The Warren County Historical Society’s annual meeting offered a report card about its business in 2017 and named its board of directors for 2018. 

The 2018 returning board members are David Avis, Roger Held, Angie Hilbert, Alan Kimbel, Roger Nierman and Jan Watkins. They will be joined by newly elected board members, Marilee Barry, Jerry Prouhet, Walter Schroeder, Teresa Scott and Jana Todd. 

Outgoing board members are Jeff Hoelscher, Guy Schreck, David Schomberg, Roxie Schroeder and Jan Sutherland.

The new board takes office in January. At that time a new executive board will be decided. 

All board members can serve up to six contiguous years. 

Schreck, current board president and outgoing board member, presided over the annual meeting. It was held Oct. 26 at the Warren County Historical Society Museum, 102 W. Walton in Warrenton, with about 20 members in attendance. 

Schreck said the museum, which operates with volunteers and donations, is financially stable. 

He noted numerous achievements and improvement during 2017. Among them, he included a successful completion and grand opening for the Prominent People of Warren County exhibit, the showing of several temporary exhibits, upgraded display cases, the addition of cataloged artifacts and building improvements at both the historical Schowengerdt House on Main Street and at the museum.  

Schreck said volunteers undertook research requests from people in Warren County and throughout the United States. 

Schreck, who is term limited, volunteered at the historical society for seven years, six of them as a board member. When he first joined, it had been given a Hummel/Sonoma grant worth about $200,000. Part of the money was used to reorganize and furnish the office, workroom, research room and update the library. He designed the layout for the areas, and he helped organize and design exhibits and seasonal decorations.

“(Schreck) has been an asset to the board because of his leadership as president and his creative talents,” said Hilbert. “(He) is able to look at the possibilities for a display and take simple items to enrich the exhibit in such a way that you will be in awe of what you see and experience.”

Hilbert said Schreck leaves the board of directors at the end of the year, but he is not leaving the historical society.

“He plans to continue volunteering at the museum and sharing his artistic gifts,” she said.  

Schreck’s goal was to improve aesthetics of the museum to draw more visitors. 

“I believe in the ‘wow’ factor. I want people visiting the museum to be able to look at a display or exhibit we created and go, ‘Wow!’ ” Schreck said. “That’s when I know we succeeded in reaching our audience and gave them good memories to take home with them while learning about the history of Warren County.”

The museum added a collection of portable walls, display cases, platforms and a variety of display modules for showing artifacts and collections.

“My personal goal has been to have several professionally designed displays in the  exhibit areas, so when we don’t have our own special exhibits up, there will always be interesting things that help tell the history of Warren County for visitors to see,” Schreck said, 

Projects he helped start and are in progress will continue. 

“So far, we have two permanent exhibits, an interactive map in the planning stages, and, in the near future, possibly two or three more exhibits for which we already have grant money available,” Schreck added.