Meeting Notes

Our regular meetings are open to the public. Anyone may join the discussions however only Active Members who have paid dues may put forth motions, vote on business items or vote in elections.

We welcome anyone interested in helping the society or even if you’re just curious about our cause.

Meetings, News & Events

Our next Hartland Historical Society Meeting is:

Monday | March 11, 2024 | 1:00pm

 

Hartland History Hour

We’re not all business! Join us for a topical historical discussion following most of our regular meetings for an in-depth look at Hartland’s history.

This informal, open presentation includes photos and information from our website and archive collection.

 

Upcoming Events

A reminder we are accepting payment for Annual Membership Dues of $15 per person for the HHS fiscal year of October 1, 2023 thru September 30, 2024.

Dues payments may be remitted by check to our mailing address, in person at our meetings or via our dedicated PayPal account found on our Membership Page.

Thank you for your support!!

Meetings

Meetings are held on the 2nd Monday of each month beginning at 6:00pm unless otherwise noted.

Meetings are held at the Irving Tanning Community Center located at 62 Elm Street.

Meetings are subject to weather conditions or other unforeseen circumstances.

Cancellations are posted to our Facebook Page the day of the scheduled meeting.

Latest News

Our next regular meeting will be held on Monday, March 11, 2024.

Please note the March meeting will begin at 1:00pm instead of 6:00pm.

 

 

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Thanks to the efforts of HHS Member Stacy Halford, we have begun publication of new Special Editions of our Hartland Historical Society Newsletter. Please note, these will be compiled on a limited basis and published electronically as time allows. We’ll be sharing these Special Edition Newsletters as they are published here on our website.

HHS Newsletter Special Edition January 2023

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~ Meeting Summary Archives ~

9 Oct 2023:  Update pending

11 Sep 2023:  Attendance at our regular meetings remains strong and public attendance for our third Hartland History Hour Summer Series presentation on August 17th was again excellent! We continue discussions with property owners of the previously mentioned locations awaiting firm financial proposals from both parties however both appear to be leaning toward lease arrangements while we generally favor a more permanent land purchase option. We also continue our search for other viable long-term options and remain committed (and patient!) toward our goal of a dedicated home for the historical society.

14 Aug 2023:  Discussions continue with the owner of the property brought to our attention in July as well as member discussion at the meeting of its pros & cons as a viable long-term location. A private citizen attended the meeting and brought forth an informal general proposal for another potential location for our consideration. No specific details were proposed but it was decided a meeting would be held between our two parties before the next society meeting to discuss financial options and details of the site’s possible use for our needs. We remain committed (and patient!) toward our goal of a home for the historical society and thank you for your continued support of our Create-A-Home Fundraiser Campaign! Attendance at our regular meeting remained strong and public attendance for our second Hartland History Hour Summer Series presentation on July 13th was again excellent!

10 July 2023:  Further investigation into the property mentioned below in June uncovered a ‘singular purpose only’ restriction clause under the terms of the federal grant the property was improved under many years ago negating any further possibility of us locating a structure there. Another location was brought to the attention of society members as a potential long term option and it was decided to gather more information. We are very pleased attendance at our regular meetings has been steadily increasing. Public attendance for our first Hartland History Hour Summer Series presentation on June 22nd was also excellent!

12 June 2023:  By a unanimous formal vote of attending active members following open discussions, annual dues for our HHS fiscal year of October 1st to September 30th have been raised from $10 to $15 per year, per person, effective October 1, 2023. It was also proposed and agreed upon that anyone paying their annual dues BY September 30, 2023 for the upcoming 2023/2024 fiscal year will only be charged $10 as an incentive for early payment. Further discussions were held concerning a potential property in town to locate a structure for the historical society in lieu of renting a small, short-term space. While there are numerous items to consider and resolve, we are proactively investigating this and other long-term options to secure a permanent home to safely store and publicly display our vast collection of Hartland history. Your continued support of our Create-A-Home Fundraiser Campaign has enabled us to seek out and consider these long-term opportunities. Thank you! Our PayPal POS unit has arrived! We’re in the process of learning how to use it and will have it available for use soon at our meetings and events.     

8 May 2023:  A formal proposal was passed to bring forth a call to active membership to consider raising annual dues from $10 to $15 person at the next historical society meeting. Per our Bylaws, all active members are invited to attend the June 12th meeting to discuss the proposal before a formal vote is taken.   

10 Apr 2023:  Our dedicated HHS PayPal account has been officially updated with its proper non-profit status. We’ll be providing further details soon on using it as an online payment option. We have also ordered a very versatile and portable Point of Sale (POS) unit from PayPal (via a dedicated donation for its purchase) which will allow us to also offer numerous payment options in person. 

13 Mar 2023:  A slight omission was discovered in our non-profit status application for our dedicated PayPal account which has been holding up the final process. This has been corrected and we expect the non-profit application to be completed soon. ITCC has informed us they are working on a plan for roof repairs in the near future.

