March 18th Council Meeting

At its last meeting on March 18, 2000, the Council of the American Numismatic Society decided on several key initiatives that have far-reaching implications for the future of the Society. Council decided to hire a fundraising consultancy and to advertise three positions in the curatorial and editorial departments.

In an all-day meeting reports, were presented by Councilors, staff members and others that addressed important issues and recommended actions to the board. Discussion focused on the financial situation of the Society and renovation of the new building.

The Council elected three new councilors: John Adams, a numismatic author, collector of US coins and investment banker from Boston; John Whitney Walter of Long Island, who runs an international security firm and collects US and ancient coins; and Robert Kandel, an attorney from New York City who has been involved in financing and fundraising issues for the new building. Martha Carter had resigned from the Council in November 1999, after the Society had announced its voluntary early-out packages for curators. Roger Hornsby resigned as Second Vice President, but remains a member of the Council. Mr. Hornsby was replaced by John Kroll. Jonathan Kagan resigned as Treasurer and was replaced by Kenneth Edlow.

The financial statements for the fiscal year 1998 were presented by Lou Materasso, CPA. His firm, D’Arcangelo LLP, was appointed as the new auditors for the Society. The new reporting format greatly simplified the understanding of the finances, in particular the division of restricted and unrestricted funds. The final statement will be sent to members in May as part of the annual report. Treasurer Kenneth Edlow gave a report of the finances of the Society. The Society’s endowment, managed by Warburg Pincus and Wyper Capital Management, had done extraordinarily well. Edlow, however, cautioned Council that such high returns could not be expected indefinitely.

The Executive Director, Ute Wartenberg, presented her report on the last four months. The departure of many staff members had brought several changes in the distribution of work. All curators with the exception of Michael Bates had decided to take the early-out offer. As a result curatorial responsibilities were redistributed among remaining staff members.

Wartenberg also reported on the meeting of members on January 15, 2000. There had been about 120 letters that criticized the early-out offers and the budget cuts, including a letter from the Huntington medallists. About half of the writers were members of the Society. On the other hand about 50 members had written or expressed verbally their support for the budget cuts, which many saw as unfortunate but necessary in the severe financial situation.

Work on the finances and the budget for 2000/1 has been a priority. The reorganization of the Business Office, under its manager Richard Dodd, has brought many changes to the daily running of the Society. A new program for the membership database, the accounts, and the donor database has been installed to replace the old MS-DOS version of R-base that was in use until recently. Wartenberg highly praised Society staff that had been working hard to keep services running efficiently. In a resolution, Council expressed its support for the Executive Director and her work in furthering the best interest of the Society.

Council also received the figures of recent giving to the Society. The building campaign had received a generous contribution of $1,000,000 from President Donald Partrick. During 1999 Partrick also donated $100,000 to the US curator position and $322,936 to a variety of other funds. Jonathan Kagan gave $100,000 towards the library in the new building. A new campaign to endow the Islamic Chair has raised about $50,000 in cash, and an additional $30,000 in pledges (see article on page 6). The Harry Bass Research Foundation contributed $95,000 towards the costs of the library catalog conversion project. Cliff Mishler donated $10,000 towards the Krause-Mishler Forum.

Since the October 1999 Council meeting the Society received $1,780,034. The Society depends very heavily on all its donors and is most grateful for their support. For a full listing of all donors covering the period since the October 1999 Council meeting see page 17 of this Newsletter.

The need for a long-range plan that describes the goals and objectives of the ANS for the next five years has been recognized as one of the most important needs of the Society. Caroline Hightower, who started work in February as Director of Programs and Planning, explained to the Council how Council, staff and membership will participate in the plan which will update previous plans that led to the purchase of the building.

Jack Kroll, Chairman of the Society's Long Range Planning committee will be working with Caroline Hightower to present a draft plan at the next Council meeting in June. It will be circulated to members for suggestions and comments.

At the center of the plan lies the vision of a Society which will combine many of the traditional strengths of the ANS in the fields of publication, teaching, the coin cabinets, the website and the library with an outreach program, exhibitions, and more public initiatives. The wide distribution of ANS members across the US and Council members decide on new initiatives where parts of the world will be addressed in a variety of programs that provide services for those unable to use the New York facilities.

A more active approach to public relations was advocated by Vanessa Samet, Development Consultant at the ANS. She outlined a program on how the ANS could raise its profile among the general public. An advertising campaign and more outreach events would help to bring more people to the ANS. Ms. Samet is trying to place more press releases to the numismatic and general press, which will also be posted on the ANS Website. Thanks to the generosity of newly elected Council member John Whitney, the ANS was able to place an ad into the museum section of the New York Times, which appeared on Wednesday, April 19.

The discussion about the new building has shifted towards details of the design and cost of the new building. In February of this year the architects delivered a set of schematic drawings for three floors, which house the library, the vault, curatorial and administrative offices.

The ANS appointed Peter Res as its Owner’s Representative. In this position Mr. Res will be supervising the design and construction work on behalf of the Society. As a first step Mr. Res has been examining the plans and suggestions of the architects in order to structure building work to facilitate a speedy and cost efficient construction plan.

Council will receive a final report and cost estimate on the renovation by the June meeting. The Council also authorized preparatory work on the new building, such as asbestos abatement and other measures.

Sebastian Heath, who was appointed Director of Information Technology, presented an extensive report on his work on the ANS website (see page 3). Sebastian Heath has given the ANS a new presence that has reached tens of thousands of people every month. His extraordinary efforts were praised by the Council.