Trying to reason the Museum money crunch
As a show-me-the-money business guy, I’m having a hard time on the issue involving funding for the Waynesboro Heritage Foundation, because this one isn’t one where you’re going to get a lot tangible out of return-on-investment analysis.
Vice Mayor Frank Lucente is rarely right, but he is on a key point on this – that city taxpayers are subsidizing the museum at a high ratio of about $20 per visitor for the 3,000 visitors that the Waynesboro Heritage Museum sees a year.
Lucente supports the cut proposed in City Manager Mike Hamp’s 2009-2010 budget that would take the Foundation’s appropriation from the city from $59,500 to $22,500, a reduction of $37,000 or 62 percent that would the president of the Foundation’s board of directors says would close the Museum down.
“If they cut my budget, getting into salaries, if you have to resort to volunteers, it’s not going to be open,” Bridgeforth told the News Virginian. “We wouldn’t close until we absolutely have to. We would try to keep it open, but it wouldn’t fit the bill.”
Bridgeforth and Waynesboro Heritage Museum curator Courtney Gondoli comprise the Foundation’s two-person paid staff. The Foundation does not pay rent on the newly renovated Heritage Museum, but Bridgeforth told the NV that there are significant costs associated with heating the building and maintaining the Museum’s exhibits.
Lucente pointed out in an interview with the paper that the Museum had operated with volunteers in the past, “and there’s volunteers out there that can do it again,” Lucente said.
And I suppose he could be right there, too. Speaking from experience, though, I don’t find it all that likely that you’re going to be able to manage the number of volunteers that would be needed to keep the Museum open without having somebody in a paid capacity dedicated to such an enterprise. My experience here comes from my service with several local nonprofit boards and the for-profit Waynesboro Generals baseball team, which utilizes a significant amount of volunteer labor to maintain operations. Every group that I am and have been affiliated with has had at least one paid staff person to run the day-to-day affairs even with active boards providing manpower and volunteers outside of the board structure augmenting their efforts with free toil of their own.
I think at the least, then, you have to have as a minimum a 20- to 30-hour-a-week paid person to manage the volunteers who provide the bulk of the staffing for the Heritage Museum. That, of course, in all likelihood doesn’t get you somebody who can also do strategic-planning work on the ongoing restoration work at the Plumb House Museum up Main Street, which had languished for years on the all-volunteer model that saw little in terms of progress toward getting anything done, so you have to include that in the considerations.
Which gets me to thinking business plan. OK, so we have 3,000 visitors a year at the Heritage Museum, and a $60,000 budget. We’re not going to be able to get away with charging them $20 apiece to be able to walk through the door. What about $5? Or even a dollar or two? This is wholly a guess from me, but I think the best you’re going to do is $5 a person, and even at that rate you’re going to lose a lot of your visitors, maybe in the area of half or more. Alternatively, a dollar or two wouldn’t do much damage to the numbers, but wouldn’t have much impact on the bottom line, either.
We could always charge the school system for educational programs put on by the Museum. Which is what many other museums do, except that here we don’t get any net gain out of doing this, because we fund the school system with our tax dollars just as we would fund the Museum out of our tax dollars.
So we’re back to square zero, as I like to say when it’s not clear even what our first step ought to be.
As I said above, I’m a numbers guy, and I have a hard time backing something without numbers to back me up. I know well the rationale regarding the protection of the investment of $2.3 million into the refurbishing of the Museum, and $2.3 million is a plenty-big number, but I think Lucente could easily argue that going all-volunteer would keep the Museum open and thus not put at risk that sizable investment.
But I say, Yeah, and in about the half-assest way possible.
Maybe it’s because I’m biased being a history guy, too, in addition to being a numbers guy and business guy and such, but I don’t think we’re doing our city a service keeping the Heritage Museum alive on life support.
A lot of people have put in a lot of hours to get us to where we are with what we have at the Waynesboro Heritage Museum, and it would be a shame to throw the many tens of thousands of dollars worth of volunteer labor plus the couple of million put into the building down the drain for nothing.
- Story by Chris Graham
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So – without a hestitation we are going to cut the legs right out from under the museum. Certainly I can understand the need to balance the budget and make cuts to bring the budget into balance. But isn’t over 60% a little excessive? Maybe 30% this year – then another cut next year until they get plans in place and volunteers in place to make a go of what is a wonderful attraction for downtown. As someone with over 14 years of experience training, recruiting and managing over 150 volunteers annually – it takes a lot of work to recruit volunteers, train them, keep them motivatived, recognize them for their contribution and more then work to replace those who come and go. Volunteers can do a great deal but they are not self-generating. We have a beautiful and professional looking museum and it is premature to turn it out on its own. Maybe a 4 or 5 year plan with additional budget cuts each year until it is viable enough to stand alone.