13 Feb 2023:  A proposal to amend our Bylaws was passed by majority vote of attending HHS members. The amendment reinstated an elected office of Vice-President. A special election followed and Bruce Fowler was elected to fulfill the position. Negotiations with ITCC continue as do further generous donations to our Create-A-Home Fundraiser. Thank you! Hartland Historical Society Cookbooks are available for a $20 donation and sales have been very good thus far. Books are now available (cash only) at the Hartland Public Library & Hartland Town Office and may also be shipped for an additional $4 postage fee by contacting us here on the website to place a prepaid order by check. We are still awaiting non-profit status to be added to our PayPal account before we can begin offering it as a payment option.

14 Jan 2023:  The postponed elections from October for Board of Directors were held. In order to assure staggering terms for the 3 positions, it was voted unanimously to elect members for this election only to a 1 year, 2 year and 3 year term respectively this year with the next successive elections returning to the regular 3 year term. Elected to the Board unanimously by membership are Brenda Seekins (2022-2023), Robert Hodgkins, Jr (2022-2024) and Stacy Halford (2022-2025). We have successfully opened a dedicated PayPal account for the historical society! We’ve still got a few details to complete the process before we go public but we’re very excited to soon offer a new option for dues payments, donations, item purchases, etc. We’re pleased to report the recovery and return home of the ITCC board member following a lengthy illness. We’ll be getting back on track with our ITCC lease negotiations concerning the roof issue soon.

12 Dec 2022:  The Create-A-Home Fundraising Committee reported further substantial progress of donations to the fundraiser. We are grateful and overwhelmed by the support that has been shown. Thank you!! Meetings with ITCC Board of Directors remain on hold due to an illness. Bylaw updates are still being worked on by the committee. We are moving forward on delayed plans to create a PayPal account for the historical society.

14 Nov 2022:  The Create-A-Home Fundraising Committee reported further substantial progress of donations to the fundraiser. Meetings with ITCC Board of Directors are temporarily on hold due to an illness of one of their board members being cared for by his wife who is also a board member. We wish him a speedy recovery. Bylaw updates are still being worked on by the committee and are progressing well.

10 Oct 2022:  Elections for the 2022-2023 HHS fiscal year were held with the following Officers elected by Active Membership present at the meeting: President, Dorothy Humphrey; Secretary, Norma Munn and Treasurer, Deborah Tapley. It was decided by Membership the Board of Directors positions would remain the same until further notice. An Ad-Hoc Committee was created by the President to research and suggest to Membership a comprehensive update to the existing Bylaws pending formal amendment procedures. The Create-A-Home Fundraising Committee reported further substantial progress of donations to the fundraiser. Meetings with ITCC Board of Directors continue to finalize a tentative lease agreement proposal with both parties working diligently to address and resolve the roof leakage concern. We are quite confident a final lease agreement will be agreed upon very soon so we may move ahead with plans to convert the room to meet our needs.

12 Sep 2022:  Most of the meeting was spent discussing plans for our new room and progress with our Create-A-Room Fundraiser. It was generally agreed we’d need to hire some workers to move the larger items in our collection from their various storage places to the new room, however no formal motion was made as we await an approved final lease agreement. A concern with the roof over the room occasionally leaking was raised, however an attending ITCC Board Member informed us they would work with us to come up with a viable solution to make necessary repairs to protect our collection into the future. We are pleased and grateful to report numerous donations have been coming in to support the new room project. THANK YOU!!

8 Aug 2022:  We were very pleased to have a large group in attendance for our meeting! We decided to postpone plans for the Ireland Cemetery event until spring in order to give us more time to properly prepare and seek more volunteers. A suggestion to hold it on Memorial Day before the parade will be definitely be taken under consideration when we reschedule. ITCC’s proposal is to rent us the old library room which was part of the first addition made in 1964 to the original school building. Attending members took a look at the room and all agreed it has great potential as a suitable location to store and eventually display some of our collection to the public. Some concerns about funding the proposed $2,000 annual rental cost into the future were quickly alleviated when HHS members Deborah Tapley & Stacy Halford immediately stepped up and volunteered to lead a major public fund raising drive to create a sound financial base for future payments. Upon their positive action plan for future funding, attending members voted unanimously to accept the room rental proposal by ITCC pending a lease agreement by both parties. We will move forward at our next meeting in September to begin making plans for cleaning, minor restoration and eventually moving most of our physical collection there. We are VERY excited about this wonderful opportunity and hope you will consider a tax deductible donation to support YOUR Hartland Historical Society! Details about the HHS “Create-A-Home” Fundraiser will be made public soon.

11 July 2022:  Further conversations concerning a home for the historical society and our archives were highlighted with a discussion of a potential space at the Irving Tanning Community Center. It was agreed by attending members to request a formal financial proposal from the ITCC Board of Directors for our review and consideration. An idea for a public event sponsored by HHS at Ireland Cemetery was also discussed and we agreed to consider it pending further details.

