Quarterly Chapter Meeting Minutes — Saturday, August 17, 2013

Brennan’s Restaurant
Berkeley, California

Minutes

The meeting was called to order at 1:02pm.

Paul Gilger announced the new California Chapter Secretary. Jackie Ferreira is the new Secretary as of today.

Introductions by all present. 23 members and 1 guest attended.

Current agenda reviewed and approved by consensus.

The minutes from April 6, 2013 in Santa Clara were approved. Motion by Scott Miner, seconded by Joel Windmiller.

Officers and Staff Reports

State Director Bob Dieterich

Bob had personal business to take care of today.

President Paul Gilger

Paul thanked all the staff at the local level for all of their hard work which allows him to do his job at the national level.

California was the most represented state of the West Coast Centennial Tour. Thirty-five out of one hundred forty cars on the West Tour were from California.

The California Chapter is now approximately three LHA members behind Iowa.

Vice-President and Membership Chairman Joel Windmiller

Joel spoke about the Lincoln Highway display containing chapter artifacts that he put together at the Sacramento Auto Museum.

Joel also received an email from Donna Wallis (1st Vice Regent, El Toyon Chapter, NSDAR). She is interested in finding someone to speak at the Stockton El Toyon Chapter of DAR joint meeting on Saturday, October 5, 2013.

Treasurer Grant Gassman

Grant reported the chapter account balance. Contact the chapter for details. Balance was accepted by all present.

Secretary Jackie Ferreira

Jackie has been newly appointed. Motion by Paul Gilger, seconded by Joel Windmiller. Approved by all members present.

Traveler Editor and Chapter Historian: Gary Kinst

Gary was not able to be present today. Gary is the writer of The Traveler newsletter. Meeting members agreed with Paul Gilger that he does a great job.

Webmaster Jimmy Lin

On behalf of the National Board of Directors of the Lincoln Highway Association, the “Exemplary Friend of the Highway” Award was presented to Jimmy at the 20th Annual Lincoln Highway Association Conference held in 2012 at Canton, Ohio. The award was presented for his diligent and outstanding work on the website and on the maps. Jimmy was present at the meeting today to personally accept his major award.

Committee Reports

Reported by President Paul Gilger

Gary Kinst was given a glass award at the Lincoln Highway Association Conference held in Kearney, Nebraska this year for his work on The Traveler newsletter. This is the first time that an award has been given to a state for its newsletter.

Scott and Noon Miner have become Lifetime Members of the Lincoln Highway Association. They received a certificate today.

Membership Chairman Joel Windmiller

Sent 265 postcards, with no bad address returns.

Coach Tour director Mark Hoffman

Planning on a bus tour going from Sacramento to San Francisco. A date has not been set. Usually lunch is at the Cliff House in San Francisco.

Car Cruises — Paul Gilger

The date for the car cruise will be August 24, 2013. Participants will meet at the Crowne Plaza in Sacramento. Cruise will go up the Southern Sierra Route to the State Line. So far there are three cars signed up; four cars total including Paul. Lunch will be at Tortilla Flats in Placerville. Cost is $20.00 per car.

Signs — Mike Kaelin

Alameda County is completely signed except Oakland. Would like to have a sign on 13th St. adjacent to the old Oakland Hotel which is now a Residence Hotel and at the foot of Broadway near Jack London Square. Next focus is Stockton and will work with Kevin Shawver and Bob Glaze of San Leandro. There will be two more signs on Grand Ave. and one on MacArthur.

Scott Miner helped work on signage in Castro Valley. There are now 15 signs in that area.

Alameda County Historical Society is speaking with someone at the City of Oakland about signage.

Mike Kaelin along with Kevin Shawver from Stockton will be working together on signs.

Scott Miner has had some contact with the Alameda County Historical and asked them if they would speak to the City of Oakland regarding signs. Scott spoke to the Alameda County Historical Society when he and Noon presented the Proclamation. He also gave a speech. The Historical Society has asked Scott to speak at an event they are having October 30, 2013 at the Oakland Hotel.

Promo — Carolyn Harkonnen

Paul Gilger reported the she has released items to free listings.

Web Statistics — Jimmy Lin

There is a lot of social presence on the Lincoln Highway Association page on Facebook. The Lincoln Highway group page was set up by Brian Butko on Facebook. Also a lot of activity on Twitter and the Lincoln Highway Association website. On the Lincoln Highway Association Facebook page 1,966 people “like” us. On July 30, we received 72 more likes. This may be in part by the PBS broadcast of A Ride Along the Lincoln Highway. Jimmy Lin posted a few things about the Lincoln Highway and at one point there was an all-time high of 2000 people looking at the Facebook page. On Twitter, we have 189 followers; 40 within the last two months. On the Lincoln Highway Association national website there are typically 75,000 to 100,000 views per month. In June there were 260,000 views and in July almost 500,000. The blog has 200 on a good day, 100 on an average day. However, on July 30, 800 people viewed the blog.

Both the New York Times and USA Today had articles.

