COMMISSIONERS PRESENT:Jeanette McKee, Arnie Olsen, Diane Rice, Jeff Safford, Mark Simonich, Rosana Skelton, Mary Oliver, Dale Mahlum, Bill Howell, Patrick Keim, Judy McNally, Maureen Averill, John Lawton,

Others present:Jeff Tiberi, Karlee Smith, John Ellingsen, Karla Boyd, Nancy Allen, Randy Kleindorfer, Suzie Johnson, Jerry Fox

Call to Order, Welcome, Introductions - Jeanette McKee opened the meeting by introducing new Commissioners Judy McNally, Pat Keim and Mark Simonich.Each gave a brief introduction and their backgrounds.

MOTION:  A motion was made to approve the minutes from the September 11, 2001 Commission meeting. The motion was seconded and passed unanimously.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Governance Committee – Rosana Skelton – Rosana reported that the Nominating Committee discussed whether there was still a need for a Governance Committee, so it’s possible this committee may be eliminated. Rosana referred to Dale as chair of the Nominating Committee to discuss the committee’s recommendations.

Nominating Committee – Dale Mahlum – Dale reported that the Nominating Committee had met and decided to recommend Rosana Skelton to fill the Chair position and John Lawton for the Vice Chair. Dale referred Commissioners to a handout of Nominating Committee Recommendations.  Maureen Averill referred the group to the Governance Plan, which has a section on subcommittees. The plan includes a list of subcommittees, one of which is the Governance Committee, so if we change the committee structure the Governance Committee needs to relook at the Governance Plan also. Discussion followed about the need to rework the makeup of the Executive Committee. It was agreed that Commissioners will send comments on the restructuring of all committees to Rosana by Jan 15, and that the current Executive Committee will prepare a recommendation at a meeting in January.

Motion:  Dale Mahlum made a motion to elect Rosana Skelton as Commission Chair and John Lawton as Vice Chair of the Commission for the coming year.The motion was seconded by Maureen Averill and passed unanimously.

M & F Committee – Maureen Averill - Maureen reported that the F & M Committee met in October. The Committee approved the 2002 proposed budget for recommendation to the full Commission, but Maureen said that since the Commission’s discussion on futuring with Ginny Tribe yesterday, she suggested that some items might need to be tweaked based on new priorities identified by the Commission at yesterday’s work session.

Jeff Tiberi presented the budget and explained that this budget reflects the calendar year, but that our accounting records are kept on a fiscal year from July 1-June 30. Maureen Averill reiterated the need to defer budget approval until we receive Ginny Tribe’s report (Ginny’s report should be available by December 14).Rosana Skelton suggested it would be a good idea to review and adopt Ginny’s report to make sure the final report reflects what everyone intended. It was agreed that Rosana would initiate a conference call or some means of polling Commissioners for approval the first week of January.

Karlee Smith asked that the Commission make a decision now on whether to accept her proposal regarding the Business & Marketing Manager position.Karlee explained that it would be much more efficient to start the new calendar year with the new accounting person if the proposal is accepted. Arnie Olsen added that it would help him if a decision were made now so he can proceed with filling the position left vacant if his accounting technician becomes full-time with the Commission.

Jeff Tiberi added that there are other projects in the proposed budget that he would like to obtain a decision on so the work can proceed in January.Jeff asked that the Commission also considering approving the Bonanza Inn plumbing project which would be done in conjunction with the SAT fire grant work planned for the Bonanza, and the approval of the 1.0 FTE Preservation Specialist to help accomplish this work.

Jeff referred to his handout for staffing recommendations.  Jeanette said that she heard strong support for an on-site manager at the futuring meeting yesterday. Collective look at all positions being considered. Funding may have to come from capital reserves.Look at the bigger perspective.Arnie said that using the reserve funds would only be a temporary solution. It was agreed that F & M would have a meeting on January 29, along with an Executive Committee meeting the same day since there are some common members. Karlee will secure meeting rooms.

Motion:  Maureen Averill made a motion to approve two months of the regular operating budget plus the Bonanza Inn plumbing project, acceptance of Karlee’s proposal and 1.0 FTE Preservation Specialist to be paid from Federal funds. Mark Simonich amended the motion to read: approval of two months of the regular operating budget plus the Bonanza Inn plumbing project, hire the 1.0 FTE Preservation Specialist for one year, convert Karlee’s position to the Business & Marketing Manager position, increase the ½ time accounting technician position to full-time, excluding approval of other new positions. Maureen seconded the motion and it was approved unanimously.

The Commission asked Jeff Tiberi to provide them with a slightly different format/detail of the staffing options so it would be easier for them to compare the options. Commissioners were asked to take another look at the staffing options in light of yesterday’s conversation.

