Roswell Museum Board of Trustees

Board of Trustees Meetings Meeting Minutes August 18, 2014 @4:00 pm RMAC Director’s Office MEMBERS PRESENT: Rey Berrones , Melinda Gonzalez, Miranda Howe, DeAngela Velasquez, Tom Tutor, Bill Siders, Joyce Tucker and Peggy Krantz. MEMBERS ABSENT: Lorrie Miteer. Olga McGuire OTHERS PRESENT: Michael Hall, Deborah Melencon, Claudia Gonzales, Sara Wodbury and Larry Connelly. OTHERS ABSENT: Jamie Barnes. CALL TO ORDER: 3:59pm APPROVAL OF AGENDA: Peggy Krants moved to accept the agenda and Miranda Howe, seconded: all were in favor and the motion, motion carried without dissent. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: July 21st 2014, Bill Siders moved to accept the minutes, Melinda Gonzalez seconded: all were in favor and the motion carried without dissent. No corrections or amendments were made to the minutes. PRESIDENTS REMARKS: President Joyce Tucker opened with greetings to the Board and reported back on the issue of the Foundation Board Kentucky Derby ticket refund. Discussion took place on the role of RMAC Trustees to the Foundation Board. Peggy Krantz, Rey Berrones, Miranda Howe and Michael made comments on what would be best to represent the Museum for future endeavors. Board of Trustees made motion to oppose action of Foundation Derby Raffle ticket refund. Motion, 2nd and carried. FINANCIAL REPORT: Deborah Melencon, Bookkeeper provided the report on finances and expenses to date, Store sales profit. Debra stated Revenue goes to the city and RMAC has received no increase in budget line in several years. Debra and Bill clarified to Peggy that whatever the city has taken in it divides it across the departments. Discussion of committee members approaching City for more funding from the city. Michael suggested we first wait till end of fiscal year so that we can demonstrate how much Michael has been able to increase Museum revenues. This will strengthen case for asking for additional funding. MEMBERSHIP REPORT: Olga McGuire was absent due to family leave and could not provide membership report but update will be given in September. . DIRECTORS REPORT: Michael presented his end-of-summer report. He stated the Alien Costume Contest certainly marked the highpoint of our summer activities. Michael noted individuals from states as far away as Florida participated. He said any local residents enjoyed both the human and animal costume contests as well. In conjunction with that event, Michael reported the Robert H. Goddard Planetarium reopened with a new director, Marcus de Thouars, and provided many special shows for the UFO Festival participants. Michael is planning a special open house for the media and coordinating support for Tom Burris and Mayor Kintigh which will be held on Thursday September 11th from 5:00 to 6:00 pm. Michael announced the Planetarium now continues on an ongoing schedule. He reported since opening over 2,000 patrons have enjoyed a family-oriented educational experience at the Museum’s many science and space shows. Michael reported that attendance for the Museum exhibits has soared as well this summer. Michael stated that by giving greater attention to electronic media sources is a priority for our new Curator of Education, Claudia I. Gonzalez. This summer, he said, began a whole new initiative in marketing and upgrading of our ability to utilize electronic media. Michael stated that Claudia has significantly helped the Museum promote programming in recent weeks and in addition to that has helped him catch-up on a very large backlog of paperwork related to the class contracts. Michael stated that this is something the education office, prior to Claudia’s arrival, was not properly up-to-speed on. Michael stressed how important it is to keep up on City paperwork and that he intended to never let it get so out of hand again. Michael said the HR department stressed this when they were involved in interviewing and selecting Claudia and Michael stressed this is a big reason she is working out so well as the new curator of education along with the fact she has a wide variety of skills the museum has not previously had which include bilingual fluency and a very wide array of computer skills. Michael thanked Claudia and the Curator of Collections and Exhibitions, Sara Woodbury, for making the timely completion of the Fall Class Schedules and Newsletter so effortless. Michael commented that in his six months here, this is the first time the Class Schedule and Newsletter were actually completed on time and posted as well on the website which Michael explained Claudia has now been trained to do in-house. . Michael also highly stressed that our new Membership Coordinator, Olga McGuire, has greatly assisted in increasing membership levels and is mastering the oversight of our important events. He said the RMAC programs and events are truly an attraction not just for local residents but also for families from all over the state and region. Michael explained that illustrative of this is our recent hosting of a New Mexico Tourism Department press conference this summer held by Governor Susan Martinez. He said the Governor complimented the RMAC for being a vital resource, assisting New Mexico’s increasing tourism growth for a third consecutive year. Michael said following the press conference the Governor took an hour-long tour of the Museum. He said her office has actually been working with the RMAC to secure the temporary loan of a number of representative pieces from our collection to display in the public viewing areas of the Governor’s residence. Michael said during the Governor’s tour of the RMAC, the Museum’s Clay studios received very high