Delta Marsh History Initiative, Steering Committee Meeting

9:00 am, 18 October 2004
Home of Shirley Christianson, Portage la Prairie

Present: Barry Bills, Shirley Christianson, Heidi den Haan, Gordon Goldsborough (sec), Myrna Mackey, Don Poschenrieder, Glen Suggett

1. Minutes of the last meeting (20 September) were approved by consensus.

2. Old Business

a) CanadInn manager – Goldsborough will call to confirm receipt of letter soliciting a donation for our raffle.

b) Interviews – Goldsborough summarized his recent visit to the Lakewood Country Club, where he discussed the possibility of preparing a history of the Club in time for its centenary in 2009. They agreed to allow Goldsborough to do this, and to provide information where they could. Goldsborough will contact Sterling Lyon to talk with him about his marsh memories. Den Haan will contact Peter Ward, while Suggett will contact Gordon Lavallee. Suggett and Goldsborough described their recent trip to Weyburn, Saskatchewan to talk with Terry Atkinson and obtain copies of his photographs of Tin Town in the 1950s. Goldsborough will contact the Gilroy descendant who contacted him. Mackey will contact Lois Sparling of Calgary to see if she is related to the Judge Sparling of Portage la Prairie. Christianson will contact descendants of the Newmans, long-time Delta cottagers.

c) Proden photos – Den Hann will call her.

d) Newspaper transcriptions – Goldsborough will arrange for seven more copies. A copy at the meeting was loaned to Poschenrieder.

e) Solomon memoirs – Suggett arranged to have these memoirs scanned and converted into editable text. Goldsborough returned it to Janice Krieger so additional material can be added.

f) Dow photos – Goldsborough returned this collection of photos to den Haan to return to Ms. Dow.

g) Newsletter – Goldsborough will compile a newsletter with help from den Haan. Possible stories could include Totogan or a Flee Island story by Suggett.

h) Heritage conference – A booth at the conference will be staffed by den Haan, Mackey, Bills, Christianson, and Suggett. Den Haan will bring the large posters of historical photos for display.

3. New Business

a) Cottager mailing – Den Haan proposed sending a DMHI newsletter to all Delta cottagers. We may be able to obtain addresses from the RM of Portage.

b) Raffle – Den Haan has had the photo by Dennis Wiens framed, at a cost of $40.86. Tickets will be sold at a craft sale to be held in the Herman Prior Center on 12-13 November. Christianson will arrange for volunteers to staff our booth. We may try selling maple syrup on behalf of the Friends of the Field Station.

4. Next meeting: The next meeting will be held at the home of Shirley Christianson (118 Wilkinson Crescent, Portage la Prairie) at 9:00 am on Monday, 22 November 2004.

5. Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 10:20 AM.