SAT Grant Budget – Jeff Tiberi - Jeff Tiberi asked the Commission for the option to use up to $300,000 of our capital reserve match for the SAT grant, until the Montana History Foundation raises the $300K match.  Concern was expressed about the need to maintain a certain balance in our reserve for emergencies, and the desire of the Commission to pursue more interpretation with some of these funds. Support was also expressed for the project because it’s a fire protection grant and the money would be paid back to the reserve—the request is for a loan for the match.  If the buildings burn we won’t have anything left.It was mentioned that maybe we do need to emphasize preservation efforts for one at least one more year, that maybe we’re trying to do the interpretation too soon.

Motion:  John Lawton made a motion to approve a loan of $300,000 for matching grant funds to be taken temporarily from capital reserves, and to make a commitment to raise $300,000 to pay the funds back to our capital account. John added that we should assign someone on the commission to take on this task with a timeframe of 3 years.

Arnie Olsen told the Commission that we now have a very healthy Foundation and that a number of Foundation board members have put up personal money—one gave $250,000. Arnie said that now the Foundation needs the help of our Commission to accomplish this, whether it’s through personal giving or some other means. Arnie said Jeff Tiberi and he have already made personal pledges to the campaign—that’s how strongly they feel about the project. John Lawton offered his support to help with the project.

Arnie also said that Joe Wallace of the NPS would consider approving $30-40,000 of expenditures before the Feds see the matching funds.  They may also be more generous if we lay out a timeline for them, indicating where the matching funds will be coming from.

Mary Oliver seconded the motion and it passed with a vote of 10 for and 3 against.

Salaried Positions - Mark Simonich– Mark Simonich reported on his assignment from the previous Commission meeting to have his personnel staff review the two curator positions for exempt status. Mark said that his personnel staff believes that these two positions would not qualify as exempt positions. Mark said that we can require them to take comp time as opposed to overtime, but these extra hours would still have to be paid at 1.5 times their hourly rate.Mark explained that his staff looked at the positions in three different categories. Professional exemption didn’t fit--they are professionals, but they are making recommendations to superiors and are not the professional who in fact makes the decisions. They have a fair amount of authority in administrative duties but are still considered non-exempt and we are held to the overtime rule by the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act. Arnie said his experience has been that upper management is exempt and that’s about it—middle management is not exempt. Jeff Safford expressed frustration regarding the issue of our short 100-day season and many of our staff end up having their 40 hours in by Wednesday.If we don’t want to pay overtime, this seriously affects the ability of our staff to accomplish the work needed in the summer. John Lawton said that the overtime is more easily paid than the penalty for not paying it, which results in quadruple damages for violating this act.

Montana History Foundation – Jay Russell – Jay Russell gave new commissioners an introductory packet for the History Foundation. Jay also showed the latest full color brochure produced by the Foundation to promote the Historic VC/NC campaign. Jay said the membership program has about $5,000 in hand right now. The brochure has just been completed and they plan a mailing in March to prepare for the season. They will also use our Finding Color newsletter to reach more—the History Foundation is managing our mailing list, and this ensures that they don’t duplicate.Mary Oliver asked if more addresses of prospects would be wanted—Jay said that new addresses are always welcome.Jay showed the Historic VC/NC window decal and canvas tote bags, which are both benefits of membership.He also referred to the latest History Foundation newsletter, which has a special campaign for the Virginia City street lamp project (have $1,200 in hand to date from that newsletter).

Jay told about the Foundation’s capital campaign, “History Runs Through It.”The capital campaign has a $4 million goal, of which $1.2 million has been identified for MHC projects ($300K matching grant monies for the SAT grant are part of the $1.2 million. The $300K is the number one priority for MHC funds in the campaign.)  The capital campaign has a little less than $1 million so far and they just started in July.

John Lawton asked for periodic financial reports from the Foundation, including their progress to date—what’s been collected and what’s been pledged for the future. Jay said they now have $100K actually in hand and the rest are pledges for the future.Some are using the endowment tax credit, which is a great option. This year you can contribute up to $20,000 and only about $6,000 comes out of pocket (the rest comes back to you in tax credits). Jeanette reminded everyone that 15% of membership dollars would go to the Foundation to cover their costs. The Foundation receives 0% from the capital campaign then dollars raised outside the capital campaign they receive 6%. John Lawton told Jay he had some ideas for sources of funding for the SAT grant match, so John and Jay will connect in Great Falls on John’s ideas for raising the matching funds.

