SPA
General Meeting: SPA's annual
Election and General Membership Meeting was held
in March and attracted a large crowd to the
MacLeod House on North Monroe. Members
voted on a new slate of officers, whose terms
will take affect on April 1, approved changes to
the bylaws and the 2008-2009 budget. You can see proposed
changes to the bylaws by looking at this
Word document. In other reports,
Joanne Moyer talked about lobby day for the
National
Trust, where they advocated for historic
preservation funding and grants at the national
level. Advocacy representative Gary Lauerman
talked about progress on a few of their issues,
such as the status of the Jensen-Byrd building,
the Bishop White Seminary, and a proposed
oversized tower in West Central. Susan
Traver spoke of the Street
Trees committee being featured this year.
Heritage Grant
applications are due April 15th, while
Development is
working on expanding board membership and
re-activating people who have dropped their
memberships.
Communications is working on making graphics
consistent between its website, newsletter, and
other publications, while
Doing It has a project cleaning the
Moore-Turner Gardens in April. In an open
forum, the Museum's Historic Preservation
Committee wanted suggestions for topics for its
winter lecture series, while Joanne Moyer
expressed concern that the City fully fund the
Historic Preservation Office.
Holiday
Tour &
Celebration 2007:
Check out the photo pages for the snowy but
successful tour and the pleasurable and
interesting holiday celebration.
September
General Meeting: September's
meeting took place at the Elmendorf House on
East 9th Avenue. Those who attended
enjoyed a table full of appetizers as they
wandered through the three open stories of this
Dutch Colonial Revival home. The rooms
were filled with interesting antiques and
original woodwork. People congregated on
the comfortable back porch to visit, and then
made their way down to the backyard for the
business meeting. SPA President Vern
Arneson gave an overview of how SPA is
performing. We are in good financial
shape, and plan to use some of that money for
administrative services and also for giving out
Heritage Fund
Grants. There will be a poll of
mayoral candidates to see what plans and
opinions they have about the City/County
Historic Preservation Office. SPA is also
contributing to the fundraising for the Fox
Theater Sunburst light fixture, which is being
renovated by the local preservation community.
There were reports from the various committees:
Advocacy is keeping
track of the status of the Bishop White Seminary
and the Jensen Byrd building, but will focus
this next year on historic street trees,
including an ad hoc subcommittee on the topic.
The Communications
Committee will need volunteers for the SPA booth
at the Custer's Antique show in October 5th-7th.
The Doing It ad hoc committee is looking at
doing 3 or 4 large projects a year in
conjunction with SPA's main issues.
Funding is planning on having another
live/silent auction at the Masonic Temple next
year on March 15th; they need items/services to
be donated - contact Susan Traver if you are
interested. Finally, the adjunct Olmsted
Centennial Celebration committee needs ideas,
volunteers, and support. Contact SPA at
344-1065 if you are interested in any of the
above.
Page updated
03/23/2008.
