Secretary’s Report: Regular meetings were held on the third Wednesday of the month in the Crawford Conference Room at the Abbott Museum. The membership list was updated and the newsletter sent out in May.

Treasurer’s Report: Donations from the newsletter are $1,120.00 from 42 donors. Special donations for the Abbott Museum total $1,850.00. Donations were made in memory of Lorraine Gilbert, $1,670.00, Jud Wark, $500.00, Emily Robinson, $80.00, Harry Harrington, $25.00 and Doris McKenney, $10.00.

Director’s Report: The railings on the ramp at the Abbott Museum were repainted this summer. The lower floor rooms have had ceiling tiles installed in the remaining rooms, three wood floors were refinished, and the walls have been primed/painted in the remaining rooms.

The Grist Mill office section was jacked up with new pilings installed. The Millers House furnace had its transformer replaced.

Museums: The Grist Mill opened on June 16, 2008 and closed September 27. Attendance was 1463. Michelle Chapman and Jana Kenney shared intern duties. The Key Club helped clean prior to opening and held a special “Visit the Museum” night. A display was mounted honoring the high school class of 1958 and the new acquisitions case was updated. Two new signs were added to the Dexter Bottling display. A home school group toured in August and Curator Whitney brought his five school classes in the fall. Attendance at Wild West Days was very good, and we assisted two vendors and the Debbie Myers concert with electrical hookups.

The Abbott Museum hosted an exhibit of watercolors by Rosemary Waller in February. The Jewett family loaned John Jewett’s drum set and photos for an exhibit during the summer. A display on the Lancaster/Russell family was mounted in the Lancaster Reading Room. We held our second discussion series with the topics: Dexter Shoe, the Bowlaway, Winter Sports, then and now, Scouting, then and now, with exhibits for each meeting. Shop sales in 2007 were $17,649.00 with over $8,000.00 so far in 2008. We had an Open House on December 15 and held the gift basket for the DRDC raffle.

Merchandising Committee: This committee was set up to do some reorganizing in the shop after a stock inventory was done by Peter Prescott and James Greehey. They applied for and received a grant from Wal-Mart for $1,000.00 to build a new checkout counter.

Acquisitions: In 2007 we received and cataloged 97 collections, in 2008 we have 73 so far. Items of interest include trophies and his baseball glove from Dick Barstow, Dexter Shoe training videos, wooden sign and pair of bowling shoes, scrapbooks from the Field family, old group photos of four of the original Abbott brothers and wives, items from the Corbin family.

Genealogy and Research: In 2007 there were 99 recorded queries, with 61 so far in 2008. Information about Dexter Shoe was provided to television reporters on the death of Harold Alfond. Letters from veterans of the 6th Maine Regiment (Civil War) were placed in plastic sleeves and photocopied. We purchased a copy of the minutes of their association meetings, 1881-1899, from Fogler Library. Genealogy information was exchanged about the Cobb, Hoyt and Additon, Bickell, Cloutier families. Other information exchanged led to visits from Pettingill, Girrell, Clark and White descendants. We also assisted drop-in researchers with Wood/Weymouth, Smart, Roberts/Ogden, Haseltine, Tapley/ Thompson, Ganeau/Leo/Pouliot/Dulac family information.

Curator Whitney brought his History of Maine class to do an archeology dig next to the Abbott Museum on the site of a boarding house. Other students came to do their cemetery project research.

Publications: A sales page for books was placed on our website.

Outreach: Regular press releases were printed in local papers and we had a report in the Town Report. There were posters and press notices for each of the discussion meetings. The archeology dig garnered TV coverage by Ch 2 and several newspaper articles.

Rick Whitney attended the dedication of the Alfond Highway and we donated funds toward the new flagpole at the library. We raised the amount of our scholarship to $200. The Mid-Maine Association of Historical Societies no longer participates in the Expo.

We received a grant, written by Frank Spizuoco, from the Quimby Foundation for $43,600 to create a new Bert Call touring exhibit with prints done by Todd Watts. Dave Mallett used Call photos in the jacket of his new CD inspired by the words of Thoreau. The earlier Call exhibit was again set up in Greenville for Thoreau-Wabanki Days in July.

As usual, many different types of activities have been pursued this year, adding to our knowledge, our facilities and awareness of our presence in the community. The lower floor of the Abbott Museum will be ready for furnishing with displays and opening to the public by next summer.