Meeting Archives..
Since it is the nature of Sherlockians to be Irregular, the accounts of past meetings will be likewise irregular. As we cull past records, we will have reports of meetings of the past to ignite memories. However, we will primarily try to offer summaries of current meetings so that those who missed them may capture what they have missed and those who attended can enjoy the pleasure of recallArchived Meetings
- Annual Meeting Report 2011
- Annual Meeting Report 2010
- An Illustrious Client Meeting
- Annual Meeting 2008
- A Case of Identity Moments to be Remembered
- The Master’s Birthday
Annual Meeting Report
October 22, 2011Present: Janice Lerrigo, Meredith Wilder, Jeanne Davis, Ruth Olsson, Sara Groesch, Sue Lewis, Nancy Schoerke, Jerry Handspicker Chuck Putney, Linda Putney, Bettenell Miller, Don Miller, Jack Leavey, Norma Leavey, Robert Ebert, Melissa Hepler, Liz Fenwick, Mike Fenwick, Sally Sugarman
After a number of toasts including to our “fallen” comrades Judith Fellows and Bob Sugarman, the meeting got underway.
1. The Cookbook
As we do most years we talked about the cookbook which we assigned to Jeff Bradway. Sally reports that when he finishes his book on the Colonial Theatre which should be by the end of December, he will get underway with the cook book.
We talked about why the cookbook and who was it for. Janice thought for members a loose leaf binder could do. Or we could put it on the website. The original idea is that we would have all sixty stories with menus, recipes and quizzes for each story. Sally has saved all of the group’s quizzes over the past twenty years. As for illustrations, Jeff was going to try and get Laurie Manifold to do the illustrations.
2. The Conference Proceedings
Sally will complete the Proceedings of the Conference by the end of the year. The price of the book in advance will be $19.95 and after the printing it will be $25.95. There will be a $5 shipping charge.
We need to take orders in advance to pay for Mountainside to print it since the company lost money on the publishing of the Sherlockian plays The number of advance copies needed would be between 200 to 500.
3. News
Chuck reported that Joe Cutshall-King was in a Barber Shop Quartet competition. The aim is to get to the finals in Tucson.
4. The Schedule for Next Year
January - Birthday Celebration - Bob and Sally Sugarman
February
March - Don and Bettenell Miller -Movie Night
April -
May - Jack and Norma Leavey
June Jeanne Davis and Bruce Wheat
July - Pool Party- Bob and Sally Sugarman
August - Ruth Olsson
September - Meeting with Goose Club and Upper Valley Club in Chester
October - Annual Meeting - Sue Lewis
November - Robert Ebert and Melissa Hepler
December - Christmas Party and Play - Janice and George Lerrigo<
5. Meetings
Janice asked about the Upper Valley Club and what they do. They meet at five pm, usually in a public library and members present papers. It is not a food meeting, although there are light refreshments.
We will have signing up for people to read a brief passage at each meeting. Jerry volunteered for November and Chuck for December of this year. It was also suggested we might want to have Victorian music at our meetings. The idea of seeing early films was suggested. The Millers who have the best set-up for movies will do so in March.
Any one who wants to review books for the newsletter, contact Sally since she is getting books from publishers who want them reviewed.
6. Old Business.
We have implemented some of the suggestions from last year and are always open to new ones. We have 78 members on our Face Book page. Sally urged all of those not on our page to join.
Annual Meeting Report
October 16, 20101.- The meeting was relatively small, twelve people, but with many good ideas. Other ideas that people who were not at the meeting may have are welcomed. We talked about the structure of the meetings, the newsletter and the website. People signed up for hosting meetings. February is free as a month to host and perhaps June. I am going to check with the Goose Club of the Alpha Inn and see if we can get back to having brunch with them during June. If that doesn’t work, we will need a host. We try to have the meetings on the second or third week of the month.
2.- I reported that Bruce Wheat was working on creating a video of The Sign of Four. At this point, he is looking at about seven different versions.
