O’Fallon Museum Board – Meeting Minutes September 10th 2025

O’Fallon Museum Board

Minutes

September 10, 2025

Present Absent

Toni Reetz, Trustee

Linda Rost, Secretary

Vaughn Zenko, Curator

Pat Ehret, Trustee

Curt Williams, Chairman
Tiffany Davis, Trustee (online)

Convene: 

The meeting was called to order by Curt at 4:08 pm at the O’Fallon Museum metal building.

Public Comment:  Time limit 10 minutes per subject.

Minutes: Read by trustees. 

Toni made a motion to approve the minutes as presented and Pat seconded. Minutes approved.

Welcome, new board members

• Tiffany Davis and Pat Ehret

Accessions 

• Brenda Stoddard – wooden statue sign with Bible verses from Odd Fellows/Masons; now located in jail – Toni made a motion to accept, and Pat seconded it. Motion passed.

Deaccessions

• None

Discussion of Curator’s Report

• Got extra hours for Traci Bruha – 788 hours
  • Showed commission just attendance from when Vaughn got here in March – May
  • Hours were 12 hrs/wk for Sept – May
  • Now they are those plus 18 hrs/wk for April and May (3 days a week)
  • Thank you to the commissioners for the support!!
• August – 230 visitors (67 from out of town); 25 tours
• Total: 1914 for the year from March to now (693 adults; 858 kids; some unidentified); 352 from out of town; 118 tours
• Eight states haven’t come here this year
• Extra exhibits in the pop-up exhibit space
  • Dept of Labor flagged the light safety, and the commission approved new lights ~$2000. 
  • Will come out of the museum budget, but we can extend the budget if needed for other things
  • Fair exhibit
  • Homecoming exhibit
  • Women in blue jeans display
• Stagecoach display by Mike Madler is up.
• O’Fallon Flashbacks – sold three sets
• Backroads of Montana
• Chamber meeting – August 5, 2025
• Lego day – August 29. Will be on any no-school Fridays
• Smithsonian meeting
  • Democracy and Dialogue – connect with another rural museum in the US and high school students. 
  • Traveling exhibits are booked, but may be available next year.
  • Rural reachout for America’s 250th anniversary
  • Will know by November about acceptance into the program
• Elizabeth Scott Wellness – Made it into the finals of the Leavitt Foundation grant
  • Baker needs to be in the top 50
  • Over Sept 15, 2025
• Fall Festival Pumpkin Paintings
• Keynote speaker – Vaughn –  Montana Nonprofit Association
• Visit SE Montana – Meeting here on Sept. 25
• Tourism Grant – $2.7 million grant – will come up in November
  • Will try to form committee – Sept. 29 at 6 pm at Senior Center
  • Comprehensive plan for the county
  • Could use $1 million for expansion
  • Good timing to expand the museum while the Teddy Roosevelt museum is expanding (next year)
• Montana Nonprofit Association – Oct. 22
  • The director is coming and will help people go over books

New Business 

• Night at the Museum – October 26!!!
  • Diary of Ellen Brandt – They were trapped at Powder River Station – couldn’t leave because Fritz hadn’t arrived – 13 years old – Ava Goerndt
    • Got it from the North Dakota Historical Society
    • Link to her diary
  • Walter Vandervoort – 1st convicted murderer in Fallon County – 1918
    • From Ismay – killed a guy on Shaw Ranch
    • Grave is in Ismay – Sentenced to 10-20 in Deer Lodge
    • His niece is Roger Gevings’ mom
    • Rumor because he was actually covering for his brother
  • Clara Mercer (made up)
    • Homesteading presentation for 6th graders – 18% of homesteaders are single women – kids thought that was interesting.
    • Telling the story of a single woman homesteader
    • Edna Collie and others – a character composition of seven different women
    • Will have a program with the stories they are based on 
  • Supper? – Chili and buns with bars, with a free will offering
• Affiliate member of Montana Performing Arts Consortium
  • Helps book artists, speakers, and performers for tours around the state
  • October 10-12 – the annual showcase in Great Falls is when performers perform
  • Live-action dinosaur group

Old Business

• Peggy Smith Collection
  • Monday afternoon, Thursday, or Friday for pickup
  • Tabled until the Historical Society can have a say.
  • Possibly Sept. 15, 2025 at 2:30 pm
• FY 2026 budget – All approved, including extra hours for Traci

Next Meeting:  October 13, 2025, at 4:00 pm

Adjournment: Curt adjourned the meeting at 5:10 pm.

_______________________________ __________________________________

Curt Williams, Chairman     Recording Secretary, Linda Rost, Trustee