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Chanute museum members prepared to install new board
Tue, 08/17/2010 - 7:00am | Dave Hinton
RANTOUL – Chanute Air Museum members expect to elect a new board of directors at an emergency meeting Saturday, after nearly the entire board resigned last month.

The process is a vital one for an entity in dire need of financial aid and direction.

Tom Frasca and Donald Ross are the only board members who did not submit their resignations. Frasca said he had been on the board for just four weeks before the mass resignations. He said he would be glad to remain a board member.

"I'd be happy to help with what I can," Frasca said. "We've got a diamond in the rough, and with the right board we can make it happen."

Frasca, 49, who is active with Frasca International in Urbana, is an avid flight fan and a fan of the museum.

"There is so much history," he said. "It's such a neat place."

Museum curator Mark Hanson said it has not been determined if the new board will conduct a business meeting after the election.

"At the very least, after the business meeting proper, maybe the new board would informally get together and set its first meeting date," Hanson said.

The museum has a membership of more than 600 persons. And it will be those members who will elect the new board.

The museum has struggled with finances the last several years.

In a June interview, former board Chairman William Geibel of Champaign said the museum is like many not-for-profit organizations that have suffered from the country's economic downturn. He said donations are down, grants are drying up and visitor numbers have leveled off.

The museum foundation received a $119,000 Department of Housing and Urban Development grant and contracted with an Indianapolis firm – Loring, Sternberg & Associates – to conduct a fundraising feasibility study.

Nick Parkevich, consultant with the firm, was present at the board's meeting last month, expecting to give his report. That didn't happen because of the mass resignations of board members.

Frasca said staff and volunteers have kept the museum up and running in the meantime.

"Robin (York, administrative assistant) and Mark (Hanson) have been doing a great job," Frasca said. "They've been running it out there on their own, keeping the doors open and the people coming through."

Frasca said of the museum, "It's been there for 16 years. Maybe we can apply a little direction, sound business practice and see what kind of ... support we can get."

Saturday's meeting begins at 1 p.m. at the museum, 1011 Pacesetter Drive, Rantoul.

GETTING OFF THE GROUND: Air museum not swimming in money, but its financial condition is improving
By DAVE HINTON
Rantoul Press editor

Perhaps state and federal governments could take a cue from the Chanute Air Museum.

The museum has gone from an operation bleeding red ink to one that is in the pink — or make that in the black.

The museum has transformed from being in danger of closure because of poor finances just two years ago to having money in the bank.

Nancy Kobel, museum board president, credits the board as well as staff and volunteers for the turnaround.

“We are operating in the black,” Kobel said. “I’m thrilled about that.”

She admitted that the museum still has “a long way to go” financially but added, “I sat here, and when I heard that (the museum was in the black), I said, ‘Wow! In just a little over two years we have really turned a corner here.’”

Kobel credits good decision-making for the patient getting off life support and breathing on his own.

“It’s not just the board,” she said. “The staff has been very much involved. We take their ideas and suggestions as to how we’re spending our money and what our needs are here.”

An example is a billboard that the museum was renting space on in Indiana for $500 a month. Staff felt it wasn’t worth the cost.

“When you have more pressing priorities, you have to rethink things,” Kobel said.

Another example is the decision to buy the museum’s phone system instead of renting it.

“When that contract was up it was cheap enough to purchase our phone system outright,” Kobel said, “and that’s not money that we’re having to pay out every month.

“That money can go to curation and the gift shop.”

The expansion of the gift shop — doubling its size — was another decision that has proved to be sound, Kobel said. The gift shop has turned into a money maker.

Another boost has been Curator Mark Hanson’s securing of grant money for museum preservation purposes.

“With grants you typically have to show 12-18 months of financial stability before they consider your proposal,” Kobel said.

The museum has a better chance of obtaining such grants if it continues to operate with a sound budget.

The museum will continue to do well if events such as last weekend’s Thanksgiving Family Fun Days continue to be a success. Several hundred people visited to see the museum’s newly developed Chanute timeline and the new DC-9 flight simulator as well as other attractions.

Despite the optimism, the public shouldn’t get the idea that the museum has stacks of greenbacks in its safe.

“We’re not flush with big bucks to do whatever we want,” Kobel said, “but things are going in the right direction.”

The museum has one full-time employee, Hanson. Robin Calhoon, the new event coordinator, is a part-time employee as is bookkeeper Carol Potts.

The museum relies a great deal on volunteers, but the board is finding that “the days of people volunteering are going by the wayside,” Kobel said.

“I know other organizations feel the same issue pop up. We are grateful for the people who do volunteer.”

Most of the museum’s volunteers are retirees, but retirees have lives, too, and often have other things they want to be doing. That makes it difficult to find enough people to man the museum at times.

Kobel said the board is considering bringing in a “day-to-day” manager. That position could be filled either with a full-time person or more than one part-timer.

“Some of that will depend on who applies, what their availability might be,” Kobel said. “If we could find someone who would be a great find and they could only work part time, then we might also look for another person who can also work part time.”

The board also wants to develop a team arrangement so that employees can back each other up if one of them has to be gone.

That won’t include the curator’s job, which is specialized, but will involve many other jobs at the museum.

While the museum appears to be heading in the right direction financially, the question of where it will call home remains uncertain.

The museum is housed in Grissom Hall, which also houses classes for Lincoln’s Challenge Academy and Rantoul Theatre Group’s Grissom Hall Theatre.

Village officials have said they will close down the aging building when Lincoln’s Challenge Academy’s new campus is built in the next few years. That will leave the air museum and theater group looking for new digs.