Roswell Museum Board of Trustees

Board of Trustees Meetings Meeting Minutes September 15, 2014 @4:00 pm MEMBERS PRESENT: Rey Berrones , Melinda Gonzalez, Miranda Howe, De Angela Velasquez, Bill Siders, Joyce Tucker, Peggy Krantz, Lorie Mitteer and Jamie Barnes. MEMBERS ABSENT: Tom Tutor. OTHERS PRESENT: Mayor Kintigh , Michael Hall, Deborah Melancon, Larry Connelly and Randall Syder. OTHERS ABSENT: None. CALL TO ORDER: 4:00pm. APPROVAL OF AGENDA: Miranda Howe moved to accept the agenda and Peggy Krantz seconded: all were in favor and the motion carried without dissent. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Minutes of August 18, 2014 reviewed. Corrections were made to August 18 minutes. Bill Siders moved to accept the corrected minutes, Lorie Mitteer, seconded: all were in favor and the motion carried without dissent. PRESIDENTS REMARKS: President Joyce Tucker opened with greetings to the Board and discussion of Committee assignments. She said she will continue to work on Committees in next few weeks. Miranda Howe and Peggy Krantz discussed issue regarding Community Members policies and Rey Berrones commented on chair appointed to committees. FINANCIAL REPORT: Deborah Melancon, Bookkeeper provided the report on finances and expenses to date. MEMBERSHIP REPORT: Olga McGuire reported on continued steady increase of membership levels. She reported on total attendance of visitors which included Locally 380, Out of State 369, NM visitors 112, Out of Country 21. This accounted for a total of 2,523. The Planetarium included 1,189 in attendance and 76 in tours for total attendance of 1,470. DIRECTORS REPORT: Michael reported that we have posted the Registrar position for a second time. He stated the first search, which went national, produced only two applications of poor quality. Michael said it is being re-posted through early October now. He stated the intern that the Historical Society had this summer, Jessica Kindrick, has a very impressive academic background in Museum Studies and is believed to be applying for the posting. Currently, she is teaching in Las Cruces at the University but Michael said she represents at least one good application that he knows of that is coming in and she is a local resident which is a big plus Michael feels.  Michael has had two recent meetings with Larry Fry and the new HR director in recent weeks. He also met with the Mayor. They all assured Michael that even if he does absolutely nothing with the assistant director's position it will not be eliminated because it takes too much paperwork to do that. The position is not going anywhere no matter what happens Michael reported. Michael said he is, however, going to do his best to raise some salaries because Olga, for example, is only clearing $500 for every 80 hour pay cycle and that is absolutely ridiculous he stated. Sara’s pay rate, as another example, Michael said, and he said she is more than $9,000 under regional rates and $15,000 under comparable national rates. (The salary for the assistant director, on the other hand, Michael reported was almost two and a half times that of every other single staff member and that is a gross misallocation of the budget according to Michael.) He said in addition to that we are never going to retain the people that we do have in the long run if some attention is not given to that. Michael said he has four very, very talented people working for him now in key positions and he said he is going to keep them all. Michael said another important consideration is that this complicated “deal” he worked out to hire Marcus as Planetarium Director (which was thrown together with the Mayor and Tom Burris) is only good through May. The opening of the Planetarium has been such a tremendous boon to this Museum (and our attendance) that Michael said that he wants to assure it becomes a permanent situation. As a result, Michael has submitted a detailed staff reorganization plan to the Mayor for consideration. Michael hopes to get more money as well allocated for increases in contract services to bring Kenna on for special projects and to give Aria a bonus. Michael reported the vacancy caused by the assistant director’s resignation has not caused any undue strain on daily operations. In fact, Michael said, Olga, Claudia and Sara have easily taken over everything Stephen did with much more efficiency and promptness. Michael stressed this added work load in no way handicaps their ability to do their assigned tasks. Michael reported on department reports of Education, Collections and Events as well as the Planetarium. He said all are doing well in their departments. Michael said Claudia, Sara, Olga and Marcus are doing an excellent job. He said they are all accomplishing all the bench marks set for them both by him and the City of Roswell. This, Michael stressed, is who pays their salaries and who all staff as well as himself are responsible to. OLD BUSINESS: Phone recording updated. NEW BUSINESS: Discussion of purchasing of book: “Good to Great” by Jim Collins , recommended by Peggy Krantz, as a learning tool for management skills. The book would be ordered to also keep in RMAC library and for Board members to read and meet for further discussion. Mayor Kintigh made it clear to Michael in regard to his report, and it was subsequently published in the Daily Record from the reporter’s transcript: “These are city employees that work for you. You can figure out how you want them to work. I want you to boldly define your vision of what the museum workforce should be.” MOTION TO ADJOURN: Peggy Krantz moved to adjourn and Melinda Gonzalez seconded. All were in favor and none opposed. The Meeting adjourned at 5:45pm. Respectfully submitted, Olga McGuire, Membership Coordinator