If the Heritage Museum were to close, does that have an impact on the New Market Tax Credits that were used on the building?
I’m hearing that it does. And it makes logical sense that it would.
I think the real question here is what are we trying to accomplish in downtown? Hopefully I will not be too offensive to the dedicated volunteers here, BUT, before the museum was renovated and run by volunteers all we had was collection of stuff more akin to what we find in our attics – interesting stuff with no real story to tell. What we have now is something folks from outside the local community find worth visiting – I know, I’ve brought them over there. So I see the question as this -Does the city of Waynesboro (defined by the citizens whose voice is heard through the council) want to attract opportunities for new jobs, new residents, and new businesses located in our city? If I was running a business to accomplish this task I would define the opportunity, identify the resources needed to capitalize on the opportunity then invest appropriately to achieve the goal. It would appear that the borderline funding for organizations such as the Heritage Museum, Wayne Theatre, WDDI, Economic Development, EDA, tourism, etc., gives us the effort in name only. It’s like peeing in your pants – you get a warm feeling but at the end of the day, you’ve only soiled yourself. Either we get serious and WIN THE GAME or we pack up our tents, cut all of the budgets and lower the tax rate to the lowest we can achieve. I wonder where my next tenant will come from. The citizen’s of the city should be wondering what jobs will be available for them, their friends and family? With this game changing economy the one thing everyone agrees with is that what was is not what will be…..
Well said, Len.
Perhaps a 62% tax on hot dogs would help offset the 62% cut to the Museum, eh?
It seems that some don’t mind Waynesboro being the Rodney Dangerfield of the Valley, indeed “getting no respect”.
Any community that loses its ability to preserve its heritage and educate its young about its past will lose itself. Economic viability isn’t the only grounds to determine the value of a community venture such as the Heritage Museum. If those of us who are parents had waited until we could “afford” to have children would still be waiting into retirement. The money spent developing the Museum is and will be well spent. After all Williamsburg years ago was nothing to write home about, nor was Tredegar in Richmond. It takes time, planning, and money to collect, catalogue, interpret, and properly preserve and present a community’s past. Waynesboro is short sighted if it thinks letting the Heritage Museum suffer while it courts movie theatres is the better choice.
The “Upper Management” of Waynesboro should consider the inherent economic benefits of each museum visitor before it commits to anything outlandish, such as de – funding the Heritage Museum.
This SHOULD be simple mathematics, and I find myself a bit concerned with the mindset of any city official which fails to objectively analyze each aspect of the “problem” of Downtown Waynesboro.
Here, I’ll help the council out. Back in the ’90s, I was a teaching assistant in a summer school program. Perhaps the joy of sharing knowledge will be in my heart once more. Ah, yes — it feels good to again be working in a classroom filled with Attention – Deficit – Disorder – afflicted children. Ok, class, let’s turn on our brains!
STEP ONE: Create a “discount card” of which ONLY verified tourists can make use of in city businesses.
STEP TWO: Distribute this “card” to those who are from out – of – the – area, such as many of the museum guests.
STEP THREE: Keep a record of how many purchases happen each month by persons using the discount card.
STEP FOUR: Wait one year & take lots of notes. Let’s practice our patience!
Wow, class! It’s 2010 now, and you’ve just spent a year working hard to improve your communication skills with your local business owners. And, WOW!, you all might have noticed that the little ole’ museum was actually creating a big bucket of money for your whole town! Good job, everyone. Instead of reading tabloids all day, and freaking out about the national economy, you all have learned to focus your energy on positive solutions for your local economy. I’m proud of you. Time for recess, gang!
Waynesboro has Interstate access, quite a grand opportunity for cashing in on the traveling public, which more often than not, has disposable income, and is looking for a nice place to spend a few hours and, hopefully, a few hundred dollars. Modern retail environments, a diverse selection of restaurants, adequate roadways, and cultural options: these are a few of the major components any “city” needs to actively work to improve upon if the elusive tourist is to be drawn from the comfort of his or her automobile.
Waynesboro has three of the four (two, in some opinions, I’m sure) components in place, at least to a certain degree. I am sure anyone familiar with Waynesboro can guess which one has always been neglected. BINGO! Cultural options. It is ludicrious to consider that at one time we had a stunning marketplace of artwork; it was called the Artisans’ Center.
Well, in 2006, we burnt it all down and built us a Target!
Next ‘target’ for city council: Our very own historical society! Go team!