Behind the Veil Project meeting, content unidentified, 1990s

Download
- Rights
- Limited Re-Use
  CC BY-NC 4.0
  More Rights Info
- Files (2)
- MP3 Part 1
- MP3 Part 2
- Please be patient with media downloads. They are often large files.
Share

Embed Code
<iframe src='//idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4vt1tz6v?embed=true' height='125px' width='100%' frameborder='0' marginwidth='0' marginheight='0' scrolling='no' allowfullscreen></iframe>
Permalink

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4vt1tz6v
Skip to Item Info

Loading the media player...

Files for this Item

Transcript

Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.

Iris	There's always a second chance.	0:01
Dean White	There's always a second chance. And as they say at my age, you're going through your third finding yourself or your midlife crisis, and I've had several of those. It's a pleasure to pull you all together. Sorry that some of the folks that said they were going to be here and about whom we maneuvered the meeting, in order to get a quorum so that David Singleton wouldn't have to point out that we were meeting illegally, haven't made it. I gather that we have to wait for one more full-time member before we have a quorum. Is that correct? So what we'll do is move along as if we had one in terms of the agenda items, and then come back to those that we might need to have a vote on.	0:02
Dean White	The minutes were distributed. I read them with some interest. I was saying to Alex earlier, when you have a schedule that brings you up to dinner and you haven't had your pre-dinner drink, I was very nervous about finding a little wine out there. And it must've been I had more wine than I thought at the last meeting. Because as we got to about page five or six in the minutes, I thought, "Was I at this meeting?"	0:36
Dean White	"Dean White said things hadn't been resolved satisfactorily. Dean White has told Joel Fleischman where to go, and Mr. Fleischman responded haughtily and all that." I don't think I was at this meeting, but it turns out, of course, that I'm just joking about the things I said. But it is true that we had a very productive meeting last time, the minutes of which have been distributed. Are there any additions or corrections to those very exclusive minutes?	0:52
Iris	No. I think there's a sense that we should record these minutes clearly since they were kind of critical for us.	1:18
Dean White	Right. And I thought it was done well. And I appreciate that, by the way. The next option is to go into executive session to talk about people who aren't here among ourselves. Not to be recorded. Does anybody want to do that tonight or are we all feeling in pretty good humor? Moving right along. I hear no call for the executive section. The election of board members we are postponing until we have a quorum. And now we move onto the highlight of the evening prior to the presentation at 7:00. The director's report.	1:28
Iris	Oh, okay. I was hoping we might discuss the board members and I thought we're going to—	1:48
Dean White	Oh, really? Even without—Sure.	1:48
Iris	Could we go ahead and have a discussion about the election of board members and offices?	1:48
Dean White	Good.	1:48
Iris	Because I'm afraid that if—	1:48
Dean White	We move along—	1:48
Iris	John doesn't come—	1:48
Jack	We'd end up phoning him.	1:48
Dean White	Okay.	1:48
Iris	Then we won't have any quorum and this way we'll have a sentiment of those members who are here, and then we can circulate by phone or by paper ballot and then do it that way instead?	1:48
Dean White	Very good.	2:25
Jack	Yeah, I actually am meeting [indistinct].	2:25
Iris	Right, right.	2:25
Dean White	That's great. Okay. If you look at the tab three, the election of board members, paragraph one says that a person asked Reynolds Price if he'd be willing to serve. Mr. Price indicated a willingness to do that and had some enthusiasm for that. Does anyone want to raise any discussion or add any commentary to that? I think he'd be a spectacular member chair. There was another paragraph that said that there's a little conflict of interest potential in appearances and that therefore we were going to avoid doing it right away until everything had been settled. That seems to be not consequential to me and I would like to hear, do we move that Mr. Price be admitted from our point of view as a member of the board, so our director can inform the other people on the ballot what we've done? All those in favor say, "Aye."	2:32
David	Aye.	3:20
Jack	Aye.	3:20
Iris	Aye.	3:20
Dean White	No?	3:22
David	Well, I think, technically, the way we're going to have to do this is with an actual—well, I mean we'll pass around the resolution and everybody will have to sign.	3:22
Iris	Okay.	3:27
David	Unless we got a quorum.	3:27
Speaker 6	Okay, well I think with the sense of the group—	3:32
Dean White	The sense group is this, and that's what we're going to say, and then we'll add one person soon and then we'll have the quorum and we'll be able to go ahead then with one.	3:33
David	Okay.	3:39
Dean White	Or we hope that that's what will happen.	3:40
Iris	Okay.	3:41
Dean White	The second person, also who has good news, I think, is that John Hope Franklin has indicated a willingness to serve another term and I'm pleased to have him recommended to us for that. He's usually a very steady member, regular attender. Major participant. Any comments or discussion on John recycling, so to speak? All those in favor indicate by saying "Aye."	3:46
Jack	Aye.	4:10
Dean White	No? And we will still do what David suggested. Just so you don't get upset, David. If the board's urging, Dick White also agreed to stand again for the chairmanship, all those in favor say "Aye." No, I'm just kidding. I'd be happy to do that. I don't want, however, to press myself upon the group and if there's another alternative that y'all would prefer, y'all can take your dinner back. No, no. But I'd be happy to do that again. I don't know how to call for a vote on myself, so—. Is anybody opposing me? No.	4:13
