05-01-2003
May 1, 2003 Minutes 1 Present: Virginia Chiarello Grace Mosley-Byrd Parks Griffin Bernhard Thuersam Jerry Mannen, Jr., Esq. Richard Trask Kimberly Mash Dr. Bart Williams Absent: Sandra
Criner, Ann Griffith, John Haley, Ph.D., F.L. Tanky Meier. Also Present: Eve Carr, Museum Historian Ruth Haas, Museum Director Denise Hubbard, Associates Development Director Pat Melvin,
Assistant County Manager Nancy Pritchett, County Commissioner 6 Community Members The Board of Trustees of Cape Fear Museum held its regular monthly meeting on Thursday, May 1, 2003,
at 5:30p.m. In the Williston Auditorium, with Mr. Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman presiding. I. Consideration of Absences: Sandra Criner, Ann Griffith, F.L. Tanky Meier excused. John Haley,
Ph.D., unexcused. II. Corrections/Additions to April Minutes: Mr. Thuersam asked for corrections, additions or deletions to the minutes of the April meeting. There being none, he entertained
a motion for approval. Mr. Parks Griffin moved. Mr. Jerry Mannen seconded. The minutes were unanimously approved as submitted. III. Audience Comment: Mr. Thuersam, Chairman, deferred
to the audience. Two individuals spoke. Mr. Joe Parker stated that May is Confederate history month and that it is wrong to have a program on the black �
�another time. Dr. Timothy Wyatt of Raleigh
is available to do a program on black Confederate soldiers at the end of May. He urged the Board to report to the Commissioners when there has been a trick (such as this) to do a Union
history in Confederate history Month. Confederate history month is a time for the South to tell its side of the story. Mr. Jeff Melton, a lifelong resident of Wilmington, commended Cape
Fear Museum for honoring Confederate history month. He stated that he would like to see an exploration of more local Minutes Board of Trustees Meeting May 1, 2003
May 1, 2003 Minutes 2 issues and stories, and that Confederate history month is a step in the right direction. He also expressed his concern about the talk on black Union soldiers during
Confederate history month. A talk on Confederate black soldiers would be more appropriate, because that story is untold and would be engaging, especially with a focus on the black soldiers
at Fort Fisher who fought for the Confederacy. The audience members left after both individuals made their statements. The ensuing discussion by the Board explored several issues including
the role that Cape Fear Museum played in assembling and shaping the Confederate history month programming. The New Hanover County Library had scheduled the speech. A library representative
was present at the Confederate history month planning committee meeting. As part of a coordination effort, Cape Fear Museum organized the various activities and speeches into a Confederate
history month promotional brochure. The idea of the Board of Trustees or Museum Museum staff approving and disapproving speakers at other institutions would be beyond its scope of responsibility.
CFM staff are over-committed at this time and not in a position to coordinate another program to counterbalance the one in question. The discussion also included the issue of what books
have been written, and the Museum agreed to provide a bibliography on the literature surrounding this era of history. Mr. Thuersam stated that a program on the black Confederate soldiers
at Fort Fisher could be held during the month of January, since that battle took place in January. No report beyond previous discussion.
V. Associates Report Ms. Denise Hubbard reported that the Associates currently have 498 members. A planned membership drive will ideally increase that number to 600 members. She distributed
a handout listing the membership breakdown by levels, and the membership campaign goals to be achieved by October 30, 2003. An annual fundraiser is being planned for January. Ticket
costs will be $125 per person, with a goal of 200 people attending. The Leadership Committee is seeking additional people to fill naturally occurring vacancies on the Associates Board.
An ad hoc committee is in the process of getting the whole Associates schedule (rotation of seats, start of budget year, and annual meeting) in sync with the budget year July to June.
June 12 is Cape Fear Museum night at the Sharks game. This coincides with the opening of the AirPlay exhibit and will lead to roughly $5,000 in free advertising. Media sponsors include
the Sharks, WWAY-TV, WJZY-FM, Z98.3-FM, WRQR.FM and ESPN-AM radio A meteorologist from WWAY will be presenting a program on hurricanes on June 14. The How Things Work exhibit, opening
in October, will have media sponsors from WECT-TV and Cumulus Broadcasting. A Humanities grant for approximately $6,700, to support the Twentieth Century programming has been submitted.
May 1, 2003 Minutes 3 At the conclusion of the report, Mr. Parks Griffin commented that this is the first time he has seen a report on the membership breakdown and thanked Ms. Hubbard
for providing the information. He complimented the report as well as the goals set by the Associates. Mr. Thuersam inquired as to the dollar figure planned to be raised for the Museum.
Ms. Hubbard stated that she was not prepared to provide that information yet. Dr. Bart Williams reported that the CFM Shop will be carrying toy planes, shirts, books, and other items
that will tie in with AirPlay and with the centennial of flight. VI: Committee Reports: Long Range Planning Committee �
�cy and the challenges the Committee members faced in attempting to craft a policy that all interested parties are comfortable with.
