Historical Commission Agenda and Packet 2012 04 18

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Memorandum To: Historical Commission From: Bridget Bacon, Museum Coordinator Date: January 11, 2011 Re: Roles and missions of the Historical Commission At the November 2010 meeting of the Historical Commission, I presented information with respect to how the Historical Commission currently is set up to fulfill the functions of both an advisory board appointed by the City Council and a 501c3 fundraising board. In other words, when the City Council appoints a Louisville resident to be a member of the Historical Commission, it is also appointing that person to be on the board of a private fundraising organization. As was shown in the chart that was distributed in the meeting packet for the November 2010 meeting, other public museums in our region have separate boards for these functions, or tend to have either an advisory board or a fundraising board, but not one board for both functions. Some Commission members requested that I give the information that I presented in November in writing for the January meeting, particularly with respect to what it would look like to have two separate boards, so I have put together a chart (below). I would also like to point out that the Louisville Public Library, which is a division of the same City department of which the Museum is a division, already has its boards set up in much this way. There is a Library Board of Trustees that is the advisory board with its members appointed by City Council, and a separate Louisville Public Library Foundation that has its own board and performs the role of fundraising. It should be noted that because the Louisville Historical Museum is City owned and operated, the governing board setting general policy for the Museum is the Louisville City Council itself. An advisory board and a fundraising board would both have the purpose of promoting the mission of the Museum, from different angles. Often, in this situation, the separate fundraising board is set up so as to include at least one advisory board member to also serve on its board, so that there is some overlap and good coordination between the two boards.