Iris	And you'd go up for another three-year term.	4:42
Dean White	Okay, that's good. And Rick Montague indicated his unwillingness. Jack Murrow suggested the board consider the slot, Alice Montague as Chairman of Lyndhurst Board of Trustees, where do we stand with that?	4:46
Iris	Well, we would like to propose Alice for a membership on the board, but I believe that Jack would speak with her afterward.	4:55
Jack	I've not spoken with her about it, but I will do so if there's a feeling that you'd like to do that. I think that she would be a good trustee.	5:07
Dean White	Okay. So then our thought here is that we give Jack a vote of support to go talk with Alice and report back to us on that, and then we will solicit, if we don't get a quorum, an opinion from the group after hearing back from you. And you'll contact—right.	5:17
Iris	Iris.	5:38
Dean White	Iris.	5:38
David	Iris, should we talk about our backup plan? That's—	5:40
Iris	Yeah, that might be—	5:46
Dean White	Good.	5:46
Iris	A good idea.	5:46
David	If it turns out that Alice's obligations, including her business, is such that she doesn't feel she can serve, there is another trustee in the foundation who I think has a keen interest in this work and who attended the opening, Nelson Campbell. And so I will, with your encouragement, I will speak with Alice, and—	5:49
Dean White	And is there discussion on that issue? Why don't we say that we as a group will support that, and then, once again, with Alice's yes, then we'll hear from Iris, and with Alice's no, then you proceed to the next candidate and let Iris know.	6:14
Iris	Okay, yeah.	6:29
Dean White	Okay. Now, the board will also need to elect officers. Can we elect officers without a quorum? No, all right. Um—	6:29
Jack	We can at least get some names in the slots without worrying about it.	6:37
Iris	And then do it also as much into that meeting.	6:40
Dean White	Right. So. We're all saying Rick Montague has held position of vice chairman, Jack Murrow as treasurer. We clearly need another nominee for vice chairman. Shall we discuss that as an issue? Who would like to raise some names for consideration?	6:43
David	[indistinct].	6:59
Dean White	Is the vice chairman constrained in any way to be an A, or a B, or any of those things?	7:09
Iris	Uh-uh.	7:12
Dean White	Okay.	7:12
Iris	The vice chairman's role is just to run the meeting when the chairman is not here.	7:15
Jack	The only way.	7:18
Dean White	What?	7:18
Jack	The only way.	7:18
Dean White	And when you find you're not feeling well, I'll listen.	7:26
Jack	So there'll never be a need.	7:26
Dean White	That's right. That's exactly right. I think there's a page in here that has all of us listed.	7:30
Iris	Yes.	7:34
Jack	Backup.	7:34
Iris	Right after the—	7:34
Dean White	Right before pad four, right?	7:34
Iris	Right. Yeah.	7:34
Dean White	Okay.	7:34
Iris	Actually here are all the numbers.	7:34
Jack	The duties of treasurer have been really quite cumbersome.	7:34
Dean White	Actually I thought I would I lead back over to the second.	9:02
Jack	I'm hoping to be spared.	9:02
Dean White	Would you like to be vice chairman? Because I think you would be incredible.	9:02
Jack	No.	9:02
Dean White	Because if you thought the treasurer did nothing, wait until you see what you do as vice chairman.	9:02
Jack	I may be able to sustain the same level of performance.	9:02
Dean White	Well, I think we could work with that. So I would like to put, actually, you on the list as a candidate for the vice chairman, I think that would be very appropriate. It adds diversity to your life.	9:02
Iris	And [indistinct].	9:02
Dean White	Do you know how much fun it is to deal with no money?	9:02
Jack	Mentor.	9:02
Speaker 6	I see a lot of work.	9:02
Jack	That's nothing.	9:02
Dean White	This is the symbol, Jen. This is the symbol. This means that [indistinct] there's also this much money at your discretion.	9:02
Jack	It's something that David made us do.	9:02
Iris	Yes.	9:02
David	That's right.	9:02
Jack	Just calling—	9:02
Dean White	We wanted someone to oversee Iris, so that she wouldn't be signing her own checks and things.	9:02
Iris	Yeah.	9:02
Dean White	Well, so far we have one nominee for each position. Are there other nominees from the table?	9:08
Jack	It's just the other people who are present.	9:15
Dean White	Well, that means we're nicer than most groups. Most groups usually elect people right up there.	9:18
David	Board member would be appropriate.	9:18
Dean White	David, are there any legal things we should worry about?	9:27
David	Well, what was going to say, I was just checking the by-laws. It may be more appropriate, actually, to have one of the staff people act as treasurer. There are needs for this organization that have arose, there are real functions that a treasurer could serve, and I asked Bill if Bill would be willing, I think that might be an idea for the board to consider. I also think that it might be wise to appointment some kind of executive, assistant executive director, or some kind of back up officer. There was some need during the signing of the lease, and the purchase and all, that Iris was technically the only officer that could sign something. So there may be just a need for the board to consider that. I mean, I don't have any suggestions on who that would be.	9:29
Speaker 6	I cheerfully withdraw my nominee.	10:12
Dean White	Well, this opens us up then to the possibilities of appointing a member of the staff, who's names are listed on—	10:25
Iris	You'd probably find it in the minutes, the staff are all here, the permanent staff.	10:30
Dean White	All right. Present from staff, Darnel, Jaylene Butler, Caroline Jones, Nick Shawny, [indistinct] and David Venter.	10:30
Speaker 6	So this person has power of attorney over ours. Good.	10:49
David	The treasurer doesn't need to be—	10:56