He specifically requested an outline of expectations regarding the policy and stated that one reason this process has proved so challenging is because of how the ethics policy was handled
and followed by the previous director. Ms. Haas offered to provide the Committee with books and other reading materials on the topic so that the Board of Trustees understands the Museum
and its role with respect to the community. Mr. Thuersam expressed concern that many museum policies are driven by problems institutions have encountered and since CFM does not have
these problems, what role does the ethics policy then play? Ms. Haas stated that the Board
responsibilities. She offered to meet with interested Board members, talk about the existing literature
on ethics policies, and do a presentation on museum ethics and issues, if it would facilitate the process of resolving this issue. Ms. Nancy Pritchett recommended picking picking 5 random
museum board ethics policies for the members of the Committee to review and refer to with relation to crafting the Cape Fear Museum Board of Trustees ethics statement. A second aspect
of this discussion centered on the ethics statements that current CFM employees have signed. Mr. Griffin raised the question of whether all New Hanover County employees signed an ethics
statement as part of their contractual employment agreement. It was stated that this policy is in place at the museum but not throughout the County. Dr. Williams posed the question of
why the Board of Trustees should not sign the same statement as museum employees and why there should be a different statement, unless the issue is not the statement but rather a philosophical
opposition to an ethics statement. Consensus with this latter position is part of the problem. The discussion ended with Ms. Pat Me
review would be beneficial and that the Board needs to resolve this issue and move on. Education Committee Mr. Tanky Meier, Chairman, was not present. Ms.
Haas did a PowerPoint presentation of the Exhibit Development Master Plan prepared by The PRD Group. The Board discussed the goals of the exhibit plan, and review of the content of the
plan by the Education Committee. Ms. Pritchett stated that the RFP does not say anything about the development of content for review. Ms. Haas said that PRD was told that CFM is expanding,
not redoing the story. The issue of the Education Committee having an implied desire to be involved
May 1, 2003 Minutes 4 in the oversight of the planning process was raised. Ms. Pritchett inquired as to a specific criticism of the planning process or recommendations. Nothing specific
was mentioned. The statement of needing to provide visitors with a better sense of who we are, what we do, and why it is important, was discussed. Visitors already come away with a good
story, which can be tweaked to offer a sharper focus to the visitor. The spatial issue will be tweaked to improve the visitor experience by telling a more cohesive story. This is important
because the current layout dates back to 1990.
Science
monies. This led to the question of how we decide what is history and how far into the twentieth century do we want to go. CMF needs to take the history of the region and bring it as
conne
ct with more and more visitors. Dr. Williams noted that there is a disconnect between the Discovery Gallery and the rest of the Museum that needs to be addressed. Mr. Griffin noted that
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�no one knows about and therefore should be told by CFM. The discussion moved on to issues of the facility itself and the visitor flow. The potential for visitor confusion in the current
space was agreed upon with the caveat that all museum spaces have the potential of being confusing and that visitors do need to be guided. The Simmons boat structure will be addressed
in future planning. The location of the museum shop was discussed because it needs to be relocated and to be more accessible. Ms. Pritchett stated that when the
did not have to be as strategic
as it does now. The next comments related to the presentation of the proposed floor plans. Mr. Griffin commended the staff for being willing to give up office space and supported the
idea of an exhibit within the exhibit. Mr. Thuersam asked if there was going to be a revision of the reconstruction exhibit to be more fair and balanced. Mr. Griffin expressed a desire
to have the whole thing revisited. Ms. Haas said that the twentieth century gallery will take all available resources for the present. Later changes will move Fort Fisher downstairs
to keep the Civil War on one floor and open up more space for post Civil War exhibits. Floor plans for Phase II elicited approval for the removal of the Haines bride doll exhibit, as
it no pie
ces on famous Wilmington characters. It was determined that the first step in this direction is simply to integrate more people into the interpreted story and then to see if there is
a need for a hall of this kind. Ms. Haas pointed out that the challenge of this exhibit is making choices about what gets exhibited and which stories are preserved. Ms. Pritchett also
noted the challenge of Phase III floor plans raised
the issue of visitor flow again. Mr. Thuersam stated that he believes Mr. Tanky Meier is correct in his assertion that there needs to be a central portal to the exhibit that offers a
grand entry to CFM. He agreed with the idea of moving the museum shop but envisioned it as possibly mixing with the lobby area. Mr. Thuersam provided a drawing of another possible orientation
of the entryway. Ms. Haas stated that the concept of a single entry makes sense but in designing the space we should think in terms of storyline and visitor orientation. This will be
discussed further before any changes are made. Plans are that the
May 1, 2003 Minutes 5 Discovery Gallery will essentially stay the same but be better integrated with the rest of the long-term exhibit and designed to draw in all ages instead of just
children. Mr. Thuersam then returned the discussion to Phase I. He referenced the names of each section on the floor plan and asked if it was the permanent terminology. Ms. Haas said
that this would be covered in a separate presentation on content development to be held at a later date. Ms. Grace Mosley-Byrd clarified that CFM will be focusing on the achievable and
not undertaking something too grand. Ms. Haas confirmed that the focus is on Phase I and on achieving that before pursuing the next phases. Mr. Griffin inquired about increasing community
involvement and was assured that community residents will continue to be invited to CFM to participate in programs and focus groups. The concluding discussion related to finances and
the state of the County budget. Ms. Melvin stated that the budget has not been increased and that there are no planned job cuts, but that the budget lies with the Commissioners. Ms.
Haas concluded by saying that what happens will depend both on the budget cuts and on the amount of money raised, ideally with the assistance of the Board of Trustees. Adjournment: There
was no longer a quorum present for business to be conducted. The meeting ended at 7:30p.m. The Collections, Public Relations, Finance and Buildings & Grounds Committees did not make
reports. The Direcproposed By-Law change regarding the Board
meeting schedule could not be voted on and will be addressed at the next Board of Trustees meeting.