Upper Midwest Society of Steinologists

Rich handles auctioneer duties at the UMSOS White Elephant auction

 Vee records the sales

May 15, 2010 Henry called the meeting of the Upper Midwest Society of Steinologists to order at 4:45.

With the Gophers trouncing Purdue 39 to 11 in the background --yes, who would believe that,--  President Henry called the meeting to order just before 5:00 on Saturday afternoon March 13.  Assembled were:  Ann, Wayne and John, Fred and JoAnne, Kern, Linda, Maggie, Rich, Randy, Vee and Bill, George and Terry and Elaine and Henry . The minutes from the last meeting were approved as printed in the newslettter. 

Linda gave the treasurer's report, we have $1026.75 with $30 just received yet to deposit. Two of our newer members have renewed their dues so we hope that we will see them at an upcoming meeting. Linda did a count of our total paid membership and we have 41 members which is very good.  Fred noted that we have enough to vote at the convention.

Old Business:  Henry said that members should check out our fine web-site.  Also the SCI webmaster would welcome acticles about a favorite stein and SCI would also like people to write articles for Prosit. 

There were some questions raised about the September meeting as our hosts may have a scheduling conflict and a conflict with the convention date.  We spoke about a back up plan. 

Fred and JoAnn have invited our group to join with the Milwaukee chapter for a weekend in Potosi near Dubuque.  This would be on August 28th for a  tour of the brewery there and a talk on Breweriana.  This could be an extra event for everyone or perhaps our September meeting as well. It is limited to the first 47 people to sign up aand the cost is $40 per person for dinner, a tour and talk and various momentos.

Kern suggested another alternative would be a brewery event right in St. Paul. at the Vinpark Brewery.  This was described as a group event where people actually make a batch of beer and can return in two weeks time to bottle it. There are lots of good restaurants in the area for dinner afterwards.

We want to get a speaker for September.  Suggested were: Clarence Riley, Steve Steigerwald, Steve Smith, and David Cantwell.  Henry will contact people to see who may be available.

New Business:  The next meeting will be at CSC Publishing on May 15th at 4PM, hosted by Linda, Kern and new member Kevin.  It will feature our "White Elephant sale".  Members are encouraged to scour around their homes to find some interesting things to sell. It need not be a stein or even stein related.  We were able to raise quite a bit of money for the club the last time we did this.

The SCI Convention is September 8-11 at Myrtle Beach,  with a theme "Crab Some Fun".  Register before May 31st to save $25.00.

Les Paul also talked about a joint meeting with the Iowa people and perhaps that can be worked out for July.

Terry raised some privacy concerns and it was agreed to use first names only on our web-site.

JoAnne made a motion to adjourn the meeting and it was seconded by Kern.  Then members talked a bit about the steins they brought for "show and tell".  Kern showed the Mettlach stein he got on Ebay for $31.00.  Ann found a stein from the very first SCI convention in New York City in 1967, Linda had a unique glass stein with a little dog on top that was carved from an antler, JoAnn shared a butterfly stein and a couple other pieces with a butterfly motif and Fred had an array of spa steins.  Randy brought the magnificent eagle stein from the 1993 convention and Henry shared a most unique Prussiar stein, a beautiful glass piece with a horseman on top.  Yours truly shared a stein about shuhplattler --German folk dances.

We then all went upstairs to enjoy a wonderful chicken and wild rice dinner with the great side dishes contributed by members .  Thanks Henry and Elaine for the wonderful meal and for hosting the meeting.

 Maggie and Linda pieced together the following minutes for the short December meeting.  Thank you so much.

In attendance for Christmas Party:

 Excellent service, delicious food and beautiful setting.  Brief meeting.  We set the meeting places for the rest of the year and we are deleting November which means we will have a brief meeting at the Christmas party.  Henry and Rich gave short reports on the Las Vegas convention.  Henry and Elaine provided door prizes and the only person that we can remember winning a prize was Kern Hough. 

Meeting places were scheduled for the whole of 2010 and it was decided to not have a meeting in November as it is so close to the Christmas party and the hunting season causes attendance to be very low. 

March -- Henry and Elaine Reiss with host at their home in Golden Valley.

May-Kevin, Kern Hough and Linda Cress will host at the CSC building and will feature a white elephant auction.

September --Marty and Lee will host at their lake home in Wisconsin and we will get a speaker.

December--Rich and Maggie will host the annual Christmas party at their home

The September meeting of the Upper Midwest Society of Steinologists was called to order by Henry Reiss at 5 pm.  Henry welcomed everyone and passed around an article in the Beaver Dam newspaper "The Daily Citizen" that featured Fred and JoAnn Ellis and their stein collection.  A short round of applause was given by the members for this web-site.  Duly embarrassed but pleased that people enjoy the site---I said I would note it in the minutes...so here it is.

In attendance today:

Lee and Marty Rickard, Fred and JoAnn Ellis, Wayne and Ann Girard, John Pearson, Kevin, Donna and Norman Lorentzsen, Linda Cress, Arlen and Claudia Anderson, Betty Dean and Jack Hensel, Henry and Elaine Reiss, Terry and George Kelzer, Richard Indritz and our hosts Rich and Maggie Cress.