3.- Robert suggested that at each meeting, someone read a favorite passage from the Canon; not too long, not more than five minutes and share why they liked it. We would ask people to sign up for a reading. Robert will start us off in January and Chuck will do February. The rest can contact me and let me know what month you would like to do. We finished our third reading of the Canon with Shoscombe Old Place. We will start again but whether we do in chronologically or with Baring Gould’s chronology was not decided. Let me know which you would prefer. However, we have always varied reading the stories with other activities. We could read a short pastiche, cook British food one night, compare the Holmes series with other detective series either written or on television or the movies. House was suggested and we reminded everyone that we had a fine paper doing that in our book of the conference. We also have Bob’s paper on pastiches as well in that book. We encouraged people to present papers. We also could do some activities that we have done in the past such as a Murder Mystery, charades, board games. Bob Carter has said he would do his power point presentation on Alcohol in the Canon (which will also be in our book. Chuck wants to save those papers for the book). If there is any Holmes play in the area, we will, as in the past, make plans to attend it as a group. Judith suggested that it doesn’t necessarily have to be a Holmes play. We might see if there are any mystery plays in the area that the group would be interested in attending, combining it with a dinner out. Judith also suggested that the Museum do more mystery movies. I noted that Scott Kreutz was trying to set up something for the winter at Mount Anthony Country Club and that a question was on the questionnaire that I had sent everyone and had gotten only one completed. Everyone said it was too long. So I will post a question from it on the Facebook page and our website forum on a regular basis.
4.- Moving on to the newsletter, Mike suggested that we have a crossword puzzle in the newsletter. Sue suggested that we be in contact with Mystery on Main Street about their special events. I noted that I spoke with the owner and that he was on our mailing list and that he might write some mystery reviews for us. We also have a link on our website to the store’s web page and that I had noted information about it the current newsletter. Liz suggested we might ask Northshire as well in terms of reviews or special events that had mystery writers involved. Being in touch with bookstores in the area in terms of mysteries sounded good and I will contact them and ask if they ever want to write reviews of mysteries for our newsletter or web site. Sue also thought it would be good if we could post information about other scion societies in the newsletter. Maybe set up a pen pal sort of arrangement. We do have links to other scion societies and web sites about the larger Sherlockian world on our website and I will work on developing more.
5.- We then talked about the website and our Facebook Group page. We have 41 Friends on our Group page, 29 of them are from out of the area. We would like more of our members to be on the Facebook page. Liz suggested that when we have a story, we post information about different tours available or have photos or other supporting materials for the stories on the website. Since the newsletter only comes out four times a year and is devoted primarily to articles, up to date information can be found on the website and on Facebook.
Again ideas about any of these topics or anything else are always welcome. Our next meeting is at Robert Ebert and Melissa Hepler’s house on November 13. We also reminded everyone not to miss the new Sherlock Holmes on October 24 at 9 pm on PBS.
An Illustrious Client Meeting
February 20, 20101 - The meeting started off with the usual toasts, with special ones for friends who were not there, some because they were ill and some because they were in Costa Rica. A special toast to Jeffry for having an article accepted by the Baker Street Journal and to Sally for becoming a BSI.
2 - After our usual delicious dinner, we had a business meeting. We have sent out 120 letters about the conference and asked people to take envelopes with notices to send to people who might be interested in attending. Sally suggested that if we get teams for Bowling for Kids Sake and the Oldcastle Brain Quest, we wear T-shirts with the conference logo. That logo is also going to be used for the Season of Mystery as well. We talked briefly about the Reading Series at the Bennington Free Library that Jeffry and Sally will be giving on the Victorian Roots of the Detective Novel. We also decided to post a chat room on our website, with members saying they would use it more than they would the section on Facebook.
3 - After that, we addressed the story of The Illustrious Client. The questions led to some lively discussion. Don Miller, who couldn't be present because he and Bettenell were ill, had raised the question of why Holmes brought Kitty Winter with him to Gruner's. Bruce asked why Holmes took Gruner's threats so lightly and was unprepared for the attack. Others wanted to know why Holmes hadn't told Watson to read Gruner's book. We discussed who the illustrious client was and why he was so interested in Violet de Merville. Jeff came up with a brilliant idea that he is going to expound upon in the next issue of our newsletter. Marc had a picture of George Lewis who was an actual attorny and he is also going to write it up for the newsletter. The deadline for the newsletter is March 10 and our next meeting is March 20 at the Millers. Bob Carter is going to present a paper on The Art of Detection at that meeting.
4-Desserts as usual were fabulous.