Dean White	Well, it's because David indicated that we should do it that way, or might consider doing that way, doesn't mean we have to do it that way.	10:59
Jack	That's right. It's just a suggestion.	11:03
David	What is stated about the duties of the treasurer?	11:10
Jack	Basically to keep charge of the funds and do the books and records of the organization.	11:12
Iris	Well, it would seem that Bill would be appropriate, given that he's the business manager.	11:19
Dean White	Is there any conflict of interest between being business manager and being—	11:26
Jack	I don't think so.	11:29
Dean White	Did I hear, that is a formal nomination of Bill?	11:33
Jack	I'll make that nomination.	11:33
Dean White	Okay. He's been nominated. Is there a second?	11:33
Iris	I second.	11:33
Dean White	Okay. Movement seconded. We got a candidate here. Any other?	11:33
Jack	And this is sort of advisory?	11:33
Dean White	These are all advisory. Yes. We understand. We're just doing it to make sure that no one feels that we're steamrollering anything.	11:52
Jack	Okay.	12:01
Dean White	Any other suggestions? All those in favor of this candidate, say, "Yay."	12:01
Iris	Yay.	12:08
Dean White	Opposed? Okay. So this will be the one, when we do that quorum, that we'll put down there as our treasurer. And that leaves us with Jack.	12:09
Jack	Are we saying that Bill would be treasurer and perform this function that they described as backup?	12:19
David	No. That was a separate thing. In fact, we would not want the treasurer to perform that function.	12:30
Jack	Right.	12:33
David	We'd want a different person.	12:33
Iris	This is for signing legal documents, let's have Alex as the backup. I think Alex would be—	12:39
Dean White	Okay.	12:43
Iris	Would that be all right with you?	12:43
Jack	Yeah. Is that a position that has to be created by the board, as well as filled, or is it provided for?	12:50
David	Yes. It's provided for, the board can elect such associate executive directors as it chooses, they don't have to be board members.	12:54
Dean White	Okay. So-	12:54
Iris	And it's primarily for handling certain kinds of documents that—	13:03
Jack	Business matters that might come up. Really, we probably should have titled the new president, and have a vice president, because the outside—	13:10
Iris	Oh, for the corporate guy—	13:14
Jack	Not real comfortable with the term, executive director. They don't know what that means.	13:16
Iris	Oh.	13:19
Jack	So they have an issue with that. But we don't need to attend to that this year.	13:19
Iris	Is that when you were president?	13:19
Jack	I don't know.	13:19
Dean White	So that the outside—	13:28
Jack	I thought it was just title inflation.	13:29
Speaker 6	Something to inspire.	13:35
Dean White	I hope it was decided at a more serious meeting than, so far, we've had this evening. Okay. So there are several issues on the table, so let's bring it back to the several issues on the table. We have a suggestion and a recommendation and approval for Bill to be the treasurer. We have not yet formally said, "All in favor of Jack Murrow being the vice chairman." All in favor of recommending this to the group, say, "Aye." Among us, aye. Opposed? Good. Now, the other position that was put on the table is that we might have a backup to Iris, for various reasons that David has described, and the suggestion is that Alex would be a good candidate and a good member to do that. Is there any discussion or disagreement with that suggestion of wanting to create the position, and two, to have Alex fill that position for a term of—	13:37
Jack	Well, these are usually annual.	14:26
Dean White	Annual?	14:27
Jack	So the position is called, backup.	14:27
Dean White	Backup to Iris.	14:33
Jack	Backup to Iris.	14:33
Dean White	We'll put the record machine on and we'll call it a dance. And then it's up to Iris when she doesn't ask.	14:38
Jack	I think the title is associate executive director.	14:44
Dean White	Associate executive director. All right.	14:49
Jack	I believe that's what it is.	14:50
Dean White	So we have an executive director, an associate executive director and in that position now, we have Alex in there?	14:51
Iris	Mm-hmm.	14:55
Dean White	And all these things have to be put on an appropriate ballot, circulated, because I don't think we're making it to the quorum.	14:56
Jack	David, do you think that we ought to amend the bylaws to change Iris' side.	15:01
David	I think so. Yeah. I think that would be wise.	15:09
Jack	Then why don't you just include that in the—	15:10
Dean White	Right. Now, how is that done?	15:20
David	It's a pain in the neck.	15:20
Dean White	Yeah. That's what I thought. And this is just a motion to do this.	15:24
Jack	Right. It's a legal—	15:24
David	Right. It has to go through the board of trustees. It's not like it's difficult, it's just a lot of things.	15:25
Dean White	And we have a council that sits to advise us on how to do this, do you think we could ask the council to set up the papers, to pass it through the board, to get back to us, changing our—	15:28
David	Yeah. Titles.	15:37
Dean White	What are you?	15:39
Iris	What am I now? I'm executive director.	15:41
Dean White	Executive director and the associate executive director to president and vice president, is that possible, David, can work something like that?	15:42
David	Yes.	15:48
Dean White	That would be super. And I think it really is true that once it gets through the rigmarole, it could be put in the consent calendar or something like that and the board isn't going to debate it, so there's not going to be—so now, we not only have new titles, Madam President, Mr. Vice President, but we have people in the slots.	15:48
Iris	Okay. We can continue to use our old titles, this is just for corporate purposes, right?	16:11
Dean White	Right. Well, and when it all comes through though, we'll do it right, but up until then—	16:11
David	You'll have to get all your stationary redone.	16:14
Iris	I know. I know what it feels like.	16:14