praise. Governor Martinez, he said, enjoyed talking with our chief instructor, Aria Finch, who the year before had received the Governor’s Excellence in the Arts award. Michael said great credits go to the RMAC staff for guiding Governor Martinez through the many key areas of the Museum. Michael detailed for the record that this summer at the RMAC had another amazing Roswell Artist-in- Residence Program which featured contemporary art by Michael Beitz. He said these rotating shows are a very important partnership with the artists of the Roswell Artist-in-Residence Foundation. He explained supporting partnerships is a big part of what the Museum does and he thanked the partnership with the RMAC Foundation for facilitating an important donation to upgrade the Goddard Exhibit cases this summer and for receiving a recent donation for upgrades to the Rogers and Mary Ellen Aston Collection of the American West. Michael thanked for the record the RMAC Foundation Executive Director Cindy Torrez for her constant assistance in coordinating with the Museum. Michael said our summer art classes for both children and adults were another high mark. He said these classes served important needs and were very well attended. Michael stressed even with the confusion of Meredith’s unexpected departure Claudia has done an outstanding job putting the fall schedule together in such a short time and he stressed that he and Claudia greatly appreciate Miranda and Elaine Howe’s assistance as well as that of Nancy Fleming. Michael also presented the staff reviews: STAFF EVALUATIONS PRESENTED: Performance Reviews of New Staff Two Month Performance Review Claudia Gonzalez: This is a two month performance review of the new Curator of Education Claudia Gonzalez. Since beginning work at the RMAC Ms. Gonzalez’s performance has been outstanding. She has quickly become acclimated to all areas of the operation at the Museum. Claudia has become very active in learning and observing the functions of all the class instructors available to date under her department. The former Curator of Education, although very well liked, left a very large backlog of unfinished paperwork and uncompleted instructor contracts. Claudia has quickly sorted out the confusion and corrected the tardiness of all the necessary paperwork in her department. She has also brought an amazing talent of media and marketing promotion that the Museum has never had before which has in a very short time increased attendance and participation in educational programing. She has come up to speed very quickly on the duties related to tours, volunteer coordination and the coordination with the educational components of the reopening of the Planetarium. Her bilingual skills and contacts in the Hispanic Community have been a tremendous help to the staff and the Museum. Both the quarterly Newsletter and Class Schedule publications came due in the wake of recent staff vacancies however Claudia picked this massive task up without skipping a beat and did an excellent job completing both publications. I have worked as an executive director of four accredited museums over the past thirty years and I find Claudia Gonzalez one of the most capable and talented staff members I have supervised. She is an exciting addition to the RMAC and brings important talents and abilities to her position. One Year Performance Review Sara Woodbury: This is a one year performance review of the Curator of Collections Sara Woodbury. Since beginning work at the RMAC Ms. Woodbury’s performance has been extremely commendable. She has actively become involved in all aspects of the operation of the Museum and is one of the most important team members on staff. She has learned a great deal about researching and presenting exhibits. Currently Sara is working on a three year exhibition plan for the Museum which was not in place when she or I came into our positions. I look forward as the executive director with my thirty years of museum management experience in making Sara an important part in the new department structure of the RMAC. Three Month Performance Review Olga McGuire: This is a three month performance review of the new Membership Coordinator Olga McGuire. Since beginning work at the RMAC Ms. McGuire’s performance has been commendable. She inherited an extremely disorganized state of affairs in her department which was left by the former Membership Coordinator. In a very short time span she turned a very disorganized situation around and has not only increased membership levels by 20 percent over last year’s figures, but has mastered many of the events under her job description. As the Executive Director I find her my most valuable administrative support staff person. She has brought tremendous organizational talent to the office based on her two decades of experience in the medical records field. I cannot speak more highly of her performance and urge measures to find a way to make her pay scale more competitive which is barely above minimum wage. Michael Hall Executive Director RMAC Joyce Tucker President Board of Trustees RMAC OLD BUSINESS: Discussion of donation by Betty Peterson. Each piece was discussed by Sara Woodbury, Curator of Collections. Motion to accept donation by Rey Berrones, second by Bill Siders. Motion carried. NEW BUSINESS: No new business discussed. . UNRELATED BUSINES Miranda Howe suggested that the phone recording be rerecorded and updated. Motion to Adjourn: Peggy Kantz moved to adjourn and Melinda Gonzalez seconded. All were in favor and none opposed. The Meeting adjourned at 5:45pm. Respectfully submitted, Claudia Gonzalez, assisting in absents of Olga McGuire, Membership Coordinator