Historical Commission Agenda and Packet 2016 08 03 JT

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Page 42 of 150 pay for ongoing Museum operational costs for the foreseeable future. The Business Plan is relatively conservative with respect to the levels of operational funding that would be provided by the City. Whether (and if so, to what extent) the City would want to rely on a 501c3 to become heavily involved in fundraising for City operational costs has not been decided. It does seem necessary for the Foundation role in fundraising to become larger. How can the City ensure that private citizens will want to and be able to grow the Foundation's role in fundraising as well as sustain a level of increased fundraising for operations? If it can't be sustained, what does that mean for the City -owned Museum's operations and the communities it serves? The Foundation directors and Commission members in attendance indicated that they would not want the Foundation, a private 501c3, to be required to raise money for operations, even though the Business Plan recommendations and its timeline are predicated on such a financial arrangement. The Foundation directors indicated that they are enthusiastic about raising money to help pay for capital costs for the Museum, but not for the ongoing costs of operations. Some in attendance stated that in fairness and as a good practice, the City should fund the staffing of its Museum in the same ways in which it funds the staffing of other parts of the City organization and not rely on private fundraising for Museum operations. It was also recognized that it would be problematic for City to hire staff and to not necessarily be able to rely on a consistent level of operational funding. It was noted that the Business Plan timeline is also in question because of not knowing at this time when is the City's goal for having funding from all sources ready for a new Visitor Center building and if the Foundation is not expected to conduct fundraising to cover operations. • The Business Plan also envisions a greater role for volunteers at the Museum and it anticipates that some of these volunteers working on site at the Museum would be people who are supervised by the Foundation. However, it is possible that the City would recommend that volunteers working at the Museum, which is a City site, continue to be official City of Louisville volunteers who are supervised by Museum staff and that there is not a mixture of volunteers supervised by different entities. A related view that was also expressed was that while volunteers are essential to the success of the Museum, the City should avoid putting too much responsibility on volunteers to carry out Museum functions and increased activities, particularly because of the time and effort that would be involved for the limited staff to train, coordinate, and schedule them. Overall, the Business Plan was welcomed by the Commission, the Foundation, City staff, and community members as a thought-provoking document that suggests many possible directions for the future and that invites the community to consider different ways to view and achieve "success" for the Museum. 34