Old Business:  Further discussion of the possibility of a mini-convention and of a white elephant auction.  It seems there may not be a lot of interest in doing a mini-convention at this time.  The white elephant auction seems a possibility as most remembered it as a fun time the last time we did this.  And a good club fund raiser too.

How many are going to the convention.  6 hands were raised.  JoAnn will be featuring her early morning water aerobics again as well.  Fred reported that at last count 175 people were signed up for the Las Vegas convention.

Treasurer's report from Linda:

Balance at May 2009 meeting was 934.30.  Credit dues deposits of $40.00.  Debit: Les Paul, speaker $300.00, credit reimbursement from SCI $300.00, debit to secretary for postage $17.60, leaving an ending balance of $956.70.

New Business:  The Christmas Party.  No final decisions yet.  Gary and Beth had checked out the Radisson and they need a $850 minimum to rent the room.  The money would be applied toward food and beverage but we need to have at least 25 people come and last year we only had 16 so we agreed to check some other places should we end up with a small group again.  Ann suggested a place in Lilydale and she will check that out and Maggie will check at W.A. Frost in St Paul and Henry will check on the Winzer Stube in Hudson.  All mentioned places that have smaller rooms available to rent.

Terry noted that she had used up all picture space on the club web-site and requested (somewhat after the fact) that she be allowed to up-grade the site from 460 mb to 1000mb for an extra $50 for the year.  She was most relieved that the group was heartily in favor of her doing so.

Talk turned to getting a consensus on who the group might be interested in having for a speaker for next year.  SCI offers a reimbursement to clubs for taking advantage of the knowledge of other members to provide interesting meetings for the group.  Also Ann  who is hosting the November meeting would like to have a speaker for the next meeting in November.  Any ideas contact Henry.  If all else fails we can do a video from the SCI library--but most agreed an in person speaker is always more interesting.

Fred announced that the Wisconsin chapter is considering holding another joint Minnesota/Wisconsin meeting in Potosi Wi next year and this would occur in either June or August.

Next years convention is in South Carolina.

Ann and Wayne  and John  will host the club in November on the 14th and Ann will be serving a beef main course and she is requesting people bring fall foods as an  accompaniament.  She would also like to start  at 5 pm.

Henry called for the meeting to adjourn, seconded by JoAnn and Elaine.  Rich gave a talk on Sarrengueminnes and showed many interesting examples of both steins and plates that the factory on the border between France and Germany made. And then we enjoyed a wonderful dinner of Brats and ribs and all the delicious side dishes and desserts and most started heading home by 8pm.

 submitted  by secretary Terry Kelzer on 9/15/09

The May meeting of the UMSOS was held at the home of Linda Cress.  It was held on May 16th and it was one of our best turnouts ever.

Those attending the meeing on Saturday afternoon were:

Gary  and Beth ,Janet , Steve and Linda , Henry and Elaine , Randy , Fred, JoAnn and Max , Rich , Linda , Lee and Marty , Kern , Ann and Wayne , John , Geri  (Linda's neighbor)Donna and Norman , Dick  and friend Jenny, Larry and Mary , Kurt  and friend, Kurt from St Cloud, Betty  and Jack , Dave and Sharon , Les Paul and Tucce, George and Terry .

The meeting opened with welcoming new members Larry and Mary  from  Clive  Iowa.  We also gave a special welcome to Les Paul and to Executive Director of SCI Dave Bruha.

Treasurer Linda reported funds on hand of $934.30.

Old Business:  The Las Vegas Convention --if you haven't registered do so now.

A reminder to all to pay their SCI dues if they have not done so.

There was a brief discussion of JoAnn's article on butterfly steins for the SCI stein of the month.

Rich talked to Andre Ammeloux about an auction for the spring mini-convention.

New Business

New members are a priority!

Henry suggested articles in local papers or displays at local libraries could be a way to find people with an interest in this area.

Next Meetings.

Fred announced that Les Paul will also speak at the June meeting of the Wisconsin stein collectors.

The September meeting of UMSOS will be at Rich and Maggie's home in Bloomington.

November meeting will be at Ann and Wayne, she advises to enter through their downstairs.

December  is the Christmas party and Gary  will check on the Gast Haus Bavarian Hunter in Stillwater about holding it there.

Les Paul reportedd that on August 15th the 7th annual Heartland Chapter Meeting will be in Okoboji Iowa.

The meeting was then adjourned to listen to Les Paul talk on character steins.

 The March meeting of the UMSOS was called to gether at 5:00pm at the home of Henry and Elaine Reiss.  Present were the following members:  Rich and Maggie , Beth  and Gary , Marty and Lee , Linda , Randy , Vee and Bill, JoAnne and Fred Ellis, Jan Hendrix, Terry and George Kelzer, and our hosts Henry and Elaine.

Minutes from the last meeting as reported in the newsletter and on-line was approved by all attending.

Linda submitted the treasurers report. The balance at November meeting was $1088.56

Deposit of $130.00 from dues.

