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HomeMy WebLinkAbout05/06/1998 - Regular Minutes - Historic Preservation Committee historic Preservation Committee Regular Meeting Cortege Station Conference Center 1300 George Bush Drive Wednesday, May 6, 1998 -- 5:15 p. m. HISTORIC COMMITTEE Bill Lancaster, Chairman; Deborah Jasek, Co- Chair; Elton MEMBERS PRESENT: Abbott; Rebecca Berry; Dennis Maloney; Shawn Carlson MEMBERS ABSENT: Jeannie Miller STAFF PRESENT: David Gerling, Special Facilities Superintendent; Pamela Einkauf, Senior Secretary VISITORS PRESENT: George and Glorianne Rice, Wheelock Press; Anne Hazen, City Council member; Mike Luther I. CALL TO ORDER: The meeting was called to order at 5:22 p.m. by Bill Lancaster, Chairman. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: The minutes were approved as written. 3. HEAR VISITORS: Neither Mike Luther or Anne Hazen had anything to present to the Historic Preservation Committee (HPC). David said the owners of Wheelock Press, George and Glorianne Rice, had been invited to the meeting to answer any questions the HPC may have regarding the printing of the oral history book. 4. ORAL HISTORY BOOK DISCUSSION: Glorianne Rice introduced herself and her husband, George, stating that she'd grown up in the area. She explained that George was Professor Emeritus at the A &M College of Business, and she had been involved in the field of education at TAMU for awhile. She said Wheelock Press had gotten started because their daughter, Jennifer Wiggington, a semi - invalid with multiple sclerosis, had needed a job she could do at home, where she could rest when she needed to. She said they were a small company and still located at their ranch. They began doing publishing about two years ago. They had a contract with Jeff Carroll and were in the process of redoing all of his books. She said they'd also published some cookbooks and a couple of textbooks. She said the HPC had two options. They could have the printing done and do a marketing campaign themselves, or they could go with a publisher. She said that Lang Publishing had done the printing for the Bryan history book, at about $ 10.00 per book. She suggested contacting Betty Foster to see how Bryan handled publishing their history book. She said if the HPC went with a publisher, there would Historic Preservation Committee Page 2 be a contract, and the publisher would be the one setting it up, printing it, and doing the marketing plan. The HPC would want to help the publisher with the marketing by doing some direct mailings and direct advertising, since they would have names of people that the publisher wouldn't have. Mrs. Rice said she had a list of things the HPC needed to do, regardless of whether they went with a publisher or not: a. Need to work on public relations and getting promotion information to individuals. Try to tie release of book in with some historical event going on, either with the City or A &M. b. Media publicity will be needed -- contacting radio stations, TV shows, the section editor of the paper, and managing editors of magazines. c. Reviews will need to be gotten out in trade journals or consumer publications. d. Advertising - the HPC will need direct marketing. This would be with all the people who participated in or expressed an interest in the book. She said for the Bryan book, there was a party and everyone who wrote or contributed to the book was invited. The books were available at the party for everyone to buy. e. Publicity: Probably want to develop a media kit with news releases stating when Jeff Carroll would be available for interviews and create a tip sheet with teaser questions on it. She said Mr. Carroll had been to book signings at each of the Hasting's stores. She said he could also do trade sales, other book stores, the library, and department stores. She said when the Bryan book was finished, there had been a party at the library publicizing the book. She suggested seeing if a group might be willing to offer the book as a premium. She said the Chamber of Commerce sends out a letter every so offen with advertisements in it. They may be willing to advertise the book for a discount. Classified or display ads could also be taken out. An extra 1,000 covers could be made and used for publicity. Put different things on the inside -- order forms, etc. Also the HPC could sell copies ahead of time. e. Copyrighting: Needed to decide how to copyright. To register the copyright one would need to send a couple of copies of the book. The cost to copyright is $20 (until the end of 1998). With the Bryan book, all copyrights rest with the contributors to the collection and no work can be reproduced without the consent of the individual authors. If the HPC uses a publisher, the publisher would be the one to give permission to reproduce the book. f. Underwriting and production costs: Needed to look into whether the City would underwrite the project. The cost would depend on how large the book will be. The City of Bryan underwrote the costs of their book. Dennis asked Mrs. Rice if she thought the book was a good idea and a marketable product that could make money. She said yes, but that like Jeff Carroll's other books, it would be appealing only to Texans. Dennis said he would like to see a 250 -300 page book, and have the HPC work in union with a publisher to support the promotion of the book. Bill asked if the publisher was paid just to publish the book, or if marketing was included. Mrs. Rice said that the HPC doesn't pay -- the publisher is out all of the expenses, and they would set up a marketing plan, but the Historic Preservation Committee Page 3 HPC would have to work on the marketing as well. Mr. Rice added that Wheelock Press would love for the HPC to do as much of the marketing as they could. Dennis asked how many copies Wheelock Press would print the first time. Mrs. Rice said the number would be determined by going through the book, but probably 5,000 copies for the first printing. Elton asked about the layout and aesthetics of the book and what input the HPC would have if they went with Wheelock Press. She said it doesn't bother her that people give their input. She said they had someone that did illustrations for them, but if the HPC had someone in mind that was fine. She said a one -color cover would run about $2.00 each with a $20 set up fee each time one was done, regardless of the amount being run. The HPC would furnish the material that would go on the cover, buy the paper from the printer, and the printer would print, bind, and cut it. She said the cover needs to be attractive or the book won't sell. She asked if the HPC had a particular picture for the cover in mind. David told her no, but that there were a lot of old photographs to draw from. David said the HPC was looking at a soft-back book with a slick cover in a size that wouldn't be intimidating to a junior high student to read. Deborah asked if pen and ink illustrations would be less expensive to reproduce