Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum Board of Trustees Minutes A regular meeting of the Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum Board of Trustees was held on October 18, 2017 in the Planetarium Lobby, Centerport, New York. The following were in attendance: Ron Beattie – President Gretchen Oldrin Mones – 1st Vice President Jack DeMasi – 2nd Vice President Terry Pearsall – Trustee Dr. Steven Gittelman – Trustee James Kelly – Secretary Elizabeth Wayland-Morgan – Associate Director Sue Madlinger – Director of Development Ann Marie Pastore - Stenographer Absent: Betsy Cambria – Treasurer Michael Mule – Trustee Thomas Glascock – Trustee Clara Macri – Trustee Kathleen Giamo – Trustee Michelle Gegwich – Trustee Anthony Guarnischelli – Trustee Stephen Melore – Trustee 1 (Mr. Beattie called the meeting to order at 7:15 p.m.) MR. BEATTIE: Although we do not have a quorum, we’ll get started any way. Welcome to the Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum and Planetarium October 2017 meeting. We will stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. {SALUTE TO THE FLAG} I would ask in this Halloween season if there are any ghosts who would like to address the Board? {LAUGHTER} We won’t ask for a motion for the previous meeting minutes because we can’t vote on them. Everybody, just so you know, Lance is ill at home so he is absent today. We wish him the best. I saw him today and although he didn’t look terrible he was not feeling well. He is a trooper. We will begin with committee reports. For the Development Committee, we have standing in for Kathy Giamo, right hander in from the bull pen, Sue. MS. MADLINGER: Okay, I only have one message from Kathy, which is that Kathy now has the photos of the bell tower. She has submitted them for renderings. That will help with the funding needs analysis, so she can take them forward. Other developments, I guess you all know about the Veterans Salute on November 10, 11 and 12. The tree lighting is scheduled for November 25 from 4 pm to 6 pm. The Holiday Dinner, which is almost sold out – it’s unbelievable. We think it will be sold out by the end of this week. We only have 15 seats left for each seating. That’s on December 2. We finally wrapped up the Lobster Fest net revenue, which was just shy of $40,000. MR. BEATTIE: That’s great. 2 MS. OLDRIN MONES: Wow, that’s great. MS. MADLINGER: The in-kind donations were great also this year, which were $6,500. We did pretty well. It’s a good step to the next level. MR. BEATTIE: Very good. Thank you, Sue. MS. MADLINGER: These are the flyers, which I will hand out later. These are for Veterans Day. MR. BEATTIE: I will point out that Sue asked me if I could find my Coast Guard uniform. I told her I could find it, but that’s about as far as it’s going to go. {LAUGHTER} Let’s move on to the Finance and Treasurer’s Report. In for Betsy Cambria is Elizabeth Wayland-Morgan. MS. WAYLAND-MORGAN: Does everyone have their copies in front of them? This will be fairly quick. All is in line. Lance and I spoke about this earlier this evening. With two exceptions – if you take a look at August under “Site Use,” we have $83,019 and that additional income is due to Gotham, which was wonderful. Under “Donations and Gifts” right here in August, as well, the Reichert Fund donation came in that month. Everything else is exactly in line. Does anyone have any questions? MR. BEATTIE: Very good. Thank you. On to Education and Exhibits, Gretchen. MS. OLDRIN MONES: The mansion tour numbers remain robust, although less than last year’s numbers. There were 1,665 tours in September of 2016 as compared to 1,062 this year. In analyzing the numbers, it was remembered that last year we hosted an unusually high number of bus tour groups. 3 Stephanie is in the process of tallying the mansion tour numbers for the last almost 20 years. She’s even doing it according to weather. It will be quite a trove of information. As some of us saw earlier, the mansion is decorated in the new masquerade theme for Halloween. Stephanie worked on masquerade history for mansion staff and visitors. She donated clothes and masks. Sue and Lorraine loaned the museum Venetian masks, so thank you. The mansion is decorated as if Willie K is throwing a Halloween party on his yacht, the Alva. While we were touring, Stephanie asked to bring up the idea that maybe we will have Halloween tours similar to the candle light tours. I guess Lance will discuss it with Elizabeth. Also, they want to find out if they can get the staff to work it. It would be the Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday, which is actually Halloween. They