Espenses:

Christmas Door Prizes $40.00

$169.38 for postage ink and cartridges, card stock and envelopes and labels including set-up of web-site domain name for 2 years and web support.  Also $104.88 for more cartidges, paper, and  postage.  This expenditure was approved by Linda nd JoAnn and all in attendance.

Current balance is $904.30

Old business:

Henry reported that our members donated 61# of food for the food shelf run by Prism at our Christmas party.  

 henry talked about his setting up a table at the Hamm's collectors club "Rally" at the Medina ballroom.  Our informational cards advertising our web-siite went like hotcakes.  And a few folk were interested in the excellent Hamm's stein with a bear on the lid that Henry brought along for display.

New business:

There was some talk about giving presentations about steins to local Kiwanis or Rotary clubs in an attempt to interest more folks in the hobby and in the end to perhaps find more members.  George and Terry will give a presentation to the local German club in Amery, Wi on May 18th.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:45 PM and Henry gave his talk on Cold War Steins.  Afterwards everyone joined Elaine in the kitchen and helped themselves to a  fine baked ham dinner with delicious side dishes.  After lots of visiting, and second cups of coffee  all around -- we said our good-byes til next time and headed for home round 8 PM. 

Minutes

The November 1, 2008 meeting of USMOS was held at the home of Betty and Jack  in Minneapolis.  A small but enthusiastic group enjoyed stein talk and member stories and great food and even some wonderful music provided by our new member Kern .

The meeting was called to order at 5:00 pm by our president Henry . Members present were: Rich , Beth, Kern, Betty , Jack , Linda, Henry and Elaine , and Terry .  We all welcomed new member Kern  to his first meeting.  The minutes of the last meeting were approved as written in the last newsletter with the exception of the treasurer's report which was missing.  Linda submitted the most recent treasurer's report showing a club balance of $1078 plus the addition of one new member bringing our total to $1088. Old Business:  The mini-convention was discussed.  The Sunday auction was very interesting with lots of comments about the featured stein and its huge selling price, such a rare piece it may have been purchased by a museum.  Beth commented about the friendliness of all the folks at the convention and the interesting round tables and home tours.  Home visits and stein talks filled the weekend. Steve's Smith's talk on silver  steins was a favorite that deserved special mention. 

Next up we talked about the Christmas Party.  It will be on December 6 at 4 pm at the Glockenspiel Restaurant in St. Paul.  Maggie needs RSVP's to her by December 4th.  email her at mjohnson@cscpublishing or phone 651-287-5605.

We discussed continuing  our yearly   charitible donation and decided to continue with the food shelf which we have been doing for the last several years.  Non-perishable food may be brought to the restaurant, suggestions were for cereals and flour and baking items (and to avoid canned goods) or a cash donation to PRISM would work too.

Since our Christmas party will be on the very day of our founding meeting 40 years ago we will give out a few $40 door prizes to members.  Must be present to win!

New Business: Henry talked about the need for a club web-site.  I volunteered to work on one.  Beth volunteered to help.

Elections were briefly discussed and without too much arm twisting  the current slate of officers, Henry, Maggie, Linda and Terry agreed to another 2 year term in their offices.  It was noted that Linda has put in more than 11 years as the treasurer, and I will note that she  deserves special thanks from the group for the fine job that she does.  Linda added that next years dues can be paid now and she also collected $5 from everyone for Jack and Betty for the evening  meal.

 Linda will send me envelopes to put in our next mailing for members to return their 2009 dues in.  Linda also printed up brochures about the upcoming SCI convention in Las Vegas in October of 2009.  It was noted that to sign up before the end of the year would save people $50.

Also under new business we discussed meetings for 2009.  March will be at Henry and Elaine's and Linda has volunteered to host the group in May.  September and November remain open.  If you are able to host please let Henry know.

Henry discussed that the Hamm's Breweriana fellow would be happy to give a talk on that subject if perhaps someone from our group could reciprocate with a talk about steins.  Henry said he would speak on Cold War Steins at the meeting in March.

Future programs were discussed and we would like everyone to participate with subjects they would like to learn about or with ideas for specific speakers that they know of, having interesting programs can be a challenge but are an integral part of drawing new members into the club.  Beth suggested that we make one of the upcoming meetings -probably March  a membership meeting hoping each member might be able to bring along someone with an interest in collecting steins. 

Rich  suggested for 2009 that we have another "white elephant auction".  It was a great success last time raising some money for the club and and it was fun too. 

Meeting was adjourned and Rich gave an interesting talk on "Sulphides" and brought to share --two examples that he found at a flea market in Munich.  These were exceptional glass pieces.   The sulphides are opaque white ceramic medallions encased in glass. More info will be available soon and will be posted on this site.

When then filled up our plates in the kitchen and enjoyed a delicious beef brisket dinner with potatoes, salads, bread and bundt cake and a lovely dessert wine.  And Kern sang us some after dinner songs for a splendid finish to a good meeting.

More pictures from the meeting can be found on the photo page.

Respectfully Submitted 11/2/08

by Terry J Kelzer Secretary