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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES MINUTES OF THE AUGUST MEETING OF THE OSHKOSH PUBLIC MUSEUM BOARD (August minutes were approved at the September 1, 2011 board meeting) The regular August meeting of the Oshkosh Public Museum Board was held on Thursday, August 4, 2011 in the Sawyer Library of the Museum. Board President Eugene Winkler called the meeting to order at 4:00 p.m. The roll was taken: Present: Ms. Drew Absent: Ms. Moldenhauer Mrs. Fenrich Mr. Haffeman Mrs. Kujawa Mr. Metz Mr. Moore Mr. Rego (came into the meeting at 4:03 p.m.) Mr. Winkler Also present: Museum Director Brad Larson, Assistant Director Michael Breza, Auxiliary President Barb Shirtz, and Brenda Hauber recording the minutes. Mr. Winkler designated Ms. Drew and Mr. Moore to fill the vacancies of Ms. Moldenhauer and Mr. Rego. The minutes of the July 7, 2011 meeting were read. Carol Fenrich moved that the minutes be approved. Carol Kujawa seconded the motion. There was no discussion and Mr. Winkler called for the roll call vote: In favor: Ms. Drew Opposed: None Mrs. Fenrich Mr. Haffeman Mrs. Kujawa Mr. Metz Mr. Moore Mr. Winkler With the vote unanimous in favor the motion was passed. The minutes of the July 7, 2011 board meeting were approved. A change in the order of the meeting took place: moving the request to use up to $500 from the Collection Fund for the conservation by Barry Bauman of the portrait of John Hicks ahead of the approval of the bills. Mr. Larson explained that Barry Bauman had submitted his invoice for this work in the amount of $325. The approval of this work should take place before approving the bill listing. During this discussion, Mr. Rego came into the meeting. Mr. Moore volunteered to relinquish his voting ability to Mr. Rego. Carol Fenrich moved that the board accept the proposal from Barry Bauman in the amount of $325 for the conservation of the portrait of John Hicks. Gary Haffeman seconded the motion. There being no discussion, Mr. Winkler called for the roll call vote: In favor: Ms. Drew Opposed: None Mrs. Fenrich Mr. Haffeman Mrs. Kujawa Mr. Metz Mr. Rego Mr. Winkler The motion was passed with a unanimous vote in favor. The proposal from Barry Bauman was approved to be paid from the Collection Fund. The board then reviewed the August 2011 bill listing. Ron Metz moved to approve the August 2011 bill listing. Diana Drew seconded the motion. The bill listing was then discussed. At the conclusion, Mr. Winkler called for the roll call vote which went as follows: In favor: Ms. Drew Opposed: None Mrs. Fenrich Mr. Haffeman Mrs. Kujawa Mr. Metz Mr. Rego Mr. Winkler The vote was unanimous in favor and the motion was carried. The August 2011 bill listing was approved for payment. The next item on the agenda was the discussion of the final report from AECOM. Mr. Larson led this discussion. He pointed the key findings of the report: Operations are constrained by the facility itself Local resident market is relatively small, but regional market is moderately sized Estimated attendance potential is 49,000 to 79,000 people The required operating budget would be in the range of $2.1 M Annual income based on 49,000 visitors would be in the range of $580,000 The difference would have to funded by tax levy and other sources Mr. Larson began by explaining that he had met with City Manager Mark Rohloff to review the results of the AECOM study. The result of that discussion was that a workshop with the Common Council would be premature at this point, and that additional tax levy funding for the proposed expansion was not realistic at this time. For that reason, it was recommended that we review options and focus efforts on increasing attendance and building additional sources of revenue. Board discussion followed. Continuing, Mr. Larson stated that over the last few weeks he reviewed alternatives developed with EngbergAnderson Design Partners in 2007, done prior to the decision to develop a full expansion. He said he would present each of those options, but stated that in reviewing them, he believed they were not cost effective and would not meet our needs. Option 1. Create a small loading dock to the west that used the existing passenger elevator. This modification would result in the loss of 150 square feet in the Lecture Room. Also enclose the exterior porch, replace failing or inefficient parts of the existing mechanical system, and develop a replacement design for Wetlands & Waterways that was fully interactive. Option 2. Expand the museum by 5,000 to 7,000 square feet with more public space at the entrance, a small expansion of gallery space on first and second floors, additional archival space on the ground level, and a freight elevator. It would include a new energy-efficient mechanical system. However, questions about the west bearing wall would have to be addressed first. These building changes would be accompanied by a new parking lot designed for better safety and access, and a small courtyard. Both Wetlands & Waterways and Memories & Dreams would be replaced based on a modified, scaled-down version of the 2008 exhibit master plan. Option 3. Start over on the design, but