1. Welcome  and Check in

   Most everyone shared a story having to with trains or long distance train travel.

2. Minutes:   The minutes to the January meeting were reviewed and approved.

3. Treasurers Report: The Treasurers Report was reviewed and approved. The current balance is $1,040.16.   John noted that we had no expenses in 2010. Charlie thinks the bill for the website should be coming soon.

4.  Volunteer opportunities at the Beverly Historical Society.  -  

• Darren indicated that while he has been able to keep up with the newer items there is a large backlog of items that need to be catalogued.  The Second Congregational Church gave all of it’s archives to the historical society and it has never been catalogued. The Centerville Christian Endeavour recently gave all of their archives to the society.  Charlie said he would be interested in seeing what the historical society had for his church, Barbara asked about Dane St.  Darren said that unless they get an entire archive, most of their church related items come from individual donations.  Except for the First Parish Sermons any other First Parish items are  not catalogued. The historical society also has some things on the Washington St  Church.  Terry recently saw a 1702 petition from Ryal Side, Salem Village (Danvers) and Beverly asking to form a Second Parish.
• Daren estimates there are 3 quarters of a million items needing to be catalogued and finding aids generated.  For the items from Beverly National Bank he believes it will be about 50 hours of work to catalogue and create a finding aid.
• There are  19th and early 20th century Annual Reports that need to be scanned.
• The Robert Rantoul Papers – over 10,000 papers, not only his but his son, daughter and grandson Robert S. who was Mayor of Salem.   Simmons’s students have been coming in thanks to a grant so there is a part timer now working on this collection. 
• There are probably projects to match peoples interests, the Society has archival, furniture and decorative arts items needing to be catalogued.
• Charlie suggested that BAP focus on helping with church records.
• The City Hall finding aid was recently used by a women putting together a walking tour of Thorndike St
• The society is open Tuesday – Saturday.  Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday are research days so Thursday and Friday are better days for project work.

5. Visit to Boxford Document Center–  Martha Clark’s day job is at the Mass Archives and has volunteered to take us on a tour. It has to be during the hours they are open.   Charlie invited her to come to one of our meetings.

6. BAP funding for NEDCC Webinars -  Charlie would like to propose that BAP pay for individuals to attend webinars or training classes. They cost between $60 - $90 dollars and are on topics such as preservation of photos or grant writing.  They were various suggestions for how the process should work. The process would be a formal request, it would be brought to a BAP meeting and we would approve it, the person would take the class and then have to prepare/deliver  a report back to the group.  Carol suggested that we only subsidize 50 or 60% of the price, believing that if someone is personally invested in it the training they will get more out of it .    Charlie will take a stab at preparing an official process /guideline document.

7. MCC/LCC Survey request – Charlie received a request to complete a survey  about the grant process for the grant we received from the Mass Cultural Council. Charlie will forward it to John and he will fill it out.

8. Archival Supplies for BAP members –  We will allocate $300.00 for supplies. Elaine would like 6 boxes, letter size. Carol indicated we would get a bigger discount if we order 10 so John will take four, he would also like 300 folders.  Barbara will talk to Carol later about what she could use. 

Carol met with Anna at the Library and consolidated everything into a file cabinet. The room will also be getting some shelving. We have to share that space with the administrative files having to do with the ‘Friends’. They are also looking into getting a locked cabinet. Our display board are also still in there. 

9. BAP opportunities this year

• Visit to Mass Archives – Charlie to send note to group to see what works, tentative date of April 15th.
• Visit to Topsfield Historical Society – Charlie will organize a trip.

10. John recommended to the group the lunch series that Darren and Terry are putting on at the Historical Society. You can find more information about it in the paper or from the Historical Society newsletter.  Terry is giving the next one on Women’s Suffrage. The one in April will  honor the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War and is about  a Civil War diary kept by a Beverly man who was at the Andersonville Prison. In May it is about Augustus Clark and a pair of Chinese Vases.

Darren let everyone know that Nancy Coffey will be giving a talk at the Beverly Farms Library on March 24th about the history of the Irish in Beverly Farms

11. Carol shared with the group a family album of photos from the Syracuse and Columbia University from the period of 1911 – 1920.  She had the album scanned and then reproduced and created bound copies for herself and her brother and sister. 

12. Our next meeting will be held either Wednesday April 6th, time and place TBD or will be skipped in lieu of a trip later in the month to the Mass Archives.

Respectfully submitted:        Margaret Alfonso