2/9/26 Meeting Minutes
Attendees: Catti, Chris, Adam, Matt, Aaron, Cindy, Dave, Rich, Lynn, Steve, Ben, Ann, Bob F., Hubert
Brag bucks:
Lynn – granddaughter Katie had a baby; now has 14 great-grandchildren
Bob F. – Super bowl winners: Lynn and Adam x2; ISU men won, ISU gymnastics cancelled season due to injuries; hosting Chamber coffee on this Friday
Adam – accepted position for executive director of CCGP; starts next week; in current role for 27 years but excited for change
Club news:
Speaker update provided by Adam
Speaker: Charlie Nixon – previous owner of Coon Rapids Enterprise
- Former member of Coon Rapids Rotary
- Ran Coon Rapids Enterprise for over 40 years and his parents ran it before he did
- Enterprise went completely digital in 2002
- When he sold it, he became concerned about what would happen to all the images he had on negative/film, so he didn’t sell those with business.
- UNI created the first photo pan in the U.S., so Charlie has been working with them to upload all the photos and negatives that he has to their website.
- People will be able to upload photos/comments as well once they create their own username/password.
- Charlie has uploaded a couple of thousand photos already and still has over 5K to go.
- Timespan goes from 1910 until 2002 for photos/negatives and then from 2002 until 2024 everything is digital to be uploaded.
- Main street director, Katie Mason is the one that pointed Charlie towards UNI to get this project going.
- Cost of the project is approximately $32K and that is based on the number of photos that will be uploaded.
- They are actively seeking contributions to go towards the completion of the project and need approximately $11K to get it completed.
- Many local donors have contributed around Coon Rapids.
- All pictures are high resolution.
- <6 towns have used this process to digitize their files.
- Website to see the pictures: www.fortepan.com
Next meeting is Monday, February 16th from 12-1 PM at Piranha Club with Grant Wells from Wells Ag Supply as our speaker.