The Sheldon Museum and Cultural Center, soon to be the Haines Sheldon Museum. (Jillian Rogers)
The Haines Sheldon Museum’s board of trustees is rethinking its relationship with the Haines Borough. At a meeting Tuesday, the board presented a proposal to become an independent nonprofit. Under the new plan museum staff would no longer be borough employees, but the museum would continue to receive financial assistance from the borough.
Concerns about the Haines Sheldon Museum have been growing since the board of trustees decided to eliminate the museum director’s position, citing a lack of adequate funding. This year the borough assembly cut its budget by $60,000 compared to last year.
A local historian concerned about the museum’s future hosted a community discussion over Zoom last week. During the meeting Haines resident Anne Marie Palmieri said she worried about the current state of the museum and what was in store for the future.
“I mean if they don’t have a director, if they only have a couple part time employees, right now they’re not open because of COVID understandably. I just have a lot of questions and I’m concerned about the future and what that vision is,” Palmieri said.
There has been confusion about the governance structure of the museum for years. Particularly when it comes to the staff.
Helen Alten was the museum director before the board eliminated her position. In a phone call to KHNS, she questioned whether the board had the authority to do that because she was employed by the borough.
“We’re this weird fish. We’re called quasi-governmental—nonprofit and government combined,” Alten said.
According to borough code, the museum building is owned and staffed by the borough, but the organization is operated and administered by a board of trustees. Even though museum staff are borough employees, code says that the board of trustees has authority over all of the museum’s physical, fiscal and human resources.
Museum staff are represented by the public employees union that negotiates the borough’s collective bargaining agreement. Alten filed a grievance through the union after her position was eliminated.
At a meeting with the borough’s government affairs and services committee, museum board treasurer John Carlson said that is one part of the museum’s governance that needs to change.
“After the elimination of Helen’s position it has become very apparent that we need to be out of the union because now we have a grievance against us, and we’re just volunteers. We don’t really know how to handle that. We’re going to be faced with hiring a lawyer now,” Carlson said.
Last month the museum’s board of trustees decided to hire the Foraker Group, a nonprofit consultant, to help come up with a plan to restructure its relationship with the borough.
Museum board secretary Lori Dudzik presented the plan to the borough’s government affairs and services committee on Tuesday.
“We propose a completely independent 501(c)(3) with a board that is self-perpetuating and no longer appointed by the assembly,” Dudzik said.
The nonprofit would be in charge of the museum and its employees, but the board still wants the borough to own and maintain the building.
They proposed drafting a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for a partnership between the nonprofit and the borough. Dudzik said that MOU would include financial assistance from the borough to the nonprofit for preserving the collection.
“It is the community’s collection and the borough has a responsibility to the community to ensure that the collection is maintained,” Dudzik said.
The staffing structure would also change under the new plan. The board has proposed dividing up management of the museum between three main positions: a curator, an education manager and a business manager.
The Government Affairs and Services Committee voted to have the borough’s legal counsel review the proposal before the plan is presented to the full borough assembly.
