The Haines Sheldon Museum board of trustees received the go-ahead from the Haines Borough Assembly’s Government Affairs and Services (GAS) Committee to present the proposal to restructure the museum as an independent nonprofit to the full assembly on Tuesday.
The proposal brought to the GAS Committee involves the museum becoming “a wholly independent nonprofit with a strong borough partnership,” according to the Haines Sheldon Museum New Structure Concept Plan. The board worked with nonprofit consulting organization the Foraker Group to come up with the proposal.
The Haines Sheldon Museum is currently a quasi-governmental organization with attributes of both a borough department and nonprofit. Staff are employed by and paid for by the borough, which also owns the building, but the museum is run by the nonprofit, which owns the collection.
Museum trustees and borough management say that this model creates confusion, including issues regarding who is ultimately in charge of employees.
At Tuesday’s meeting, trustee Lorraine Dudzik said it’s important to clarify the board’s authority over museum operations as different borough managers have had different interpretations of this authority as it is currently written in code.
Under the restructuring proposal, the museum would have a board of seven or more trustees who are no longer appointed by the assembly, Dudzik said at the meeting. The borough would continue to maintain the building and provide a degree of financial support, a relationship that will be formally defined through a memorandum of agreement.
“We do expect the borough to continue to financially assist the museum,” Dudzik said. “It will not be in the same way as before, but it is the community’s collection and the borough has the responsibility to the community to ensure the collection is maintained.”
According to the New Structure Concept Plan, museum staff would gradually transition from being borough employees to being nonprofit employees. Current staff would be allowed to continue in their unionized, borough employee positions, but all new hires would be nonprofit employees.
Rather than hire a new executive director, under the restructuring proposal, senior staffing positions would include a curator responsible for collections management, an education/outreach manager responsible for making the collection available to the public, and a business manager with experience running nonprofits. Other museum staffing requirements will be determined in the coming months.
Some members of the community have expressed concern about the decision to restructure the museum.
During public comment at Tuesday’s meeting, former museum director Helen Alten, who’s position the board eliminated this summer, said she is concerned by the speed at which the restructuring effort is progressing.
Trustees said once they receive approval from the full assembly, they intend to begin development of a more fleshed-out business plan to be completed by the assembly’s Nov. 10 meeting.
Haines Sheldon Museum trustees include Dudzik, president Kelleen Adams, treasurer John Carlson, Sue Chasen and Kim Chetney. All trustees except Adams attended Tuesday’s meeting.