Old Business

1. Eagle Scout Project
   • Nathan Baluguy is putting up a new Lincoln Highway Marker. He is going to cast the new marker in the mold that Norm created. Bob Dieterich gave Joel a photo CD of Norm restoring a monument. There are also drawings available which were shown at the latest conference. Dick Taylor of Mansfield, Ohio and Jim Bonar of Nevada have recently made a marker. Joel will make sure that Nathan receives this information.
2. Signage in Colfax
   • A presentation needs to be made to the city council.
3. Centennial Tour Report
   • Paul conducted approximately 51 interviews, 10 were televised. 1 more interview is scheduled next Friday with the San Francisco Chronicle. He mentioned how amazing people on the tour were, helping each other when the need arose, completely unaware that they would be called to task on the trip. Tour participants concurred that the directions were excellent. Paul told the story of how he and Rosemary came up with the idea for an award to be presented at the Farewell Dinner and how it all transpired. Paul then had Jackie Ferreira show the “Perseverance” Award that was presented to her and David Lee at the Centennial Tour Farewell Dinner in Kearney, Nebraska.

New Business

1. Marker Surveillance — Paul Gilger
   • Paul suggested a group be formed concerning markers. It was decided that the group would be called The Marker Surveillance Committee and will be chaired by Joel Windmiller. The tour will drive from marker to marker and take a photo to get an idea of what type of condition the markers are in and what type of reconditioning needs to be done. The Marker Surveillance Group will consist of Joel Windmiller, Neil Rodrigues, Scott Miner, Greg Gassman, Grant Gassman, Kell Brigan and Paul Hoeprich. Neil suggested that each marker be given GPS coordinates. Motioned by Joel Windmiller, seconded by Jimmy Lin. The new group was approved.
2. CA chapter — Joel Windmiller
   • Joel will find out the exact number of members the California chapter currently has.
3. Concrete marker donation — Paul Gilger
   • Paul received an email from Lisa Gustavson stating that her relative has passed away and left behind two Lincoln Highway markers that she would like to donate to the California chapter. They are currently at a house in the Placerville area. Bob Dieterich will take care of picking them up.
4. Stockton signs — Kevin Shawver/Mike Kaelin
   • Joel Windmiller received an email from Donna Wallis (1st Vice Regent, El Toyon Chapter, NSDAR). She is interested in finding someone to speak at the Stockton El Toyon Chapter of DAR joint meeting with the SAR on Saturday, October 5, 2013. She would like the person(s) to speak about the history of the Stockton section of the Lincoln Highway. Joel will send an email to Gary Kinst and cc: Mike Kaelin regarding this issue. Donna also requested Kevin be involved in doing the presentation. Joel will include this information in his email to Gary.
5. LHA 2015 Tour — Paul Gilger
   • The planning has started for the LHA 2015 tour! In 2015 it will the 100th Anniversary of the Pan Pacific Expedition in San Francisco. In 1915 Henry Joy led a group of Packards from the LH headquarters in Detroit to the Expedition in San Francisco. LHA Tour participants will replicate that tour.
   • In 2015 the conference will be held in Ann Arbor at the University of Michigan. The conference will be held for 3–4 days. There will be a tour to Deerfield, an opportunity to view the Lincoln Highway archives at the University and a tour of the Ford design department is also in the planning stages.
   • The driving tour will take 12 days. The Welcome Dinner will be held at the Packard Proving Grounds. The tour will leave Detroit on a Friday and arrive in San Francisco on a Monday or Tuesday.
   • The tour will take Route 12, Michigan Ave.; the main route from Detroit to Chicago. The tour will be spending the night in South Bend, Indiana, Rochelle, Illinois, Ames, Iowa, Omaha, Nebraska, North Platte, Nebraska, Cheyenne, Wyoming, Rock Springs, Wyoming, Salt Lake City, Utah, Ely, Nevada, Reno, Nevada and Sacramento, California.
   • The tour is planned to be in Reno, Nevada July 4th which is a Saturday and is scheduled to arrive in San Francisco July 6th or 7th.
6. Attracting Car Clubs — All
   • Paul asked everyone for ideas to attract different car clubs and more people to the Lincoln Highway Association. Ideas that people came up with: set up a booth at a car show, put a LH sticker or magnet on your car, hand out LH brochures, LH business cards or wear a LH cap, shirt or pin. Another idea was to plan a Lincoln Highway Tour. Advertise, advertise and spread the word!

Next Meeting

The next meeting will be held November 2, 2013 in Stockton. The meeting will be held at:

Whirlow’s Tossed and Grilled
1906 Pacific Ave
Stockton, CA 95204
whirlows.com

We will eat at Whirlow’s and then have the meeting at a meeting room next door.

Meeting Adjournment

Meeting adjourned at 2:32 PM.

Presentation

Neil Rodrigues presented a fabulous photo slide show of the LHA Centennial.

Today’s Field Trip

Paul Gilger led a group of Chapter Meeting participants on a Berkeley Pier tour.

Respectfully submitted on September 12, 2013
Jackie Ferreira, California Chapter Secretary