Group taking over Coyote Point Museum
SF Gate.com - Marisa Lagos, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 6, 2006
09:29 PDT SAN MATEO — A Peninsula-based group has succeeded in its bid to take over Coyote Point Museum in San Mateo, after the museum’s board of directors voted unanimously Tuesday night to accept the grassroots organization’s proposal.
Linda Lanier, co-chair of the Campaign to Save Coyote Point Museum, said her group’s plan would help the struggling wildlife learning center to remain open and ensure its long-term financial stability. The plan includes the creation of several new committees, one charged with creating new programming and exhibits at the museum, another that will focus on fundraising and a third that will act as an advisory body to the board.
Under the proposal, the museum will also seek new revenue boosters, such as corporate relationships, food and beverage operations and increased membership. Since early August, when the group was formed, it has raised $543,000 from community members — nearly one-third more than Lanier anticipated. The museum has a $700,000 deficit this fiscal year.
The current board also voted Tuesday night to accept 17 new members to the body as part of the proposal, said Lanier, who is one of the new members.
The museum, located on Coyote Point in San Mateo, has been struggling for years to stay fiscally solvent and has not had a permanent executive director in years.
Museum officials stirred a controversy last month when they announced they would consider two proposals to save the museum: the one from Campaign to Save Coyote Point Museum, and another by the 11th Hour Project. That group, created by Silicon Valley executives and their families, aimed to scrap the museum and replace it with a global warming education center. Responding to community opposition, however, the group withdrew its proposal two weeks ago. The 11th Hour Project still hopes to build the center elsewhere.
Perhaps in response to the 11th Hour Project’s plan, the Campaign to Save Coyote Point Museum states in its proposal that in the future the museum will “address underlying factors responsible for our environmental problems such as species extinction, loss of habitat, overpopulation, global warming and toxic waste.”
E-mail Marisa Lagos at mlagos@sfchronicle.com. URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/09/06/BAG6BL06M510.DTL
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