The Annual Meeting of the Traer Historical Museum was called to order by President Mark Watson at 6:00 p.m. on April 20.

Mark introduced himself and thanked everyone for attending. We had a total of 27 people attending this meeting.

Board members were introduced. Carol Stanbery has resigned from the board and Mark thanked her for her service over the years. New board members were introduced: Bob Hill, Kim Howard and Jean Kruse.

Mark reported on progress that has been made at the museum over the past year. We have installed window coverings upstairs, new lighting and updated displays. None of this would be possible without the support of our community and grants we have received.

George gave a report on the Winding Stairs project. This includes sandblasting and repainting the historical winding stairs. Joan Reuman is sponsoring a quilt raffle which will help fund this project. We are also applying for grants. A long term project that we are working on is to repair and restore the Winding Stairs building.

IPTV was at the museum and interviewed George and recorded a segment which will be on the Market to Market show. This will air on May 5. The segment is about our Tama Jim Wilson display and information regarding it. This is intended to also promote Iowa History.

Sharon S reported on our digitization project of issues of the Traer Star Clipper. Sharing this with the Traer Library has been very successful.

Carol B. thanked our many volunteers. Without them, we would not be able to accomplish all we have done.

Sharon S. announced that Jean Kruse was one of the recipients of the Governor’s Volunteer Award. Sharon shared with us the many programs that Jean has been involved in within our community over the years. She was presented with flowers and will be honored at a banquet in Des Moines at a later date. It was so nice to see Jean’s family there to share this honor.

We were honored to have Cynthia Pokorny Martinez there to entertain us with her “button box” music and vocal selections.

While listening to music and enjoying fellowship with each other, we all had ice cream, cookies and brownies.

We enjoyed singing Happy Birthday to Sharon S.