Dean White	She got this great deal on four million sheets of Camille colored paper, and we only have used 200 of them. We got a long way to go. So you're going to be the executive director for posterity, right?	16:24
Iris	Yes. Absolutely.	16:40
Dean White	Okay. Now, we have not really had an election, but we have in the minutes who's for it, and what we're recommending, and this will be circulated by mail, David, for everyone to check of a serious vote and send it back.	16:40
Iris	Yeah. And that way, we all get this done.	16:49
Dean White	That's right. And it will be done. Great. We will move then onto the director's report. Tab four. Iris.	16:51
Iris	All right. As you know, instead of doing a report covering the activities for this quarter, I try to sum up where we thought we were going after the last discussions. And basically what we're working on now is trying to co-ordinate and plan a strategy, and arrive at a final form for the photography campaign, which it is our understanding we should go ahead with, in conjunction with developing a more complete and comprehensive long term plan for the center, which will include a longer and larger fundraising effort. More comprehensive fundraising. And as part of the discussions we've been having, we have met with special collections, we're going to meeting with the communications people, we'll probably meet with art department people. We're hoping that the booklet will not need radical revision, because the booklet itself is a kind of conceptual statement. And we always intended that there would be specific information sheets with budgetary information, to go to specific kinds of funders for this.	17:02
Iris	We've also thought about really coming up with a developed timeline. We've been working on that, and I think we would be ready to actually launch the campaign. Well, we're going to start this campaign, following the May 10th party that is being given for Alex, in New York, to celebrate his exhibit at the International Center for Photography. And Joel Fleischman has created a list of guests who have strong links to Duke, and a potential interest in photographic media. And we're very hopeful that those people will be interested in this effort. We've roughly estimated, as Anne has said last time, something like $4 million in needs for that program, but we're not sure that exactly accurate, and we're going to be doing a lot more work on that.	18:24
Iris	I see the final booklet should be ready by early June, to circulate. The actual backup financial information, and more detailed planning will be ready by August. Same time, we're also going to start working on some more longer range plans, and one of the reasons why I think I was reluctant to sort of pin down what things cost, and what kind of income you need, is because there are new initiatives that we see ahead of us, related to having this house, and related to some of the interests of our associates. And one of the large programs we see developing is going to be in the area of community service, service learning related to documentary studies. And we have now a few people working with us, who are doing some advisory work, and have been meeting some people, and are going to be coming up with a report for a plan for us to follow. One thing, I don't know if any of you had a chance to look at the long range plan from two years ago, from May 9th too.	19:28
Iris	In the back of your packet is this plan, I don't know if people had a chance to look at it. But this was the plan that came after the discussions over a period of a couple of years, with the steering committee, I think you'll find [indistinct]. It was very interesting for me to revisit this, because it showed what we have accomplished over this period, in tracking what some of these goals were. And what really fell away was being kind of centers of interest. So there are things that we have said we wanted to do, that I don't think anybody really wants to do, at this point. So we're going to come up with a new long range plan. And I'm hoping that would be ready by the fall as well, and we'll have things much more neatly defined.	20:58
Iris	But yeah, I'd be glad to discuss this in more detail or answer questions. As far as activities this quarter, I'm going to circulate, these are copies of the winners of the Dorothea Lange, and the John Hope Franklin and Julia [indistinct] prize, that those were decided this month. We've also been moving ahead with all of the behind the veil projects. We've been having public presentations. Wendy Ewald's been wrapping up her class, and things have been going very well in that, and we're moving into next stages in both the Ewald project and the behind the veil project for the new funding proposals, for new aspects of those. And so it's been a very busy time, of course we also opened, it seems like a year ago now, when it was only a month ago. And here we are.	21:53
Dean White	What other kind of venues is the Reynolds Price in film available for? Because I missed it and I heard only good things, and I was wondering, do we all wait now, for something special?	22:57
Iris	I should give you an update on that. Charles Guggenheim is negotiating right now with Public Broadcasting System to have a national telecast of it, and I think the presenting station might be the South Carolina Station. We have also sent the video copies, it's not in the final form yet for dissemination. We sent video copies to some certain individuals in the Duke hospital complex, we head up a cancer center. Complex of a cancer center to [indistinct] after discussions with Reynolds and other people, what we realized is, is that there was a whole audience for this film in the medical world, both patients and providers of care for cancer patients.	23:09
