Summary of FoFTSP meeting held at 1:30 pm Thurs. Sept. 25, 2025 and follow up with TRHP
carte...@aol.com
Attached in Microsoft® Word format and below is the summary
Here is a quick summary (such as it is) of our FoFTSP meeting held at 1:30 pm Thurs. Sept. 25, 2025 In FTSP Conference Room / Gift Shop Building. If you lack the time to read through all of this, the key take aways are we appreciate all of our dues paying members and volunteers and encourage others to both volunteer and stay current with dues and donations as able.
For our recent leadership meeting.
We again struggled to make zoom function (more on that in our follow up meeting notes appended below) but we were able to communicate with Jim via audio.
1:30 PM Called To Order by Cliff
Who thanked all who are active contributors including those in attendance. In addition to our normal group, Atty Linda M. participated. Also, Joyce brought along a new enthusiastic member (I will check my notes for her name and contact details.) She attended with 2 children; we were pleased to have a new enthusiastic participant.
The Meeting purpose was: 1. listen to leader accomplishments AND what could be done with more resources; 2. discuss our major event , namely 250th celebration 1776+250 = 2026 with focus on what do we want to do and do we have the resources to do it. Four of us attended a follow-up meeting with the TRHP on our 250th celebration.
STANDARD REPORTS some by Zoom? (as appropriate some sent in electronic version of reports)
• Welcome to our monthly leadership meeting, Cliff
• Park Supervisor News, Brian reminded us of several items including that some seasonal staff will be kept on until mid October to meet park needs; he is working with Boston productions for equipment upgrades, he praised Roger for leading docent efforts for visiting school groups and visiting cruise ships who come over to FTSP for well over an hour. There are some floating dock and environmental remediation projects that are being worked on, some of which will need bonding to complete. Brian is on top of these. Whereas the fort elevator was thought to be fully functional, Roger pointed out that recently it was out of service. Brian took note. There is an electronic display in the visitor center having to do with the attack of FT and retreat to FG that Brian and the state will work to get fixed before our 250th celebration.
• History advisor, comments on some options for CT250.org, Roy in preparation for this event and a planning meeting with TRHP following our FoFTSP meeting spoke of the recently completed and delivered (with the help of Roger) diorama in the FTSP visitor center lobby; he also discussed an original copy of a British magazine publication of our Declaration of Independence. Before the board authorized money to frame such a device, Roy agreed to get more information and cost estimates on appropriate framing for this historical artifact. Linda provided a lead for Roy. I believe that Roy may have mentioned another historical item also in need of some type of framing.
• Park Electronic Infrastructure Improvements, Aldo B. was absent.
• Treasurer’s Report, Joan discussed her treasurer's report previously emailed out and we had a quick discussion on two different insurance policies and reached a consensus that both were necessary and complimentary.
• Ramparts & Minutes (we continue to seek a replacement for secretary), Mary Ellen was absent (I saw her later on Saturday, and she apologized for missing our meeting and explained that she was dealing with a large number of family health issues.
• Gift Shop, Kathy (absent) / Joyce gave a report and introduced a new volunteer (whose name and contact info I am searching for but as of this writing haven’t found.). Later Joyce encouraged Blair to reach out to Kathy about getting modern methods to make purchases in the gift shop; indeed I believe that there has been some email communications begun.
• Publicity, June was absent
• Membership, Blair commented on his previously submitted electronic report and asked for guidance which the board gave to continue to explore cashless purchases both for membership and for the gift shop, albeit these may be two different systems with PayPal for membership. There was some technical questions that Blair was asked; I believe he is beginning to work with Kathy.
• Social media marketing initiative, Blair explained some of the progress and also need to coordinate with Joe L. who was absent. We have had some folks join our Friends Google Group and that is good but a couple of them attempted to post things irrelevant to our Friends Group (or at best highly tangential to our interests); they don’t seem to be members but maybe potential new members. New members are good.
• FoFTSP new Web Site status update, Joe L. was absent; I hope that we will get Joe L. back involved with our Friends efforts.
• Member at large comments, Alan G. absent
• Member at large comments, Jim G. participated via zoom audio and said he continues to reach out the CGA to coordinate with volunteers their who helped us with an oceanographic display in the visitor center
• Vice President comments, Ira suggested that someone try to connect with zoom and learn more about how it should work with our computer.
• TRHP (Thames River Heritage Park), Roger R. will attend with 3 others an upcoming meeting immediately following this meeting
• Docent status update, Roger R. explained we have been successfully covering many folks visiting FTSP including cruise ships.
Old Business:
https://america250.org/ national. Or for state https://ct250.org/, Roger R. et al. will go to meeting later
New Business:
Postponed was a discussion of election and or re-election of officers and leaders of the board
No other suggestions ??? … make sure all volunteers are heard …
Picked TIME for next leadership meeting: 2 pm Thursday Oct 23, 2025.
We finished about 2:50 hard cut off in prep for 3:00 pm for some follow up with TRHP re ct250.org
At 3:00 pm 4 of us (Brian, Roy, Roger and Cliff) moved to the other room for a meeting of the TRHP, Brian had provided the space, Roger is our normal rep to the meeting (along with several other important roles that he fulfills). I still am learning about how they operate and interact with other state parks (in particular, is there one state government worker for TRHP or only volunteers, for example.). It was an excellent meeting and in addition to everything learned an discussed, they finished in about one hour meeting our needs. They were most interested in how we could collaborate and leverage what we and they might do. Of technical interest was that they made zoom audio and video work for 3 remote participants (unlike our earlier failure) and even were able to restore zoom with only a few minute interruption. Well done. They suggested a focus on Freedom but later a consensus morphed Freedom into Independence. For FoFTSP Roy articulated much of what we had to offer including our soon to be framed British news replica of the US Declaration of Independence. Also our FTSP visitor center light display of the attack of FT and then the retreat to FG and the subsequent attack by the British on those at FG. The TRHP folks had some good ideas, some of which would require at least some effort at FTSP: things like a passport to be stamped or a virtual version. A question was raised about whether we might do something on 7/4/2026. Groton was perhaps doing a picnic after a parade in Groton. While Groton seemed well represented, I don’t recall an explicit representative from New London. Should we do a trivia day or evening? There was some talk of doing something special on CT state park open house day … was it Saturday, June 13 just prior to Flag day, Sunday, June 14, 2026 or on Flag day. Ideally FoFTSP would have a small contingent sub-committee of volunteers to coordinate and interface with TRHP on our mutual 250th celebration efforts. The meeting adjourned shortly an hour after it started. They sent our minutes that I will forward separately.
Regards, Cliff
G. Clifford Carter
Replies to G.C.C...@IEEE.org will forward to my current email
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