Annual Meeting
November 11, 20081 - The Gasogene explained the operating expenses that the annual dues covered. There is the maintenance fee for our Web site, postage, Xeorxing of the newsletter and other materials. The dues are $10.09 for regular members and $6.00 for associates. Both figures have Canonical references. All members should be aware of their meanings, as well as why we have our annual meeting in October. The quarterly newsletter comes with both types of membership.
2 - Suggestions for the coming year included a trip to the Valley of Fear location in Pennsylvania. The Carters have done this and could be our guide. Sally also talked abut the Conan Doyle symposium that will be held at Harvard's Houghton Library on May 7 to May 9, featuring a host of interesting speakers including Andrew Lycett, Leslie Klinger, Daniel Stashower, Peter Blau and Michael Whalen. There will be an exhibit of rare books, manuscripts and ephemera besides the presentations. This is to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Doyle's birth on May 22. We will keep members informed and hope to get a group going to the event. There was also the suggestion for a costume night.
3 - We decided that we want to finish our cookbook, which will also include quizzes from the stories. This could be a free book we give to the conference participants. It was also suggested that we have a dinner from the cook book. Currently, we have thirty-one recipes, but they only represent about ten of the stories. We will compile a list of the recipes and stories and send them to members.
4 - Chuck reported on the Conference, explaining that we are still in the planning stage although the format of the Conference is set. Bennington College is co-sponsoring and we have had meetings with various people on campus, including the librarian and the event planner. Don Miller has also been working on supporting events in the community. We will be part of the June Arts Festival. We also plan to have some events at the Public Library. There were a variety of suggesstions for the Conference including sculptures downtown of Holmesian characters. At the least, we might have Holmesian or Victorian displays in store fronts. Ther might be a dog parade. We could have the Hounds of Bennington. We could also have high tea at the Park-McCullough House. We will ask Don to talk to Joann Erenhouse or Lindy Lynch who is the Chamber's liaison for the conferene. Victorian music programs were suggested. Chuck indicated that the committee was thinking of that for the conference.
5 - The location for our meetings are set through January 2009. Starting in February, 2009, we will try to set up a second Saturday of the month schedule, but allow flexibility in terms of holidays. We will try to work out a schedule for the year, so members should look at their calendars for the new year and let the Gasogene know what month they would like to be a host and whether the second Saturday works for them, or is another Saturday would be better. June and July are already programmed for the brunch meeting with the Goose Club of the Alpha Inn in June and the annual brunch pool party in July. If a large enough number sign up for the Harvard trip, that would be the May meeting. We reserve the right as Irregulars to be flexible if some great opportunity arises in terms of something special. We also agreed to try out 6:30 p as out meeting time, starting with our November meeting at the Putneys.
Of course, we welome any other suggestions from members in terms of activities or themes for the meetings. Although our basic structure is to read a story and discuss it with questions, we have had different types of meetings in the past and are always open for new and exciting ideas.
A Case of Identity Moments to be Remembered
February, 1999This was a great evening. Some old friends returned and we welcomed a new one. We happily welcomed back Bernie Arbour and Mary Beth and Carrel Moore whom we hadn’t seen for a while and welcomed Janis Young, who was thrust for the first time into our merry group. The house was full, but the slipper was not. Carrel and Chuck were on too good behavior, though we did catch a few unexpected fines. As for Rich with his tinted glasses and beard, we had some questions about his identity. Chuck showed commendable enterprise by including music into one of his questions. We encourage initiative of all sorts and props are acceptable, but no deadly pronged objects, please. We were happy as always to get the latest special edition of Groans, Cries and Bleatings.
In a vain effort to bring some regularity to our irregular proceedings we came up with several schedules. Save this, so in case there are changes for some reason, you can become indignant.
Saturday March 13 - Fairly obvious from this invitation
Saturday, April 10 - The Sugarmans
Saturday May 8 - The Seitz(s) Brattleboro
Sunday, June 13 - Victorian Inn-Wallingford-with Goose Club
Sunday, July 11 - Sugarmans Pool Party
Saturday, August 28 - Annual Picnic-Rich -Nethercott Hall Keene*
Saturday, September 11 - The Putneys
Saturday, October 9 - The Moores
Saturday, November 13 - The Sugarmans
Saturday, December 18 - The Lerrigos*
*Okay, consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds or something like that. Summer holidays lead to the August change. For December, we all enjoy the Lerrigos’ freshly cut tree and being more fully into the holiday season.