already – Stephanie created a hand-out with background of masquerade parties that Willie K would have been involved in. On the back, some of the masks – there are at least two dozen different masks around the rooms. It’s very tastefully and very subtlety done. And in the dark, it’s kind of creepy. I will pass this around. This is something that Stephanie made. It’s very informational. MR. BEATTIE: Can I interject? MS. OLDRIN MONES: Sure. MR. BEATTIE: One other thing that we’re thinking of doing to make sure that people are engaged is to have them count up the number of masks that they see. It’s very subtle. It’s nicely done. Maybe we’ll have a drawing for all the people who got the correct number of masks and have some kind of award for them, just to make sure that they’re engaged. MS. OLDRIN MONES: 4 Looking forward to reaccreditation, Stephanie is doing an inventory and an evaluation of the emergency kits. She is replacing the UV bulb filters in the Memorial Wing. Cataloguing, inventory, condition reports and stabilization of the book collection in the library continues with one volunteer. New larger filing cabinets were installed in the archives office. They replaced old ones that had rusted through. Stephanie and staff have removed and replaced all files and are reorganizing and labeling them, as well. Additionally, there is a new computer in the archives. All of this undoubtedly helps in the many archival requests that Stephanie has received. Work on restoring the exhibit space continues on the second floor of the Marine Museum. Stephanie put together a fabulous team to restore the hall of Fishes. I have a picture of one of the team members, Amanda, working on restoring specimens. Stephanie and staff have spent considerable time and effort carefully preserving artifacts as they move them to accommodate film shoots at various locations at the Vanderbilt. The last show to film here, “Gotham” used numerous indoor and outdoor settings. I will pass around a photo of one of the scary characters standing in the invertebrate room. Less scary but still spooky are the Halloween Fun for Children Workshops being offered. Beth has put together a description of them. They have these really cool owls that the student participants will make. There are three workshops. One of them is at night. It’s Mr. Vanderbilt’s Spooky Science Lab, which goes from 6 pm to 8 pm on Friday, October 20, which is this Friday. Then there are two others that are during the day time. Depression glass is selling well in the gift shop. Stephanie has restocked with glass that’s colored in fall colors. Last month I reported that one of our volunteers, Ellen Mason, borrowed suffragette clothing and marched in a parade celebrating the 100th anniversary of Women’s Suffrage Amendment. This poster, which Stephanie 5 gave me, lists Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum as a participant in the rally and in the parade. Dave attended a planetarium conference in St. Louis. He took a look at some new shows, he networked, he shared ideas and looked for strategies and materials that may translate well into the programs that we have here. We’re looking forward to Dave sharing specifics at next month’s committee meeting. The two new lobby exhibits that are being funded by Eric and Laura Gerde will greatly enhance visitor experience. They are both hands-on, interactive and appropriate for all ages. One will be a kiosk that demonstrates centripetal force, and the other will be a display of stars where visitors can illuminate constellations and learn about them. Lance and Elizabeth are working on funding for the third planetarium lobby exhibit that has to do with gravity and guessing your weight on other worlds. Stephanie and staff are putting together a two page back-to-back patriotic handout of what the Vanderbilts did for the government and the war effort. I guess, Sue, you’re working on that as well. MS. MADLINGER: Yes. MS. OLDRIN MONES: The brochure will be available for the big Veteran’s Day celebration, but it could be made available any time during the year. The DAR contributed $100 for publication of the brochure, and they will have their logo and chapter name included. Kathy Dulanto arranged an October 11 meeting between Bethpage Superintendent, Terry Clark, and Beth, our Education Manager. Terry was recommended by Eric and Laura Gerde because he is known for his innovation and technology, STEM and STEAM programs in his district. Mr. Clark arrived with an impressive five-person team who immediately engaged with Beth and discussed preliminary ideas for the education center, which as you know as the Carriage House.