The annual meeting of the Columbia Historical Museum’s Board of Directors will be held Monday, January 13, 2025, at the museum located at 247 East Brazos Avenue in downtown West Columbia. The annual meeting, which will begin at 5:30 p.m. Monday, is open to the public and everyone is invited to take part.
Featured in the annual meeting will be a look back at the happenings and highlights of the year 2024 at the museum, a discussion of the projected budget for the museum in 2025, and installation of the new slate of officers and induction of five new board members.
Christina Matthews and Misty Congdon will be taking over as the museum board’s president and vice president in 2025, replacing longtime museum board members Naomi Smith and Barbara Stubbs in those positions of leadership. While recording secretary Tracy Gupton and corresponding secretary Pat Weeks will return in those positions from 2023 and 2024, Jo Frances Chastain will be assuming the role of board treasurer from Betty Blackmon in 2025.
Betty, who celebrated her 90th birthday last year, will remain a museum board member in 2025 and plans to continue serving at the West Columbia museum as an assistant to the museum’s curator Michael Bailey. A retired Brazoria County Museum curator, Bailey is beginning his third year of association with West Columbia’s museum, which is located in the former home of First Capitol Bank on the corner of East Brazos Avenue and Broad Street.
The five new board members who will be added to the board at Monday night’s annual meeting include Dianne Holleman, Scott Leopold, Alma Spears, Charley Tindol and Callie Venable. Leopold was involved with the Columbia Historical Museum in the early days of its formation, Tindol is a former West Columbia City Councilman, Spears a former Columbia-Brazoria school board trustee, and both Venable and Holleman were formerly involved with the West Columbia Chamber of Commerce.
Returning in 2025 as Columbia Historical Museum directors will be Betty Blackmon, Adrian Copeland, Korey Langford, Freddie Matthews, Jana Ogilvie, Dietrich von Biedenfeld, Smith and Stubbs.
Light refreshments will be served and everyone is invited to attend Monday’s annual meeting of the museum board at 5:30 p.m. For more information, contact the Columbia Historical Museum at (979) 345-6125.