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Report from the Chair

June 2010

The regularly scheduled quarterly meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Museum of Northern Arizona was held on Thursday, May 6 at the Colton House. The following reports on the general discussion and topics addressed at the meeting including reports from the various Board committees and also includes some comments by me:

Finance and Investment Committee
In Brad Ryan’s absence, I presented an overview of the financials previously reviewed by the Committee coupled with a recommendation for their approval. While general donations and shop sales continue to show meaningful improvement over last year, our challenge continues to be raising the overall level of annual support for the Museum through donations to the annual operating fund. Expenses remain under control, however, the organization has not been able to budget for staff cost of living increases in recent years and this continues to be a concern of management as well as the Board. The current fiscal year numbers show the Museum ahead of plan for revenue as well as expenses but concern remains in achieving our aggressive goals for the year ending September 30, 2010 in the area of general donations which has now fallen below plan through the month of March.

Governance Committee
Jim Reed, Chairman of the Governance Committee, presented the recommendations of the Governance Committee for the slate of individuals to be recommended to the membership for election to the MNA Board of Trustees. Those individuals are: Drew Barringer (current Trustee), Beverly Miller (current Trustee), LaVelle McCoy (current Trustee), Peggy Taylor and Jim Lyon. There was a general discussion about the personal attributes that it is believed each of the new prospective members will bring to the Board and to the Museum. The slate was approved as recommended to present to the membership for election. Additionally, it was reported that the Committee, subject to the results of the upcoming election, will be recommending that the current slate of officers be elected to serve another year. Those officers are: David Connell, Chair; Drew Barringer, Vice Chair (subject to election to the Board for another term); Brad Ryan, Treasurer and Eunice Tso, Secretary. I determined that there were some items relative to our education efforts which needed to be presented to the Board sooner rather than later so I announced I was calling a Special Meeting of the Board on June 5; the same day as the MNA Annual Membership Meeting. I indicated that we would meet for discussion prior to the Membership Meeting; recess to the Membership Meeting and then reconvene immediately after the meeting in order to promptly elect officers for the coming year.

Audit Committee
LaVelle McCoy, Chairman of the Audit Committee, introduced Jill Korenck from JDS Professional Services who reported to the Board that JDS had completed their audit and that they were giving the audit an unqualified opinion. She provided a brief review of the financial statements and answered questions raised by several Trustees present. Subsequent to her presentation, LaVelle reported that the Audit Committee recommended that an RFP (Request for Proposal) be issued for the MNA audit for the coming year. It has been seven years since JDS Professional Services began auditing the Museum’s books and it is felt that it is prudent for the Museum to open up the audit (and the pricing of that audit) to the market and, subject to the submissions received from the RFP, perhaps consider retaining a new auditor at this time. It is anticipated that the results of the RFP will be completed prior to the fiscal year end. The Board approved the issuance of an RFP for the audit of the current fiscal year.

Fundraising Committee
Sam Braun and Henry Roe, Co-Chairs of the Fundraising Committee reported on several initiatives that are in progress in an effort to reconnect with former donors and members as well as to find ways to connect with new, prospective members and donors. There was a report of the status of the upcoming Gala including the numbers of tables sold and silent auction items donated to date. As indicated above, work continues to need to be done on finding ways to meet and to secure more annual donors to the operating fund in order for the Museum to continue to offer all of the programs and services that our membership and community enjoy and have come to expect.

Land and Facilities Committee
Allan Affeldt, Chairman of the Land and Facilities Committee, reported on the status of Phase 2 of the Research Campus improvements. The work includes new parking, landscaping, the relocation of the Matthews and Guernsey cabins and new pavement. He also reported on an assessment done on the historic Studio and work that needs to be done to stabilize it. During the assessment it was concluded that a large tree, not appearing to be in the best of health, is in a precarious position putting the Studio at risk should it fall. It was decided that, subject to any approvals necessary in order to remove the tree, the tree should be taken down immediately so as to not have it potentially cause significant damage to the Studio during or after a storm.

Program Committee
Although the Program Committee had not met since the last Board meeting, Peter Piles, Chairman of the Committee, did present a list of proposed accessions and deaccessions which was being recommended and proposed by the staff and the Museum Director. All of the proposed items for accession and deaccession were approved except for one item, the acceptance of which was tabled until some additional information could be obtained.

Additional Comments
I want to remind the readers of this periodic report that it is possible to support the operations of MNA through purchases made from Amazon.com if that website is accessed through the MNA website. MNA shares in the proceeds of any purchases made on Amazon.com if, and only if, it is accessed through the Book Store link on our MNA home page. This is an easy way to provide additional funding to MNA with no additional cost to you. Please consider making all of the purchases you make through Amazon.com in this fashion and, by doing so, provide additional support for our general operations.

Thank you for all of your support of the Museum of Northern Arizona. I hope to see many of you at our Heritage Programs this summer at the Museum.


W. David Connell
Chairman MNA Board of Trustees