do so from the premise that the 1982 Steiger Wing would be completely demolished so that a new design would not have to work around the limitation of the wing. This concept was initially rejected because it would be difficult and expensive to totally demolish the Steiger addition. Option 4. This alternative was not addressed by EngbergAnderson in 2007 and it was unknown whether it was feasible. This option would explore whether it was possible to construct and operate the EADP expansion in phases. Among the issues pointed out with this option is that the archival research center, temporary gallery and loading dock, along with staff work areas and collection storage, would not be including in the first phase. The loss of the temporary gallery would impact income, as well as result in the relocation of the archives. Discussion of each option followed. The Board asked Mr. Larson for his recommendation and he offered his opinion that the first two options were simply not feasible and would constrain future building changes and demands. He believed that the EADP design is sound and for that reason, option four should at least be investigated. Discussion followed and the Board concurred. Mr. Larson was directed to discuss this option with Mr. Rohloff. In addition, the Board wanted to act on replacing the parts of the existing mechanical system that were identified as being at risk of failing. Mr. Larson said he would do that, as well as submit capital improvement requests for those projects that have been awaiting a decision on whether the museum would pursue the expansion concept. After some discussion, Rick Rego moved that the museum explore alternative #4 with 2012 Capital Improvement funding including looking at other possible options. Carol Fenrich seconded the motion. Following a brief discussion, Mr. Winkler called for the roll call vote which went as follows: In favor: Ms. Drew Opposed: None Mrs. Fenrich Mr. Haffeman Mrs. Kujawa Mr. Metz Mr. Rego Mr. Winkler The vote was unanimous in favor and the motion was passed. The board requested that Mr. Larson explore option #4 with possible alternatives. The following item on the agenda was the discussion of the draft policy for undesignated bequests. The board read through the policy and discussed it. A couple of wording changes were suggested. The final version of the policy will be an item on the September 2011 agenda. The next item on the agenda was consideration of utilizing the Collection Fund for the conservation of the museum’s full body whitetail buck mount. It is in need of conservation before it could be placed on exhibit. Simpson Taxidermy has provided an estimate of between $600 and $650 for this work. Mr. Larson requested a motion to allocate work up to $650 for this project. Ron Metz so moved and Rick Rego seconded the motion. Mr. Winkler called for the roll call vote: In favor: Ms. Drew Opposed: None Mrs. Fenrich Mr. Haffeman Mrs. Kujawa Mr. Metz Mr. Rego Mr. Winkler The roll call vote was unanimous in favor and the motion was passed. The board authorized up to $650 for the conservation of the whitetail buck mount based on an estimate from Simpson Taxidermy in Winneconne. Mr. Winkler then asked Mr. Larson to present his Director’s Report. He began by reporting the large success of PotterFest. 8,780 paying visitors attended the event which resulted in $44,953 in admission revenue and $23,549 in store sales which was a big boost to the revenue side of our budget. In addition to the paying visitors there were many members and children under 6 who are not charged or tracked. This attendance number exceeds the total paying visitors for 2010. On July 31, the last day of the event, there were over 700 people here and a couple of times staff had to suspend accepting admissions because of overcrowding. This event made it evident that we can and should explore new methods of using the museum as a community resource. The three actors we had were a huge addition to the visitor experience and well worth their relatively small cost. The next exhibit Bling! is scheduled to open on Saturday, September 10. Installation should begin soon and should go smoothly because of the lead time staff had to prepare. The plan for 2012 exhibits at this time only includes Coffee, Tea and Chocolate. However, we are moving it back from the February opening because it is too close to the closing of Bling!. Instead Bling! will continue into the winter of 2012. And in conclusion Mr. Larson announced that the new Curator of Decorative Arts is Sharon Clothier, former curator at The History Museum in the Castle in Appleton. Mrs. Shirtz then presented the Auxiliary Report beginning with the fact that 23 members donated pies for the “Pie Off The Porch” event on July 10. The Auxiliary is also working on the plans for their anniversary. There being no further business before the board, Ron Metz moved and Gary Haffeman seconded that the meeting adjourn. Mr. Winkler called for the voice vote which went as follows: In favor: Ms. Drew Opposed: None Mrs. Fenrich Mr. Haffeman Mrs. Kujawa Mr. Metz Mr. Rego Mr. Winkler The voice vote was unanimous in favor and the motion was passed. The meeting was adjourned at 5:34 p.m.