13 June 2022:  An informal discussion was held in lieu of our regular official meeting due to some unforeseen circumstances. Our main focus remains finding a financially sustainable and suitable home for the historical society where we can also publicly display a large portion of our growing collection of historical items.

9 May 2022:  Much of our May meeting was spent discussing how we are going to move forward on several fronts such as finding a home, creating some interest in HHS as our attendance at meetings dwindles and coming up with some type of HHS event to give ourselves a little positive spark.

11 Apr 2022:  We’re back for 2022!! We held our first meeting since October 2021 on Monday, April 11th with a nice attendance by members. 

1 Jan 2022:  Due to some member health issues and Covid-19 concerns for all our members, our January, February & March 2022 meetings have been cancelled. We will continue to monitor the situation with hopes of returning to regular meetings in April pending further notification.

13 Dec 2021:  Our regular December HHS meeting was cancelled due to health issues and Covid-19 concerns.

8 Nov 2021:  Our regular November HHS meeting was cancelled due to health issues.

11 Oct 2021:  We’re pleased to share the news that Irving Tanning Community Center has purchased a new 72″ TV which will enable us to resume our Hartland History Hour presentations following our meetings. We were, without hesitation, unanimous in our vote for a $100 contribution to their TV Fund. Our annual election for HHS officers for 2021-2022 was held resulting in the re-election of incumbents Dot Humphrey, President; Ann Foss, Secretary; Nat Foss, Treasurer.

25 Sep 2021:  We’re very grateful for the wonderful turnout to our various HHS events held during Hartland’s Bicentennial Celebration. Thank You!!

9 Aug 2021:  We’ll be hosting a Quilt, Clothing & Textile Exhibit during Hartland’s Bicentennial Celebration as well as a Historical Slide Show Presentation and access to our website for comments and questions.

23 July 2021:  We’re pleased to announce our 1st meeting since the Covid-19 outbreak will be held on Monday, August 9th at 6:00pm.

1 June 2021:  We are pleased to announce an additional 27 complete editions of ‘The Ripple’ have been digitized and uploaded to the dedicated Hartland Academy page on our website. Our special thanks to the Hartland Bicentennial Committee for sharing a portion of their state bicentennial grant to fund this important historical documentation and to HHS Member Mark Kantor for gathering, packaging and shipping all the yearbooks for us.  

5 Dec 2020:  Although Covid-19 protocols prevent us from meeting in person, we continue extensive work on our new website. We are constantly adding content including a new dedicated page for the Hartland Public Library so be sure to keep checking in for future updates. 

12 Sep 2020:  We are pleased to introduce this new HHS website which enables us to more efficiently share most of our collection with those interested in Hartland’s history. We are constantly adding new content so be sure to keep checking in for future updates. 

5 Sep 2020:  Steeves-McCormack American Legion Post #141 dedicated the new Hayden Park Veterans Memorial Flag Display with a public ceremony attended by numerous residents and visitors including many Veterans. The Hartland Bicentennial Committee plans to make the complete dedication ceremony available on DVD at a later date. Details will be provided when available.

13 Mar 2020:  Due to the Covid-19 Virus outbreak, Hartland Historical Society Meetings are postponed until further notice.

5 Mar 2020:  Due to the Covid-19 Virus outbreak, the Hartland Bicentennial Committee has postponed the scheduled June 2020 celebration until 2021. Details will be provided when available.

1 Mar 2020:  HHS Member Mark Kantor came across a wonderful in-house program at a Correctional Facility in the U. S. providing digital scanning for yearbooks. Further research led Mark to discover they would provide this service for FREE for a limited number of editions of Hartland Academy’s “Ripple” from 1950-1968. Mark sent them 13 issues of qualifying editions we had on hand and they returned them along with a CD with every single page scanned for our archives and uploaded to the Hartland Academy page. We have since secured the remaining 5 qualifying editions and we’ll be sending those to them soon to complete the first portion of the set. There is a reasonable fee to scan the pre-1950 editions (1914-1949) and we are working to establish a cost per book so we can put together a financial plan to eventually fund scanning of the remaining yearbooks in our current collection.

1 Feb 2020:  Our search continues for a dedicated home at a sustainable and safe location to display and share our growing collection. Until then, we are pleased we can share much of our collection in digital format on our website as we continue our quest. 

1 Jan 2020:  The Hartland Historical Society continues assisting Steeves-McCormack American Legion Post #141 in Hartland to help raise funds to build a new Veterans Memorial Flag Display on Pleasant Street next to the former Legion building. The various flags will honor branches of the Military including Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard and Merchant Marines. If you’re interested in helping fund the new display, donations may be mailed to: American Legion Post 141, P. O. Box 800, Hartland, ME 04943-0800.