than photographs. Mrs. Rice said yes, but they may not be as good. Dennis asked if it would be possible to sub out the work on the photos if Wheelock Press couldn't reproduce them. She said yes, but only if the photos were on separate pages from the text. Elton said that would be Jeff Carroll's decision, but that it would probably be better to put the illustrations throughout the book. Mrs. Rice asked what the book would be called. Dennis said Jeff Carroll would come up with the name. Deborah said the idea had been discussed of tying the book in with Wolf Pen Creek because the headwaters start at campus and flow out, somewhat like the city has grown. Mrs. Rice stated that anything that's done that includes A &M, has to be done carefully so that a license doesn't have to be purchased. David said the book could be called "Memory Lanes ". Mrs. Rice said she would send David a copy of a standard contract. She said 17% of the full price of the book goes to the author. Wheelock Press pays twice a year, in June and December, and would send the author a statement showing the date the book sold, how much it sold for, and what his royalty is. David asked if the HPC would receive the royalties if Jeff Carroll was paid by the HPC to write the book. Mrs. Rice said yes. She said that the book needed to be proofed before it's printed, preferably by someone other than the author. Wheelock Press would also proof the book two or three times. Wheelock Press would get the ISBN number, send off to get the copyright registered, and send off for the Library of Congress number, since the book would be sold to libraries and museums. There are 382 museums in the State and a lot of them would be interested in the book. Libraries would be contacted as well. Dennis asked how long it would take Wheelock Press to do the book once they received the manuscript. Mrs. Rice said it would take about three to four weeks to do 2,000 copies. If over 2,000 copies were ordered, they would contract the job out with someone who buys paper in bulk. Historic Preservation Committee Page 4 Mrs. Rice said she'd given the committee a good idea of what would have to be done as far as marketing was concerned, She said she'd get a copy of the contract to David for the HPC to look over, as well as do some checking on various things. David thanked Mr. and Mrs. Rice for coming. Elton stated that he had been unable to meet with Mary Lynn Dixon of A &M Press to discuss the book. Shawn asked what the difference would be in going with A &M Press or Wheelock Press. Dennis said A &M Press would have much better marketing, and they would not have to contract the printing out. Elton said he didn't think the HPC would want Wheelock Press to do the printing in -house anyway, because he noticed from the examples they brought, that the text was very Tight. If the HPC went with Wheelock, all it would basically be getting was their marketing expertise /contacts. A discussion ensued as to whether or not the HPC thought A &M Press would agree to publish the book. The members agreed that someone needed to present the idea to A &M Press to see if they would be interested in publishing that type book. If they aren't interested then Wheelock Press would be the next choice. Dennis added that A &M would have a lot of pictures and graphics to choose from, Elton said he would follow through with Mary Lynn Dixon and report at the September meeting. Everyone agreed that there was no urgent rush in making a decision on a publisher. David said the contract between the City and Jeff Carroll to do the book was still tied up at the City's Legal Department. Bill wanted to know if Jeff Carroll would be given all originals of the historic information or if he'd be given copies. Mike Luther suggested giving Jeff Carroll copies of the computer disks with the transcriptions of the sessions. Everyone agreed that he should receive copies, not originals, and that it was a good idea to have a back -up copy somewhere else. 5. REVIEW AND DISCUSSION OF HISTORIC HOME APPLICATIONS SUBMITTED: David said there were four applications to be considered, and Shawn had turned in three of them. She was submitting 903 Francis and 904 Francis, both at the corner of Francis and Munson, and the Carter house just down the street at 908 Munson. 904 Francis is the Culpepper house, and across the street, 903 Francis, is the Zwolinski house. All three are on property once owned by Culpepper, all were built in the fall of 1941, and all are white frame houses which have been kept in excellent condition. Up until 1941, the history of the land and who owned the property is the same for all three houses. Shawn stated that the text for 904 Francis was not complete yet. After some discussion, Elton made the motion to accept all three applications; there was no opposition. All three were approved. David stated that the application for 304 West Dexter had been received prior to the three Shawn had done. He explained that he felt that there should have been more information so he had called the owner, Louis Tassinary; however, he did not have any additional information. Bill stated that Paul C. Manglesdorf had built the house, and he believed it was built in 1932, not 1929. He said that Manglesdorf, a bachelor, had lived on campus with Charles Puryear. In the early 1930's they built the house at 304 West Dexter and moved off campus. He said he had no way of Historic Preservation Committee Page 5 substantiating the 1932 date, Bill stated that he'd Tike to see more information on the house than what had been provided. Affer some discussion the HPC decided that it would be nice to have abstracts turned in with future applications, since it would show all previous land owners. David said he would check into how difficult or expensive it would be to obtain an abstract and where they could be gotten. Dennis motioned to approve the application. There were no objections, and the application was approved. 304 West Dexter became historic home #43; 903 Francis became #44; 908 Munson became #45; and 904 Francis, because the text had not been completed yet, would be #46. 6. OTHER COMMITTEE CONCERNS Dennis asked if it would be possible for the City to put a picture of the historic railroad depot and the words "Eastgate" or "Northgate" on the special event parking signs, instead of the City logo. He felt it would jazz up the neighborhoods. David said he'd pass the request along. Dennis stated that the sign in front of Ms. Mitchell's house in Southside had the City logo on it, and wanted to know if the City had run out of the " Southside Historic District" signs. David said he'd check on that as well. David reminded Elton, Shawn, and Jeannie that their terms were set to expire and they could expect to receive letters and applications to reapply through the mail. Bill encouraged them to reapply. Pam reminded the members that there were no term limits for HPC members. There were no other committee concerns, 7. ADJOURN: The meeting adjourned at 6:52 p.m.