Iris	And even hospital administrators and board members on the hospitals, people who are working with these critical issues. Many people who saw this film where very moved by it, and feel it can be very meaningful to distribute it that way. We're looking for some additional support, to help with some promotion money for the film. Charles Guggenheim feels that this will open doors, if they do the promotion, and we explain the things we've asked the medical people about. And we're going to be discussing the social media productions, which really owns the rights to the film, the possibility of the centers taking on the video distribution of it as well as having the chairman [indistinct].	24:16
Jack	So we'll be selling copies at the next board meeting?	25:10
Iris	Yes.	25:10
Speaker 6	I have a copy upstairs, I'll get for you to take, and [indistinct].	25:10
Dean White	Yeah. It would be very interesting. What struck me, two things, one is the distribution of these awards made me think of the senior awards that are in graduation. Are you going to be there this year, in [indistinct] center for documentary study works?	25:15
Iris	Wait, when is graduation?	25:28
Jack	This is May 7th.	25:28
Iris	Yeah. I'm going to be out of town, so—	25:28
Jack	Either-	25:28
Dean White	Well, someone will be there, and your only agenda through—	25:34
Iris	Well, Margaret was doing it.	25:43
Dean White	[indistinct]. Yeah. Great. Great. And then I wondered if in terms of funding to do this film, since The Little Foundation is so generous to do through film and video, whether there's any minor, modest kind of application that you could do to Bill, which comes through me, to them, for this kind of project. That's why I didn't know exactly what kinds of things were needed. But in the 5000 plus or minus range, if there's something that they could do, I'm sure Mary Siemens and company would be very much in favor of helping us out with that.	25:44
Iris	We gave him a copy of the film, didn't we? When Mary was here [indistinct] did we get them a copy?	26:30
Dean White	I don't know.	26:30
Speaker 6	No.	26:30
Iris	Oh, okay. Well, why don't we do that?	26:30
Dean White	Because I'm sure—	26:30
Iris	Yeah.	26:30
Dean White	Helping out with that if you needed that kind of seed money to do the kinds of things you're talking about. The other comment, and then I'll open it up to everybody else to make a comment about this section, is that the student affairs development office is moving in a major and very aggressive way to see whether service component to courses for either credit or for internships and so forth can't be worked in more explicitly into the curriculum, and I'm hoping that your people are in touch with Maureen Cullins, and the people at the service center, because I think that we had a very successful and positive meeting about the possibility of moving that, there is some general opposition to credit for these kinds of things, figuring that service is its own reward, and that as we do this for a curriculum and move toward getting credit and so forth that we probably want to make sure that the programming that the center is considering is part of this program that goes forward and gets approved and works through the system, lest you be hanging out without having done that.	26:30
Iris	May I ask, what the opposition—	27:35
Dean White	Right. It comes back down to a point where experience, unless it's attached to either a preamble seminar and a post, sort of retrospective on the experience that involves the paper, or involves the seminar is not an academic, intellectual experience, it's a neat experience, and it's just rewards by having the experience. If however you tie in academically, in some way, with some written and, or discussion and, or formal opportunity to reflect on the experience as being more that just doing good deeds or whatever else we're talking about, and I'm summarizing this rather cryptically. Then it's not academically justifiable, and shouldn't count for 34 courses to graduate from Duke, that's just the opposition.	27:40
Iris	But I think in much of our thinking, we've been thinking about community service tied to reflection in course, in writing, and in fact, in discussions with Bob Coles has become more and more clear that the way he defines documentary work is related to, and then also is in reflection of the experience of community service and larger social issues.	28:24
Dean White	I think as it affects this then, all it means is you have to be more explicit, and you have to be explicit about that in the description of what you're trying to do. And then Maureen Cullins is the link in.	28:48
Iris	Yeah.	28:59
Dean White	Because she and the person from the center are going to work with the academic teams, so I'm going to see if I can't get everybody together to talk about what this means in terms of structure, so that we can actually expand that component of the academic student affairs relationship on the campus.	29:00
Speaker 6	And something that Maureen and I have talked about is possibly getting Bob Coles to come and talk to people, both from the academic side and the student affairs side, so as to understand that service for the sake of just doing something is not what we're talking about, but rather service that does lead to reflection and thus to deeper knowledge and wisdom. It is something that can complement the reading and theoretical study that students do, that lead them to have a much better understanding of the issues that they're thinking about in public policy classes on literature, or history, or other departments.	29:14
Dean White	And it's my understanding that the Duke's president is very enthusiastic about this kind of activity, and so it probably would just be a matter of how we define it and describe it, and then get it passed through the curriculum.	29:59
Iris	Well, we'll be moving ahead with that, and having further discussions, and [indistinct] probably be back here to do some work, talking with people and I think it should be very exciting.	30:09
Dean White	All right. I agree. Any other comments on the director's report?	30:10