P & I Committee – Jeff Safford – Jeff Safford reported that the P & I Committee met in 10/17, but there were key committee members missing, including Arnie, so they didn’t quite get done what they hoped to. Jeff said the group toured both Virginia City and Nevada City with an interpretive theme in mind. Jeff went through a number of ideas discussed by the P & I

Committee Recommendations included:

• Interpretation at the Dudley Garage and Contents Corner
• Visitor Center improvements – the current space is too small and cluttered and should be considered temporary.
• McFarland Curatorial Center – include more interpretation
• River of Gold – consider locating key mining artifacts that are “missing” from this collection and eliminate some of the duplicate items, complete the interpretive brochure in progress.
• Nevada City – is currently a liability that we’re not getting adequate dollar return on. Could do some things to increase visitation.
• Nevada City Depot – the Bovey History Center was appealing and is very exciting to the entire Virginia City community. P & I Committee wasn’t necessarily sold on using the upper story exclusively for special membership holders—maybe other purposes as well.
• Music machines – there was a controversy among P & I members about whether the machines should be repaired or even played. Jeff Safford said that Art Reblitz (music machine expert/consultant) said the machines work better in our climate so using them is not an issue.
• Pat Roath and Sue Near have worked together on a grant application for further conservation.
• Nevada City – all agreed that it needs a major increase in signage and repairing of current signs.

Jeff Safford spoke to the structure of the P & I Committee, commenting that only 2 Commission members were on this committee. P & I also oversees the acquisition subcommittee, which hasn’t been active. Jeff said that he thinks it’s too much to ask of MHS for 6-7 staff members to come down for the meetings, and Jeff thinks we do not have enough input from the Virginia City public—currently only two members, Karla Boyd and Suzie Johnson, President of VCPA.

Railroad Advisory Council – Dale Mahlum – Dale reported that RAC hasn’t met since the last Commission meeting, but they have their annual meeting this evening.  Dale referred Commissioners to the Railroad budget in their packets. Dale said they have had some problems with brake shoes, but Mr. Larkin is now helping out with the project. They would eventually like to expand the length of the track down to Alder—Mr. Bovey bought the right of way years ago, and Dale has been talking to Kirk Hansen who says there may be some T-21 funds available.  Dale expressed satisfaction with the train crews we now have available to us.They are qualified people for working on the train who are good with the public. Dale reported that Gov. Martz came to Virginia City in August and she rode the engine and pulled the whistle. Dale said the trip really opened her eyes to what VC/NC have to offer.

Sue Ford Bovey Trust Update – Dale Mahlum – Dale reported that he just received the appraisal reports on the 17 pieces of property the Bovey Trust is considering donating to us.Dale will meet tomorrow with the attorneys. Dale told attorneys we would pay for the appraisal if MHC gets the properties.The appraisal on the Dudley Garage came back at $0 because of the high liability and risk. Jeff Tiberi said that in order for the property exchange to happen before the end of the year, we would have to the December Land Board agenda and tomorrow is the deadline. Jeff said that it would be nearly impossible to complete the EA’s and HazMat reports for each piece by tomorrow.

It was suggested that the Bovey Trust donate the properties to the Foundation who could then donate them to MHC when we have the appropriate paperwork completed. The Foundation would then act as temporary custodian until Jeff gets all the transfer documents ready, thus allowing the Bovey Estate to take the tax credit this year.Jeff will talk with Tim Bartz, Foundation President to see if this is a possibility.

Jeff Tiberi reported that Chuck Herringer has also approached us about possibly buying his properties. Judy McNally said she knows Chuck so she will talk to him regarding property negotiations.

Co-op Advertising Ad Hoc Committee – Diane Rice – Diane reported that the Co-Op Ad Committee met on September 19^th, which was good timing after the events of Sept. 11.  Diane said this was a very productive meeting.The Committee decided there is already a substantial effort to bring tourists to MT, so we would concentrate more of our efforts on recruiting visitors from Yellowstone, Bozeman, Butte.Karlee has a meeting next week with the VC Chamber Ad Committee; Diane suggested that we have another Co-Op meeting shortly after that. Diane recommended that the committee continue and plan to meet before F & M Committee meeting on Jan. 29.

Director’s Report – Jeff Tiberi

Progress in 2001 – Jeff referred Commissioners to the “Progress in 2001” handout.Jeff told the Commission we had a great staff this year and they completed many projects.

Land issues – Land issues have been consuming a lot of Jeff’s time. Between the Reeder’s Alley acquisition, BLM land transfer, Sue Ford Bovey Trust properties, and other potential land acquisitions, he has been kept very busy completing Environmental Assessments, Hazardous Materials reports, appraisals, etc. to satisfy the State of Montana requirements.

Frontier House – Jeff reported that we now have one of the three cabin displays completed and will have the other two ready by May. Frontier House has a website that is receiving 5,000 hits per week, so there is some real interest in this project. Jeff plans to have a formal opening of the exhibit in the spring about the same time as the series is aired. Bill Howell reinforced Jeff’s enthusiasm about Frontier House.Bill suggested that close to the same time (May), we consider doing some TV spots, PSAs, excerpts from the director to run telling people to come and see the real buildings that were used for that era.Bill spoke of    Travel Montana’s upcoming promotion of Virginia City with their “come to your own back yard” theme and maybe we could include Frontier House promotion as part of this.Jeff suggested that we might also seek funding through Gold West Co-op $$ for PSAs. In addition, we could also look for ways to promote/partner with TV stations.

