News - Highlights of the
Executive Committee
March 2006

• BIBS Advertising-Marketing/PR Committee
  Report by Jennifer

• Insurance Update by Charlie.
  The death of his insurance contact Mr. Pierce is causing delay.

• Strategic plan update
  Ebony & Kate will meet. Ebony's work has been delayed due to car theft. Reports from the key stakeholders will be ready for the board meeting on the 28th.

• Nomination slate update
  Nominations to date - closed on the 21st of March:
  Charlie Bristol
  Sandy Novacek
  Vance Patrick
  Harriet Saperstein
  Doug Sweet
  Ebony Wilkerson
  Cheryl-Anderson Small will not be available for return to the board.
  Kate feels strongly that we need members on the board that are influential and can bring money and resources to the Aquarium.
  Jennifer will be responsible for facilitating the voting.

• Bylaw changes proposed by Diane
  Charlie felt this was not the time, because it would necessitate changing the bylaws. Since the next board is meeting is chiefly dealing with elections, he felt it was a bridge too far. There was general agreement. The EC will recommend tabling the proposal until after elections.

• Meeting with Charles Beckham
  Kate met March 28th with Beckham. He will have the Parks Department legal staff draw up a letter of intent for us. Beckham says there's no problem for our survey team gaining access. It is now up to the Aquarium Operations/Capital Improvements Committee to set up a survey team and arrange time and dates for access with the parks Department.

• Feasibility study for Aquarium breaks down into:
  a. Scope of study
  b. Budget allocation
  c. Responsibility for project
  We need extensive survey of the Aquarium. This would be spearheaded by Charlie in conjunction with the operations committee. Early costs appear to range between $25,000 and $45,000. It was suggested that Vance and Murray accompany the survey team, lending their hands-on know-how experience to the project.

• Belle Isle task force
  Detroit Council member Barbara-Rose Collins is spearheading a task force to explore the possibility of creating a Belle Isle Conservancy. This would be especially important if Detroit needs to draw back from the financial responsibility of maintaining the island. Kate attended this meeting and has volunteered to be on the Conservancy board. The next explorative meeting is in June.