Speaker 6	There's nothing in here about the contractors in the house.	30:31
Iris	No. I don't want to talk about that.	30:31
Dean White	That was another innovative approach to this report.	30:31
Iris	Let's be thankful the air conditioning is working.	30:31
Dean White	It sure is. It's just sort of blowing me away here. It's definitely working.	30:31
Speaker 6	I have a question, I did look over the long range plan a little bit. What kind of changes do you see, if any, for the format for the long range plan, and would you bring a draft to the board?	30:59
Iris	Yeah. We'll bring a draft here, probably in the fall.	31:13
Speaker 6	Uh-huh. And I know that Siri said that there would have never been a definite mission. If you want to speed up the fundraising, then you're probably going to have to speed up the time table for the long range plan, so that people will have— And I would suggest a different format, whereby you project over a five year period with goals and evaluation, measures attached to each objective over the five year period, so that we can get— Some of the things that are listed in the directors report need to be categorized into general activities that will show up in the five year plan.	31:23
Speaker 6	And I don't know whether you're talking about short term goals, long term goals. But that level of thinking, and it takes a while to get that approved, if you looking to have it ready in the fall, so that we won't look at this spring, trying to prove this. Some people say, "Well, I thought you had something else in mind when you said long range plan." You might think about, I don't know whether you have a prototype around the university to look at, that basically spells out things over a five year period. But this is unusual to have a long range plan that just basically projects that short period of time. And it's also unusual not to have some way of measuring how well you met whatever objectives were set out. But it's a lot of work. I mean, there's no—	31:59
Iris	But I think that in part, that this has been a very non-institutional kind of group, in terms of how the center evolved and what the [indistinct]. And there's always been, I think, a desire to not really make things too fixed.	32:59
Speaker 6	Uh-huh.	33:20
Iris	And Alex and I have been involved since the beginning stages, and I guess, Jack, you were in on some of those very early discussions. So it's been, really, an evolving program, which comes out of the experience of the people in the field, at the center. The center's almost like a documentary process in itself, so in part, I think you're looking at this plan from 1992, is that what you're looking at? What this reflected was the kind of consensus of the steering committee, in terms of the directions they wanted the center to develop. But it would have been very difficult to put any kind of—they are too explicit of a format to it, or a pattern to it.	33:25
Speaker 6	Mm-hmm. But I mean, in the directors report, there are some very major items in terms of fundraising, and I don't have a sense of what the priorities are.	34:20
Iris	Oh, that. You mean in this one here, in this comment here?	34:28
Speaker 6	Right.	34:33
Iris	Oh, well this was just a kind of a statement of things. Yeah. We will have to be very much more specific. But whether we'll ever be as specific as we should be is something-	34:33
Speaker 6	No. I'm not saying that you need to be specific.	34:47
Iris	Yeah. This was just to give you a very rough brushstrokes of what we've been discussing and thinking about doing.	34:49
Speaker 6	Yeah.	34:58
Dean White	But I think it's a good point, that as you write it out to have a goal, short term, medium term, long term, the strategy by which you meet the goal, the benchmark by which you assess whether you have met it or not. So that if your goal over a four year period is $4 million, that's your long term goal, the benchmark, of course, is whether you'd make the four million or not. And I think I agree with you, that the format might be a little bit more traditional in its mode, so that people could sit around and say, "Aha. So these are the three highest priorities short term." And then how you mark them, I think that's not a bad idea.	34:58
Jack	Do you really think, by this fall you'll be able to talk about how much money is going to be needed to work over the next five years?	35:34
Iris	We can try and see. I mean, right now, I couldn't—	35:50
Dean White	You aren't taking a vacation?	35:50
Iris	Yeah.	35:50
Dean White	And that's important, I think.	35:50
Iris	But the other thing is, if you think about the priorities, is it's only within the last few months that I'd say the priorities are really becoming clear, and other things are falling away. If you look back, you can see, well, we're going to raise a lot of money for field work. We were going to have expand in [indistinct 00:36:19]. There were other things that we were looking at, a journalism internship or student stipends, just more of that, in terms of documentary work. And now, we're focusing around more substantive areas, for instance, community service and service learning related to documentary work, publishing, the photography program related to the center. So it's like everything's becoming more specific and larger, definable areas. So it might actually be easy to write a more traditional, kind of strategic plan.	35:53
Dean White	I think, probably, that's true.	37:03
Iris	Yeah.	37:07
Speaker 6	I think if you're talking about fundraising, you're going to have to have it. I just don't think that you can go and basically make a request for people without having it.	37:07
Iris	That's probably true.	37:25
Jack	Well, and I also am glad that we've been patient to sort of let the center become what it is right for it to become, and you just can't do that in the abstract and beginning.	37:26
Speaker 6	No.	37:31
Jack	But I do think that it's settling now. What sorts of things we really have the capacity to do, and make a real difference, and we want to do it.	37:31
