Seattle’s City Council in Volunteer Park meeting with City Engineer R.H. Thomson (May 1990 source: Seattle Municipal Archives)
After a short break these summer months, we've reduced the number of meetings we're holding as a group, but we've been hard at work formalizing our status as a non-profit, doing more research and social engagement through our media channels. There are lots of things abound for the CHHS this season, we're excited to share updates and drill into the fall with renewed energy and commitment to preserving and sharing the legacy of Capitol Hill. Continue to see what we've accomplished and where we're headed in the coming months.
Introductions
We've a new face at CHHS. Stephanie in Seattle for just three weeks and already involved in the local historical Society. Stephanie hails from Florida where she did work for the local historical preservation society, she was on National Trust for Historic Preservation, "I just googled you guys, and thought I’d check it out." Welcome, Stephanie!
Landmarks
Rob & Kristi are almost done researching & fact checking the first ten landmarks. Next steps is to get an estimate for the plaques, and approach the property owners to see if they’re amenable, interested in getting plaques for their locations. Rob is writing a long form piece for Colman Automotive it will be ready for our next newsletter for the October 3rd publication. We never heard anything back about getting a plaque at the Republican Stairs.
Updates:
plaque estimates are coming in, we're awaiting one more business regarding cost + installation
an anonymous member has donated $40 to pay for the scanning of historical photographs of all ten properties
the same member has pledged to sponsor one of the plaques + installation ($500 donation)
Social Media
Raine says, public engagement numbers go up when we ask people their opinions, or play games like “guess where this [location] is”, or asks for submissions from the public. She boosted the trivia night event, not sure how effective the boost was. Next Trivia Night should include a question to attendees stating how they heard about it (word of mouth, sponsored post, already planned on going. We need to zero in on our target audience, we haven’t yet. If anyone wants specific property research, Raine can do a series of posts about it. Usually a series includes 2-3 posts to teach people about a thing. Raine has an open call for submissions for the social media posting (send an email to capitolhillpast@gmail.com, or Raine, or Tom).
Trivia Night
Zach says Hillside Bar was excited about the event, and wants to plan more of them. They can perhaps donate money for cash prizes for trivia- and were asking about future events. Zach wants to thank all who helped contribute to last trivia, it was a good turn-out with three teams. There is an open call for tidbits of trivia, or themes, or ideas for the trivia night.
Resources & Media
Tamara has old yearbooks from Broadway High. Jason says anyone can access back issues of the Seattle U Spectator on their website, they would be good resources for a Back To School theme for September. This might be good for the newsletter (this month in history).
Outreach
UW is back to school this week. Talk of reaching out to the History department and iSchool again to get an intern started. Perhaps a student interested in archives that wants to make Capitol Hill property photo scanning their project. For the landmarks we’re going to need photos of all the locations.
Federal Non-profit Formation
Bylaws & Board Assignments
We should charge a membership fee of $10 (with the option to pay more) or require 5 hours of volunteer work per year.
We could also offer a “Lifetime Membership” or Patron status, to those who donate say $100+.
We should draft a membership contract or pledge- stating values that individuals can commit to, to understand the expectations of membership.
Board of Directors - still need a secretary. Currently, Tom is holding both President & Sec. positions. Their is a conflict of interest that states those positions cannot be held by the same individual.
We need to state minimum required activity to remain a board member.
We are drafting bylaws.
Members
Minimum required activity to remain a board member will be finalized in the bylaws for the society.
Meeting attendance or participation in the group via email conversations -or- plan projects related to CHHS outside of meetings
We don’t know how many meetings we’ll have per year.
Automatic revocation of board membership if they miss certain amount of meetings (3- no call, no show) reminded of the Gold Rush, Seattle mayor disappeared.
There is a process for adding people to the board, at the yearly meeting. We went with seven board members. There are three advisors and four officers. There is a separation between board member and being an officer. Once the board is determined, they need to elect officers: President, Vice President, secretary, treasurer, etc.
Members voting: members will generally vote in-person on policies of the CHHS, there is usually discussion with present members regarding policy decisions. In the case of absentee members, the vote falls to the board. The bylaws will be the clarifying document on voting matters.
We plan to draft a member pledge for commitment to the group.
News Items
Possible October article on the former Capitol Hill Harley Davidson Dealership - by Tom Heuser
October article for Colman Automotive - by Rob Ketcherside
CHS Blog runner Justin Carter (founder of CHS Blog) is coming back online! He would love for us to contribute content on his site. Which is huge for us he has over 14k readers on FB, and 50k twitter followers.
Event
Rob and Lana are now on a working group to re-write/ update the Capitol Hill Design Review guidelines. They will invite the group to visit CHHS and do a presentation. This would be a good event for outreach to publicize, in hopes it may attract new members to CHHS.
Next Steps
Republish an open call for volunteers (e.g. for photo archive project) -or- solicit donations for archives scanning.
Plan for upcoming trivia nights, make it a regular event on our calendar that the public can enjoy & potentially get more people involved.
Create an events calendar (cross-post with related events e.g. architectural walks, museum events, etc.)
Get more information on how people hear about & who are attending our events (e.g. Trivia Night via survey).
Find a secretary.
Complete bylaws so that we can apply for federal status as a 501(c)3 non-profit.
Apply for 501c3 tax status as a non-profit (complete application, pay application fee) before the end of the year.
Draft a membership application.
