March 12, 2023,
Greetings to all Retro Metro OKC members and supporters!
Over the past year I’ve been looking at what direction our group should take moving forward. When we organized in 2009, it was because the founders of our group did not feel like the existing local history organization, the Oklahoma City/County Historical Society, was a good fit for our interests. We had different priorities and wanted to roll up our sleeves to better share, tell and promote Oklahoma City’s history.
Our accomplishments still amaze me. We built a website and put together collections of photos, documents and various media that now number in the thousands. We’ve literally rescued materials, notably the Hale Photo collection, from destruction and recorded history before the witnesses to that history passed (Jose Coit, John Belt and more).
The diversity of our membership and supporters has been demonstrated throughout our existence. It gave us the connections and resources needed to carve out and preserve the Frisco and Rock Island logos that were carved into the rail viaduct that was torn down to make way for the new Interstate 40. Those logos are now on display at the Oklahoma Railway Museum.
In another collaboration with the railway museum, we set up a historic display at the Chickasaws’ Exhibit C gallery in Bricktown. We also obtained a $5,000 grant from the Inasmuch Foundation to build a stable base for the I.M. Pei model that allowed it to be brought back out on display.
We’ve had a great run. Our annual holiday parties featured legend John Ferguson and yet another featured food from beloved old eateries (Herman’s slaw, Delores special sauce).
Our group has always been one where we had plenty of folks wanting to be the worker bees, but we’ve long been short on leadership. And as I’ve gotten older, and as I’ve faced growing pressures of a newspaper industry in crisis and raising two boys into adulthood (kinda sorta), I’m less able to multi-task in a way that provides the leadership this group deserves.
Thanks to Marc Weinmeister, our books are in good shape and I’m told our 990s have been filed each year.
So where do we go from here?
I’ve been in discussions with Pete White, past president of the Oklahoma City/County Historical Society for the past year about a possible merger. The group is vastly different from the one we dealt with a dozen years ago. The old shrinking membership and leadership is largely gone. The last of the old leadership, Bill Welge, has resigned and is moving to Texas.
They have a stellar board, one of strong leaders that include familiar faces and members of our group. They include Frances Kersey, Marva Ellard, Pete White and John Michael Williams. The board also includes Cathy O’Connor, former assistant city manager who most recently was president of the Alliance for Economic Development of Oklahoma City, and history authors Anita Arnold and Bob Burke.
This is a blue-collar board consisting of people I trust. The board president is county commissioner Brian Maughn, someone I’ve known for at least a dozen years and someone who is quite capable of reviving an organization that was founded by people who share our values and passion for local history.
I’ve visited with fellow Retro Metro OKC officers Marc and Jack Money and they support this possible merger. In presenting this idea to the Oklahoma City/County Historical Society, Frances summed up well how these two groups can create something bigger together than separately.
They have leaders, but are short on members. We have members and supporters who like being “worker bees” discovering and scanning old photos and documents, visiting historic places and listening to great speakers.
I remain committed to our mission. I can and will tap into my vast network of acquaintances and friends to come up with visits of historic places and talks with witnesses to our history. What I’m hoping is I can provide these contacts for others to arrange logistics and scheduling.
Pete and Marva are assigned to work with me on how best to wrap up Retro Metro OKC operations. I am entering into this discussion dedicated to keeping the spirit of Retro Metro OKC alive. My proposal, up for discussion by our members and of course the city/county society, is to keep the brand alive on the website with the addition of the wording “A project of the Oklahoma City/County Historical Society.”
I am a terrible fundraiser. I hate asking for money. The city/county historical society has a healthy endowment that provides the group with sufficient annual interest payments to cover its expenses, including web needs.
Their website is organizational. Our website has content. My priority in any merger would be assuring that the Retro Metro OKC website is maintained for as long as the city/county historical society operates.
I also want to get us back into working with historic materials and getting them scanned to add online. We have a great revamped website. I will be asking the city/county society to consider expanding the contact with the web designer, Ralph Miller, to upload our collections – at least in the short run.
Rachel Mosman, former head archivist at the Oklahoma History Center, has agreed to rejoin the city/county historical society and, if there is agreement on this, to oversee scanning sessions and uploads. It’s my hope that she will get established enough and we won’t need Ralph doing the uploads for long.
As I mentioned before, the city/county board has members who are longtime supporters of Retro Metro OKC. I will propose the merger include adding two more seats and if all agree on it, that those two seats go to Rachel and myself. Both Marc and Jack have indicated they support this proposed arrangement.
As for membership dues, the city/county historical society asks for $35 a year, not much more than our suggested $25 a year.
In the next couple of weeks I will schedule a meeting of our group to see whether I am to be authorized to negotiate and draft and agreement with the Oklahoma CIty/County Historical Society.
Please feel free to call me at (405) 740-4139 or email me at slackmeyer@oklahoman.com.
Sincerely, Steve Lackmeyer, president, Retro Metro OKC