Iris	I'm thinking of the house, as I think I said here, that we have it in limbo really, until we were able to move into the house, because so many of our ideas were linked to having this space, to be able to work here. And without having that, we couldn't really go forward in implementing, and really thinking how we would implement it.	37:45
Dean White	Other comments on the director's report or related areas of interest? 1994, '95 budget.	38:10
Iris	Mm-hmm.	38:12
Dean White	Right. Go for it.	38:15
Iris	Yeah. Bill Butler and I have worked on this budget, which we've shown, '94, '95 budget, which is going to also need some fine tuning. But before you turn to the budget, I really wanted to say a few words about Anne's sort of easing out here, and weaving of her. And she's really been a great supporter of our work, and has done a lot of—beyond the call of duty, very often has really put her heart to a lot of these efforts. And I really appreciate her, and I just wanted to thank her for all that she's done for the center.	38:27
Speaker 6	Thanks.	39:12
Iris	I think having a baby is a bit—	39:18
Jack	It's not easing out. There's nothing easy about it.	39:20
Iris	Just imagine her with a baby. And also, Bill has done work on another piece of paper that's he's got, it might be of interest to you. And looking at the deficit we project for 1994, '95, you see that we project $184,051. Now of that 184,000, $100,000 is the transfer into the chair endowment. So in effect, it is a kind of statement for us, because ultimately we'll have use of that. And in this sheet, Phil, do you want to talk about what you're doing here?	39:30
Speaker 7	Sure. I started thinking today, that "Wouldn't it be nice to know where the endowment stands?" So I called the investment office and the current gain of the endowment is $991,000. This is using a unit value which Dumas gives out, and this one was given out at the end of December. And using this information, which is all we have, they're three months behind on giving their unit value. If we take our proposed deficit budget of $184,000, and we apply the '94, '95 spending rate, we need almost $3 million more in our endowment, in order to have a balanced budget.	40:09
Iris	That's using the spending rate [indistinct].	41:14
Speaker 7	The '94, '95 projected spending rate.	41:17
Iris	Yeah. Which is around five point something percent, I think.	41:23
Speaker 7	Yeah. 5.7. And then also at the very bottom, in talking with them, I said, "Well, what could be the worst case scenario?" She says, "Well, I've seen it drop as much as $300 per unit." So we could still be ahead of the market, 870 some thousand dollars. So I reckon the reason I'm saying this is that it appears that the investment is doing very well, but if we continue our trend and have a deficit budget, we continue to attack our principle, and therefore our returns over a long period of time aren't going to be as great.	41:25
Iris	That's why we have to change that.	42:09
Dean White	And this is the reason why we're talking about the campaign, right?	42:09
Speaker 7	Exactly. And I just thought it would be a good point, just to bring us up to even, if we had $3 million over the next year, then we break even, as far as our projected expenses.	42:21
Jack	Though, again, that's including that $100,000 that we're having to—	42:33
Iris	It does.	42:40
Speaker 7	Right. This '94, '95 budget will be the third year that they've taken it out.	42:42
Dean White	Yeah.	42:43
Speaker 7	So if that happens, then we really, in effect, get $300,000 back. But we've been taking money out already. So it would almost be a wash.	42:48
Iris	Yeah. The other thing is, our income is the calculated net of the infrastructure paths, which is going to be around, I think they said to estimate around 55,000 for '94, '95, and net of management fees. And yeah. So that's the-	42:56
Dean White	And it includes the recycling of the money back into the provost office.	43:15
Iris	Right. We've included income from the provost office, we have not included the following up on the question of what the president's office might consider.	43:16
Dean White	And I haven't followed up on that, so.	43:32
Iris	You had recommended to me when we talked, I guess it was after the last meeting, that we went into the fall, and since there were other discussions going on, I think that made sense to do that.	43:33
Dean White	Good.	43:43
Iris	But if you have any questions about the budget itself, as we've outlined it here, please—	43:49
Dean White	I just have a generic—	43:56
Jack	Hold on for next week.	43:57
Dean White	Yeah. I have a generic one, that I don't like that answer, but did we go into a mode of saying, it was just fine to go ahead and eat into the body of the porpoise in order to cover the deficit, rather than trying to constrain the budget to staying within the income?	43:58
Jack	I don't think we made that decision.	44:15
Dean White	We just do it.	44:17
Jack	If we had the option to do the latter, we would have said. I mean, it's [indistinct] should probably be discussed.	44:19
Dean White	Yes. I think it's important that at least it be put on the table, so that members of the board understand that we really are hurting ourselves in the long term, and in not so long term, at the rate we're going, if we continue to do this. And therefore, I would suggest that it be a high priority for the fall meeting, to discuss our budgeting, and whether we need, really, to constrain our expenses to meet our income in the short term, while we wait over the longer term for the success of fundraising. I'm really concerned that this could go on for few years if we have a few years hiatus between now and gaining the three million, we will have reduced our endowment to the point where every year, it's bound to be worse, because we're getting interest on the smaller body.	44:25
Iris	Right.	45:05
Dean White	So if I might suggest—	45:05

