Friends Updates & Reports

Ron Dieter named 2019 Volunteer of the Year

Ron Dieter was named Volunteer of the Year for the T.C. Steele State Historic Site. Ron volunteered 42 hours during the 2019 year. His volunteer efforts centered upon gardening, but also he helped with events such as the Great Outdoor Art Contest and Holiday events at the site. Ron has a real “can do” attitude including helping setup events, traffic control, visitor hospitality and post-event clean-up. In short, he contributes his talents in any way needed! 

Ron’s other interests include American history, politics and traveling with Gwen.  They especially like Scotland, Ireland and all over in the US.

Members may like to learn that Ron and Gwen lived in an 1890’s farmhouse in Owen County for 30 years before their move to their current home, a log cabin just 4 miles from the historic site.  T.C. Steele was born in Owen County, in the town of Gosport, Indiana. 

Please join us in congratulating and appreciating all that Ron has done through his volunteer work at our site, as well as recognizing the support Gwen has provided Ron in his volunteer commitment!

House Enrolled Act 1014

We communicated to you in our letter dated April 3, 2020 the outcome of HEA 1014 (State Museum and Historic Sites Corporation). The 121^st General Assembly voted in favor of House Bill 1014. The bill was signed into law on March 25, by Governor Eric J. Holcomb. The digest version is below, or you can read the complete act here on the Indiana General Assembly website.

Digest

State museum and historic sites corporation. Specifies that a memorandum of understanding between the chief executive officer of the Indiana state museum and historic sites corporation (corporation) and a nonprofit organization that supports a specific state historic site may not include certain restrictions on the fundraising activities of the nonprofit organization and certain operations of the nonprofit organization. Requires the corporation to return certain donor restricted funds to a nonprofit organization if the funds are not used for a donor’s specified use in a historic site project.

New Board Members

We are excited about two new board members who have joined in 2020.

Betty Wagoner has rejoined our board and will be chairman of the annual Member Art Show, which moves into its 9^th year in 2021. Betty has served on the board prior to her return in 2020 and has been involved in several key initiatives such as improving our member data base into Salesforce and Mailchimp. Betty graduated from Indiana University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in fine arts and taught art in public schools. She also received a Masters of Library Science from the University of Illinois and was a professional librarian for 18 years in New York City.

Ben Steele has joined our board and will serve as treasurer. Ben graduated from Indiana University, Kelley School of Business where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree. He also holds a Master of Business Administration from Indiana University, Kelley School of Business. Ben is chartered with the challenging assignment of building a financial operating model for the 501c3 and preparing us for GuideStar Platinum Seal of Transparency.