SAT grant – Jeff told Commissioners that we have identified a number of great fire protection projects to be accomplished with the SAT grant, including rewiring the Bonanza Inn, Fairweather Inn and other sites where larger numbers of people gather.

Sen. Burns Office Financial Request – Jeff said he found out the next deadline to submit funding requests to Sen. Burn’s office is February, so we plan to revise slightly our request from last year and request $9.8 million.

New Commissioner Orientation – Jeff is planning an orientation for new commissioners when the weather gets a little warmer—probably May or June in Virginia City.

American Association of Museums – Jeff passed around a brochure describing a program offered by AAOM, where we can bring them in as experts to see where we’re going, where we’ve been. We could apply for a grant, 1^st come, 1^st serve which range from $300 - $900. They could do a number of different assessments for us, including: governance assessment, institutional assessment, collections management, and public dimensions assessment. Their expert would go through our operations with us as a group.You can also request whom you would like to come—Jeff said he would probably request someone from Col. Williamsburg.Jeff said he would like to pursue this opportunity and asked for thoughts from the Commission because if we want a Governance review, the Commission has to pass a resolution.The Commission agreed that it would be worth looking at and a resolution can be drawn up.

The Teaching Company – Jeff said he wrote to them and recommended Jeff Safford for a program on Virginia City. Jeff Safford in turn recommended Harry Fritz to do the program since he is such a showman. The Teaching Company has agreed to come out and hear Harry Fritz lecture before they make any further determination.

NC Hydrant Project – Jeff Tiberi gave credit to Randy Kleindorfer and Julie Johnson for finding this grant and preparing the grant application.The grant is from BLM and is a match between five parties associated with Virginia City. Our portion is $26,000. The project includes a total of seven hydrants in Nevada City, which will draw water from our ponds across the highway.

NC Register – Jeff explained that we are trying to get Nevada City nominated on the National Historic Register so we can spend federal dollars there.Some work has been done on the application.

State Park Futures Committee – Jeff reported that he has been at meetings with the State Park Futures Committed, which includes five legislators and one of their potential topics is Virginia City. Jeff said they haven’t gotten to us yet in their meetings yet, but they may look at whether it makes sense to have Virginia City added to the State Parks system.

Trends in US – Jeff passed around an article from, “West Wing and the Gunsmoke,” from US News & World Reports. The article refers to the “new team in town [Bushes], tough talking westerns, PAX TV has recreated Bonanza.” Jeff said that this type of trend can’t but help us in Virginia City.

Preservation Crew traveling – Jeff reported that our Preservation Crew is in demand for projects in the Western region of US—Anacappa, Channel Islands, Alaska, Hawaii, San Diego.Our crew gets to go and learn some other preservation techniques—but they are going as the experts, Bernie will be going too as one of the foremost expert in preservation in the US.This will be a reward for their hard work in the summer and will also save us money on salaries and benefits, plus collect $$ for overhead.

Harkins Flour Mill – Mary Oliver asked whether there was any progress on the Harkins flour mill. Jeff said that he has spoken to Lloyd and Anne, but they haven’t made a final decision yet.

Jerry Fox – Town of VC- Jerry reported that resort taxes for Virginia City were up about 2% from last year, during the same period. This is very good since most of Montana was down. Jerry said the Olsen case was assigned to a panel of judges a month ago, so that issue is still unsettled. Jerry reported the results of the recent city election—new commissioners are: Ken Shields, Colin Mathews and Bill Doyle, replacing outgoing commissioners: Mick Welton, Chuck Sturgill and Linda Hamilton.Jerry said the implications of the election remain to be seen. Jeff said he has heard that some of those elected are against the design review ordinances, but it remains to be seen.

Virginia City Preservation Alliance - Suzie Johnson– Suzie reported that VCPA is going strong, with 60% of their members being Virginia City residents, and 40% from outside the towns. They had a good year and continue to work with MHC and the Town.  Suzie referred to the handout on Interpretation & Education in Virginia City that Jeff previously handed out.  She said that many of the items on the list are things that VCPA is doing. Right now they are working on their budget and planning for 2002.  They will continue the Wednesday night lecture series, which keeps getting better and better. They may consider doing programs at the new amphitheater created by MHC near the pond. Suzie said there is lots of town participation and she really feels good about their grass roots organization. Suzie thanked the Commission for all their hard work—“we’re right there with you.”

MEETING DATES FOR 2002: February 13 – Helena; June 11 – Virginia City; September 12 – Virginia City; December 3 – Helena.

NEXT MEETING DATE:February 13, Helena—replaces March meeting previously scheduled.