Dean White	Well, I really like to have that happen, if that's possible. Bonne chance, Alice.	0:01
Speaker 2	Careful, Alice.	0:10
Dean White	Are there other comments before we all dissipate? I know we've got six, seven, and eight.	0:12
Iris	How do we deal with the budget for our operating now, for—	0:16
Dean White	Can we do something like—	0:16
Speaker 4	Well, you will have already, I think, approved this budget, didn't you?	0:16
Iris	The '94, '95.	0:16
Speaker 4	I thought so.	0:16
Dean White	I don't remember when I did that.	0:16
Iris	No, this is representing us for the first time [indistinct].	0:16
Dean White	See, the final heavy [indistinct] proposed budget. I don't think we've really done that.	0:34
Iris	That's what we're proposing [indistinct].	0:38
Speaker 5	Previously, we had just estimated about today, and we were including our one-time price, whereas this one, I think we're back in.	0:41
Iris	I think the [indistinct].	0:48
Dean White	Well, in the absence of looking at and coming over to general policy decision, we should live within our means which sounds more reasonable policy and what do we say when we want to approve, so that everything can move forward into our next meeting.	0:53
Speaker 4	The proposed budget.	1:12
Dean White	Okay. Is there a motion to approve the proposed budget?	1:15
Speaker 2	It's moved.	1:15
Dean White	Is there a second?	1:15
Speaker 6	Second.	1:15
Dean White	Okay. All those in favor of this discussion, except for my little concern about the long-term thing which will bring out in the fall. All those in favor of the proposed budget as listed here indicate by saying aye.	1:17
Group	Aye.	1:28
Dean White	Opposed? So, carry on with this statement.	1:29
Iris	Right, like the government.	1:34
Dean White	Now, there are two other issues, and I don't know how many people would like to go this but it really is going to begin in two minutes. Are there imperative things that we should absolutely do or can we double take?	1:42
Iris	I think we'll have to forego that.	1:51
Speaker 2	Yeah, there are some imperative things that if we could do some housekeeping or put the well back form. We need to approve the acquired minutes and twice acquired minutes.	1:55
Dean White	The two acquired minutes need to be approved. Okay.	2:05
Speaker 6	So, move.	2:09
Dean White	That's now moved. Is there for a second?	2:09
Speaker 2	Second.	2:11
Dean White	Moved and seconded. Approving the minutes. This time now, we have a forum and the minutes last time because we didn't have a forum. All those in favor for approving minutes indicate so by saying aye.	2:12
Group	Aye.	2:20
Dean White	Good.	2:21
Speaker 4	The next point of order is to look in to ratify that the county farm, so we have a resolution that we need the accounting firm of KPGMP or be engaged to prepare at the center support 990.	2:22
Dean White	That's a recommendation from David. Second?	2:37
Speaker 6	I second.	2:39
Speaker 4	I can't propose—	2:40
Dean White	Well, we'll use the words. Jack, did you like that proposal?	2:41
Speaker 8	I loved it.	2:45
Dean White	Good. All those in favor say aye.	2:46
Group	Aye.	2:48
Dean White	Opposed?	2:49
Speaker 4	So, the final thing is I checked the bylaws and because this amendment is proposed to the bylaws clauses and effect who gives control over the board members. It doesn't need the trustees' approval, so the mechanism is that, at any regular meeting this board present a change and at the next regular meeting it adopted by only two thirds of the board member. So, if you want a proposal that the titles of executive director change to the president and associate executive directors change to the vice president, that could have been on the table and in the next meeting, if the two thirds. Here, we could actually [indistinct].	2:51
Dean White	So, we could read tonight's meeting and put it on the table. All intents and purposes has been discussed and it will be voted upon and involved for board meeting and will appear as minutes to those people who weren't here, so they know they have to get here so that we can get to the first of the membership to vote. Yeah, you have a question.	3:27
Speaker 9	Is it two thirds of the membership or two thirds of the people here? Yeah, okay.	3:43
Speaker 4	What you have at forum, maybe about the same, it's probably.	3:50
Dean White	Okay. Anything else? Now, we do have a full forum at this point about the election of board members, so we want to do something that says the forum did this and then send out information to the others, so that they'll know what happened. All those in favor of-	3:55
Speaker 6	None of us here. She is [indistinct].	4:07
Dean White	Oh, I'm sorry. Would you like us to describe a brief tabular on this?	4:09
Speaker 6	No.	4:11
Dean White	Are you willing to go with this?	4:11
Speaker 6	Yes.	4:11
Dean White	All right, because I don't think I can get them all straight. All those in favor at the forum now being here. All those in favor?	4:19
Speaker 4	Another point of order, we didn't really discuss some of the secondary officers. I think, Darnell is the secretary [indistinct] is the assistant secretary. It's drawn on the table—	4:26
Iris	Okay.	4:31
Dean White	I don't know. See, it wasn't there in the footnote.	4:31
Iris	Oh, okay. She's—	4:31
Speaker 4	All new officers who were elected in.	4:31
Iris	Okay. So, secretary to the board is Darnell Arnette, and David Singleton is the assistant secretary of the board and—	4:31
Dean White	He's a pain. Do you think we want to keep him lying here.	4:47
Speaker 4	You can't get me off.	4:48
Iris	The other thing is, there is a class going to come in to meet here.	4:48
Dean White	I saw the little piece, so I'm all in favor of doing what David says that is secretary. All of the others are on manual basis of hearing the cycle. The new people to the new positions. The new positions to be build around next time. All of those in favor say aye.	4:58
Group	Aye.	5:12
Dean White	Opposed? Fine. Well, the record show.	5:14
Speaker 4	We'll clean up the record.	5:18
Dean White	That will clean up the record and send it around. I'm sorry, we did you in on that one.	5:20
Speaker 6	Well, that's good.	5:23
Dean White	John Hill Frank that's coming back on the board.	5:24
Speaker 6	Was this everything?	5:26
Dean White	Yeah, exactly.	5:26
Speaker 6	Okay, most of it.	5:26
Speaker 5	Most of it.	5:26
Dean White	We keep doing some shifting there. We made a treasure out of [indistinct] and we made [indistinct]—	5:26

Item Info

Title:

Behind the Veil Project meeting, content unidentified, 1990s

Date:

1990s

Format:

Language:

English

Digital Collection:

Behind the Veil

Source Collection:

Behind the Veil: Documenting African American Life in the Jim Crow South interviews, photographs, and project records, circa 1864-2011, bulk 1990-2004

Series:

Provenance:

The David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library acquired the Records of the Behind the Veil Oral History Project from the Duke University Center for Documentary Studies in 1997, 1998, 2000, and 2002.

Rights:

Limited Re-Use

CC BY-NC 4.0

Rights Note:

Copyright for content created by the Behind the Veil project is held by Duke University and made available to the public using a Creative Commons Attribution / Non-commercial (CC-BY-NC) license.

Identifier:

RL00170-CS-0154
803560a09f540c46bee066ed261f80ce
behindtheveil
6a715540-afbf-492c-8043-e4f093ffbb96
ark:/87924/r4vt1tz6v
6a715540-afbf-492c-8043-e4f093ffbb96

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4vt1tz6v

Sponsor:

Sponsor this Digital Collection

Behind the Veil Project meeting, content unidentified, 1990s

Transcript

Item Info

John Hope Franklin Research Center

More Info & Options