Friends of the Zeiss Statement
Before Board of Directors,
Telephone:
412-561-7876
Electronic Mail: <
friendsofthezeiss@planetarium.cc >
Internet Web Site: <
http://www.friendsofthezeiss.org >
Good evening, I am Glenn A.
Walsh of
Last month, Children’s Museum
Executive Director Jane Werner waved a business plan before you and promised
that Museum finances would be “in excess” with no deficits, once the expanded
Museum opens.
Do you really believe that after
four years of
deficits, with half-million deficits the last two years, the Museum will magically
turn a profit, or even break-even, once they have to manage a facility four
times the size of the current Museum ?
This is a photocopy of that
business plan, obtained from the Regional Asset District office. Ms. Werner was
right about one thing; it is very
interesting reading!
This business plan shows
deficits for three years of the seven-year plan—unless you include
depreciation, as is always included in RAD grant applications—when there are
six-digit deficits for all seven years of the business plan! How many business
plans have you seen that include multi-year six-digit deficits?
Ms. Werner said that the
Museum’s deficits, over the last four years, were planned-for by the business
plan. More to the point, this atypical business plan gave Ms. Werner the excuse to ignore the need to balance
the Children’s Museum budget! No matter what this strange business plans says,
it will be much more difficult to balance the Museum’s budget once the facility
is four times larger—not easier, as Ms. Werner would want you to believe.
On page 17 of the business
plan, it briefly speaks to the labor-intensive nature of the expanded Museum:
“Personnel (expense is high but also represents a soft cost easily cut if
attendance is lower than projection)”. I wonder if the Children’s Museum staff
realizes that they are considered a “soft
cost easily cut”.
The
Will history repeat for a
third time with the opening of the expanded Children’s Museum? This is quite
possible, even likely.
If the Children’s Museum expansion project must go
forward, then additional revenue sources must be found for operating the
expanded building. To maximize the
revenue potential of the Buhl Planetarium building, and attendance to the
expanded Children’s Museum, we ask that this Board insist that the historic Zeiss
II Planetarium Projector and 10-inch Siderostat-type Refractor Telescope be
returned to the Buhl Planetarium building for historical presentations in the
expanded Museum.
Thank you.
gaw
Children's Museum Deficits for Fiscal Years 2000-2003