Minutes - October 2019 - Loomis - California Chapter

Quarterly Chapter Meeting Minutes — Saturday, October 5, 2019

Lorenzo’s Mexican Restaurant
Loomis, California

Meeting called to order: 1:10 pm
31 people signed attendance sheet
Introductions
1. Bobby Blickenstaff: First meeting due to medical issues over the past year. Hoping to get more involved in the future.
2. Caleb Engel: Checked out a book in the library. Came to the meeting to get resources for a coast-to-coast trip in the future.
3. Ben York: Has been on the mailing list for years, but this is his first meeting.
4. Russ Connelly from San Diego visiting Joel.
Approval of April meeting minutes
1. Lee Schegg moved to approve the April meeting minutes.
2. Trey Pitsenberger seconded the motion.
3. Motion passed.
Presentation by Trey Pitsenberger: Roseville to Auburn on the old Lincoln Highway
Intermission: 5 minutes before business meeting
Awards (Joel Windmiller)

Presented our second Meritorious Achievement Award to Gary Kinst, our historian who puts together The Traveler for us each quarter.
Presented our third Meritorious Award to Paul Gilger, for the hundreds of hours of time he has spent making the Lincoln Highway known through mapping, leading tours for conferences, and so much more.

Officer, staff, and committee reports
1. Neil Rodrigues: State Director
  1. State Directory: National sent out a message for a directory check. Look at your information to be sure it is accurate.
  2. Bill von Tagen gave a talk at the museum up at Donner.
  3. Lincoln Highway Military Convoy Tour: Everyday was like a complete vacation. Multiple things to see each day and you did that for 17 days straight.
  4. Gave a talk at the Studebaker Drivers Club.
  5. Attended the Lincoln Landing groundbreaking in Hayward. This is a new development right on the Lincoln Highway on Foothill Boulevard (YouTube video on the development). They didn’t know what the Lincoln Highway was so they were excited to be part of a more significant road than they originally thought. They will participate in getting signage for the Lincoln Highway in the future.
  6. Radio talk show in Auburn
2. Joel Windmiller: President
  1. Trey Pitsenberger and Joel are revamping how we do signage. They would like to work more closely with Caltrans on getting freeway signage. Trey has talked to Norm Sayler about getting historic highway status for the LH.
3. Trey Pitsenberger: Vice-president
  1. Historic Highway Byway:
    1. Discussion about how to best approach this topic.
    2. Stay a historic highway and get to the right people to get counties to name parts of road as historic. Once we have a bunch of counties, then we can take it to the state.
    3. Paul brought up the issue of cost. If we do get the state support, they will help with the cost of signage. Lots of ways to approach the state: tourist, historical, etc.
  2. Placerville convoy: Joel and Trey were the California Chapter representatives and greeted the convoy upon its arrival.
  3. Folsom Prison Project: Nothing further at this time
  4. Since the last meeting, “L” signs have been painted on subways in Newcastle, Weimar, South Yuba Bridge and Secret Town.
  5. Placerville City Council: Talked to the city manager. They were interested in having signs. Trey will attend the city council meeting on Tuesday to finalize plans. Conversation led to a possibility of putting a cement marker in place too. If a marker is placed, please include the Boy Scouts in the placing of cement markers due to the historical context.
  6. County of El Dorado: Trey was given permission to paint a logo on the Webber Creek Bridge.
  7. Attended the welcoming of the LH Military Convoy Tour back to California at Moe Mohanna’s event center in El Dorado Hills. Mohanna is a real friend of the Lincoln Highway. There were county supervisors at the welcoming. Trey made contacts there too.
4. Grant Gassman: Treasurer
  1. Deposits
    1. $395: Rainbow Lodge
    2. $150: Signs
  2. Disbursements
    1. $223: Klingstedt Bros. for the brochures
    2. $200: Joel Windmiller for this meeting
  3. Balance: Contact chapter for details
5. Paulette Johnston: Secretary
  1. No report submitted.
  2. Careful about replacement talk while I’m gone.
6. Gary Kinst: Chapter Historian
  1. Wanted to thank Trey, Monica, Kevin, and Neil for providing pictures and articles for The Traveler.
7. Jimmy Lin: Website Update
  1. Jimmy was unable to attend the meeting, so Joel presented his slides. High-level takeaways follow.
  2. Normally, web traffic peaks in July, but this year it peaked in August, perhaps because of the Military Convoy Tour.
  3. For session starting points, starting on the map is down 21% compared to last year, but starting on the homepage is up 47%. Possible reasons for homepage increase:
    1. Google search results order: I believe map used to be first, now it’s the homepage.
    2. New homepage design
  4. Mobile accounted for 21,442 sessions, 51% of total sessions. Both the number and percentage for mobile are record highs.
  5. I’ve set up YouTube and Instagram accounts, but there isn’t any content yet.
  6. California chapter website: still haven’t had the chance to add new brochure or add an index and images of front pages for each issue of The Traveler.
8. Trey Pitsenberger: Signage
  1. Joel reported that 14 signs were given to Trey and a few were kept for Tracy.
  2. Trey wanted thank Michael Kaelin for his service as our first signage person, as well as Kevin Shawver, who both have done so much for the California Chapter.
  3. Mountain House (west of Tracy) contacted us about installing signs for their part of the Lincoln Highway. When they are done, they will sign their section of the Lincoln highway.
  4. Neil: National Board is strongly considering helping to support the cost of signage. Neil was asked to bring a proposal to National. Jerry Pepper and Bill von Tagen agreed to help with wording of the proposal.
  5. Placerville signage will deplete our signage, which led to a discussion on having Placerville contribute the signs. This brought up discussion of funding future signage projects. Ideas included GoFundMe, asking for community involvement, asking for cities and counties to contribute, corporate sponsorship, and adding a place on the website to pay for a sign.
9. Speakers
  1. Bill von Tagen: Gave a presentation to AARP in Boise about the Lincoln Highway and Yellowstone Trail. 45 people packed into the room to listen to the presentation.
10. Mark Hoffman: Coach tours
  1. Tour scheduled for next year will include extended parts of the Lincoln Highway. Mark left some catalogs with the information.
  2. Future trips: Day trip along the LH to the Bay Area
  3. Lincoln Highway Conference in 2021: It would be good to promote the 2021 California conference at the 2020 conference in Joliet. Since the Rainbow Lodge was such a huge hit, Mark would like to have us consider doing a day trip into the Sierras with a stop at the Rainbow Bridge during the conference in 2021. Mark would be happy to help with that in the future.
Old business
1. 2019 Military Convoy Tour (Paul Gilger)
  1. Paul, Neil, Chuck and Nora, and Paul and Sally shared their experiences on the tour.
2. Truckee sign replacement (Joel and Bill)
  1. Some signs still need to be replaced.
3. Members
  1. Bart Magoffin of the Clarksville Region Historical Society lives near the El Dorado Hills section. If we have any questions or need anything done in that area, he would be happy to help.
New business
1. MVPA Military Convoy (Dennis Larson)
  1. Dennis Larson participated in the military convoy, put on by the Military Vehicle Preservation Association. He shared a bit about the highlights of the 36-day-long tour.
2. Officer elections
  1. A reminder that the next meeting in January includes officer elections.
Adjournment
1. Motion to adjourn the meeting by Russ Connelly. Trey Pitsenberger seconded.
2. Meeting adjourned at 3:53 pm.

Respectfully submitted
Paulette Johnston, Secretary
December 29, 2019

Edited by Joel Windmiller and James Lin