The McLean County Barnologists met March 27, 2003 at the McLean County Farm Bureau Building with an enthusiastic group of some twenty-five in attendance. Visitors from Ford and Mercer Counties were also in attendance to explore ideas for getting "barn initiatives" off the ground in their own counties. New faces from McLean County were also present indicative of the growing interest in barns here.

Business conducted consisted of a report of our treasury which has almost $1,600, of which $1,000 is from contributions toward the 2004 calendar project which will be spent in the next several months. Jim Williams reported for the calendar committee on its progress in raising funds and finalizing pictures to be used. The target date for completion is the county fair where copies will be on sale.

Wally Yoder reported on the National Barn Alliance committee meeting in Chicago in February. Representatives from most of the Midwestern states, as well as New York and some of the Western states, were in attendance. It was most interesting to find that other states are organized from the "top down" with a state-wide organization. Illinois was the only state represented that had a number of counties (12-15) with some barn initiative, but no state-wide coordination. It was therefore decided to call a meeting in September (hosted in McLean County at IAA) inviting all those throughout the state interested in "networking" to meet. The date has been set for September 20, 2003 and committees are at work to develop program and details to be announced later.

Two major events taking place in June will be the "Old House & Barn Tour" sponsored by the Old House society and the 3rd Annual Barn Dance being sponsored by the McLean County Barn Group. In addition to a number of significant old houses on this year's house/barn tour, the original Funk Homestead will be featured along with the beautiful Funk barn. The date is June 7.

The 3rd Annual Barn Dance will be held the next week, June 14, at the Burroughs barn just north of El Paso. A specific mailing with directions, and details will be distributed later along with information given at the next Barnologist meeting May 8. The "Tater Patch String Band" will again provide the music. Bring a friend and enjoy the event as well as see what another family has done to preserve one of the barns of our heritage.

One of the issues we continue to raise is how to 'formalize' a structure for our "McLean County Barn Group." While at the National Barn Alliance meetings, we asked for by-laws and some organizational materials from what other groups have done. Wally Yoder has received some of those and will be heading a taskforce to explore some type of structure for our group.

In order to help people fix dates for our barn group meetings, the steering committee recommended setting regular dates for our group every second Thursday on a quarterly month basis.. The schedule of 2003 will contain the following meetings: Thursday, May 8 at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, September 11 at 7 p.m., Thursday, November 13 at 7:30 p.m.

At the March program, Ron Ropp highlighted "Different Types of Barns." The May 8 program will feature "The Many Resources Available on Barn Issues."

Hope to see you at the next Barns Group meeting, Thursday, September 11, 7:00 p.m. at the Extension office.