Next schedule is our opus The Politician’s Son. Carrel is next, then Ruth, then Mary Beth, then Janice, then the Gasogene and then Rich will conclude it as only he can.
Any other schedules for anything can be developed in the March meeting.
The Master’s Birthday
January 6, 1999Since the night was snowy and it was the middle of the week, we had last minute cancellations and people with other meetings. The group was small, but the evening was pleasurable. One of the achievements of the evening was that I was able to use our new scanner to print up the menu rather than my usual cut and paste job.
Gregory was resplendent in white tie and tails and Brenda was also suitably attired while the rest of us, having forgotten that we had talked about dressing formally for the birthday and not having been reminded by the gasogene, were our usual informal selves. The guests we invited did not appear although one called to say she had a migraine and I assured her that we would invite her for February.
As we talked it became clear that we need to have minutes or a report of our meetings to keep everyone informed and to remember what we say from one meeting to the next. At our last meeting we had agreed that our gatherings would be on the second Saturday of the month. Chuck raised the question of what happens when the gasogene is out of town or out of the country was will happen in September when Bob and I plan to be in London for the raising of the Sherlock Holmes statue. Although the matter was not decided, in thinking about it, I would suggest that the meeting be held but that no one but the gasogene has the power of the slipper and fines. (I have to keep my power somehow and will arbitrarily rule such to be the case.)
Another idea was that we have some of the questions included in the newsletter with some summary of the discussions since they are always interesting. Gayle has finished her section of The Politician’s Son and is forwarding it to Gregory for the next installment. We will provide an updated roster for everyone. There was some discussion about whether we would continue our brunch with the Goose Club of the Alpha Inn in June or substitute a dinner at Green River Inn in Sandgate. This does not have to be either/or. At our February meeting, I would like us to set the schedule for the year, recognizing that last time we did it, there were confusing revisions which is why the second Saturday meeting was suggested. If we deviate from the second Saturday rule, as we may need to for the cookout in August, depending on what is good for Rich, we need to stick with the schedule we develop. The Stoddards would like to have us meet at their house in April or May. One of the ideas that came up last year was that we have meetings out of town every other month rather than in succession. We are limited somewhat by the weather which is why we tend to travel in the summer. However, we can make a schedule of where and when the meetings are going to be and give it to everyone so that plans can be made. Therefore, if you want to host a meeting, let me know.
On these various ideas we need everyone’s opinion. If you can’t make the February meeting, please let me know how you feel about these matters. You can even send in your questions. Stephen e-mailed his. I know Ruth feels this discriminates against people without e-mail but telephones and snail mail are equally as good in giving feedback. Another idea I had this morning was to have a member responsible for the story each month. That person could do background research or whatever. For example, if I had been responsible for The Five Orange Pips, I might have showed a clip from The House of Fear which is a Hollywood retelling of the story, one of the Basil Rathbone pictures. We would all bring in our questions as usual, but this would add depth to our discussion. As for The Five Orange Pips there was division among the members as to whether it was good enough for them to agree with the Literary Agent who placed it sixth among twelve on one of his lists of his favorite stories. Some felt the story was too ambiguous, had a good beginning, but an unsatisfactory ending. Others felt that was part of the story’s appeal. We all speculated as to what Elias Openshaw could have done to have the Klan after him since he was in agreement with them. Had he stolen money as well as the list of papers implicating important Southerners? Why was the vengeance visited upon his heirs? Interestingly, this is one of several stories about vengeful Americans; A Study in Scarlet, The Red Circle, The Valley of Fear come to mind. When one thinks of the portrait of foreigners in the Canon, we American Cousins don’t come off much better than the tempestuous and fiery women or the conniving Baron Gruner or illiterate Beppo. Include Abe Slaney from The Dancing Men and we have a fine portrait of obsessed and violent Americans. Hatty Doran’s husband is the best of a poor lot. He only absconds with the bride. One of the joys and the strengths of the Canon is the opportunity it provides for an examination of motives and methods. We look forward to another stimulating discussion this month.
Bring along a friend. The Putneys have been particularly good at expanding our membership. Let’s all emulate them. Please call whether you are coming or not to let us know your views.
I was about to sign off with Orson Welles’ great phrase, Your humble and obedient servant, but I truly am Your not humble and not obedient Gasogene.
