1. Call to order by Myron Bacon, Chairperson

a. Individuals present: Harriet (Runey) Pearsons, Becca DuBey, Gerald Neath, Cindy Bacon, Jennifer Ehle, Mark Hanson and Myron Bacon.

2. Approval of Minutes of July 16th meeting.

3. Committee Reports

a. History: Jerry Neath

1) Question of Rutland Center Cemetery being the first burying place in Dane County: Joan Gefke was to research this question but was not present at this meeting.

2) Information about the porch: The porch had two sets of stairs, one in front of each door says Bob Drogsvold, according to Mike Bacon.

3) Newspaper article from 1935:  Jerry provided a photo and article published by the Daily Gazette in Janesville on March 2, 1935.  According to the article, the church and cemetery "was sold to the community" in 1912.  "It has been since been called the Community church.  At various times meetings have been held and programs presented there since 1912 and in 1930 a Sunday School was continued through the winter."  The picture shows a partial fence on the south side of the porch and a fence on the yard.

b. Cemetery: Jennifer Ehle

1) A group of people constituting the Cemetery Subcommittee has met a couple of times during the past month.  Three documents came out of those meetings.  Changes were suggested by the Committee.  The altered documents are linked to these minutes.

a) Worksheet for Rutland Settlers: for ancestors of individuals buried in the Rutland Cemetery

b) Proposal for goals, tasks and members of the Cemetery subcommittee.

c) Guidelines to be followed by members of the Cemetery subcommittee.

2) Members of the Cemetery Subcommittee: The following individuals are interested in serving on the subcommittee: Eileen (Runey) Fix, Joan Gefke, Joan Wethal and Jennifer Ehle as chairperson.  The Committee suggested that Dawn George be invited to join their group.

2) Cemetery maintenance guidelines: Jennifer has brochure from a local cemetery on how they maintain their facility.  She will continue to collect other such materials and the subcommittee will make a proposal for maintenance of the Rutland Cemetery.

3) Correspondence and inquiries about the Rutland Cemetery:  The committee agreed that such material would go to the chairperson of the Cemetery subcommittee.  Jennifer Ehle, the current chair, is willing to receive that information.  Myron suggested that Rutland Town Clerk Dawn George would be happy to designate the committee as recipient and custodian of material we gather.  We agreed that this needs further review .

4) Ownership of material gathered by the committee: who is the ultimate owner of gathered information--this committee, the township, or the Oregon Area Historical Society?  Myron agreed to bring this issue up with the town board.   We agreed that the Cemetery subcommittee chair should "periodically" provide the township with photo copies of material as it is gathered.  We thought that records should become the property of the Oregon Area Historical Society when the Cemetery Subcommittee is through with them, but we need to hear the town board's opinion on this point.

5) Sharing Information:  We agreed to share new information with Joan Gefke and Joan Wethal. Note: Joan and Joan have spent the better part of eight years creating genealogical records on the early settlers of Rutland.  "This is a private project of which they want to maintain control," Jennifer Ehle told the committee.  The women are willing to share their records with individuals seeking information about their ancestors in return for a donation to the Rutland Church and Cemetery Committee. Detail of this activity has yet to be worked out.

6) Landscape Assessment : Landscape specialist Al Miller will come to do an assessment of the grounds, according to Myron.  He will evaluate the trees and vegetation on the property.

c.  Church Restoration: Cindy Bacon

1) Progress on physical assessment of building

a) Application form has been submitted to Wisconsin Historical Society, according to Becca Dubey.

b) If the historical preservation group at historical society thinks the project is viable, they will do a preliminary assessment. Joe DeRosa is contact.

c) If they turn us down, we must decide if we want to restore the building ourselves.

2) Mr. Wallace, a local stone mason, had agreed to come to the last committee meeting but did not make it.  We now feel we can't do anything until we have completed a physical assessment.

d) Church Registration: Becca DuBey

1) National Registry forms were filled out following a special July 22nd meeting.  Becca will call Joe DeRosa at Historical Society and ask when they might review our material.  If October is the deadline date for grant requests, we want to be included, Myron suggested.  Knowing what the Historical Society thinks about our project may guide our decision to complete a grant request to meet the October deadline.

e) Grants and Finance: Myron Bacon

1) Veterans list : money from Dept. of Veteran Affairs for cemetery maintenance.  Town already receives money from the veteran Affairs at the rate of $4 per grave. A list of the veterans was provided.

f) Public Information: Mark Hanson

1) "Rallying to Save a Church," published today (August 18, 2003) in the Wisconsin State Journal, is the latest article to be published about our project.

2) "Rutland Center Church and Cemetery" by Jennifer Ehle was published in the WSGS Newsletter in April 2003.

3) Road sign promoting website: No problem putting the sign on the property, according to the town chairman. Mark will build the sign before the next Committee meeting.

4) Mission statement to be use in donation solicitation: Myron, Jean and Mark will write a draft and circulate it among members of the committee.

5) Forming a 501C3: The town board has no objection to our forming ourselves into non-profit organization as allowed by the State of Wisconsin, says Myron. Mark will investigate the advantages and disadvantages of such a move.

g) Legal: Chuck Anthony

1) Members of the Rutland Center Church and Cemetery Committee. We today clarified who was a member of the Committee. They include: Jean Hanson, Mark Hanson, Gerald Neath, Jennifer Ehle, Becca DuBey, Cindy Bacon, Mike Bacon, Joan Wethel, Joan Gefke, Chuck Anthony, and Harriet Persons . Lesa Fisher, Phil Peterson and possibly others will be contacted to confirm their interest in serving on the committee.

2) "Friends of Rutland Center Church and Cemetery" will be the group of citizens interested in contributing financially to the project but not serving on the Committee.

4. Old Business

a. Status of contribution of $4000 to $5000 by Orin Otteson and members of Rutland Centennial Committee 18 years ago. These funds are already in control of the Rutland Town Board. Mike will discuss what it will take to transfer this fund to the Rutland Church and Cemetery fund.

b. Writing a news article suggesting donations are now be accepted for the church: we are waiting for mission statement. That will be emailed during the following month to committee members.

c. Publishing names on the website: Committee members will be listed. Members of the Friends group will not.

5. New Business

a. Security System: tabled for now.

b. Form membership organization: During the July meeting we agreed to form "Friends of Rutland Church and Cemetery" with an annual membership fee of $25.  All money would be deposited in the General Fund established by the Town.  It would be spent upon approval of the Town Board on the church renovation project

c. Website costs: The committee agreed to repay the $10 per month costs of publishing the website.  Myron will ask the town board for $200 to cover that and other expenses.

6. Next Meeting: Sept. 22 at 4:00 p.m. in the Oregon Area Hisotricial Society building. .

7. Adjournment: the meeting was adjourned at 5:20 p.m.

Respectively submitted,
Mark Hanson
August 18, 2003

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