<VV> Corvair Museum

[james rice]

All:  A lot of the discussion about the museum is well intentioned, by not
well informed and/or realistic.

Clark's observations are well worth each of us burning them into our memory.
Let me add my own thoughts and another burn into your memory truth, down at
the bottom, which may be inflammatory.

I came on the CORSA/CPF combined BoD's the summer after the Corvair Museum
in Richmond VA closed in early 1999.  Richmond closed because the building's
half owner had to sell it and the business contained therein as part of a
divorce settlement with the other half owner.  I was the CPF Liaison the
entire 3 years I was on the combined BoD's, beginning at Tahoe.

At the combined BoD meeting at Daytona in '00, we had a presentation from
some folks in NC (I think) of a building at a CORSA member's racecar
fabrication compound.  As I remember it, parking, minimum office space,
staffing and parking were issues, not to mention funding of operations.
There was also the possibility the owner would need the space in the future
if/when his business out grew the buildings he was using.  I talked
privately with the owner, and almost took a detour to see the building on
our way home to central Illinois.  As I remember it, the combined boards
sense was "We don't think so..." and it never came up for a vote.  We had a
couple other buildings offered in various locations, all needing money &
work, all with location, staffing and daily operations issues.  We got
several other "we would like to..." kind of semi-offers for a new location,
but nothing which appeared viable in any reasonable length of time.  They
were "hope to do" and "would like to do", but no "can do" proposals.  NO ONE
HAD MONEY, just big dreams and/or good intentions.

At the Chicago convention in '01, we decided to take a hard look at the
Ypsilanti Heritage Museum.  Bill Pierson, then CPF president, Harry Jensen
and I visited Ypsilanti Heritage Museum in September '01 and talked to Jack
Miller and the leadership in their organization.  We also met with the
Detroit chapter over dinner to get a sense of their willingness and
abilities to assume local CPF Staff Committee responsibilities.  As the
result, our recommendation to the combined BoD's was to, as much as
possible, relocate CPF assets to the Ypsilanti Heritage Museum, and put the
rest of the material in local storage in SE Michigan.  We had a couple
months of e-mail discussion/debates about SE Michigan as the location etc
and then voted to go forward with this relocation in late '01 or early '02.

The Ypsilanti Heritage Museum location was a can do.  They wanted us, and
the price was right: free space in their existing museum.  While I do not
remember all the details, The Ypsilanti Heritage Museum has local civic and
governmental support, a functioning BoD and viable financing.  It is also
part of an association of automobile museums and historical sites in SE
Michigan sponsored and funding at some level by the State of Michigan.  The
location of the Willow Run Assembly plant up the road was a added bonus, as
was the Detroit CORSA chapter (DCC) with willing volunteers to help.

Remember, you have to staff a museum, pay for heat and lights and insurance
anda anda anda.  How long is the list?  All requiring large bags of large
denomination US currency.

At the time we decided to put the CPF material on display at the Ypsilanti
Heritage Museum, the building next door was for sale.  High priced, but for
sale.  So high priced in fact, the local folks, who really wanted it, could
not afford it.  CPF, with its large bag of pennies, was a joke.  (Still is.
Sadly.)  So we took the best we could get.  Not ideal, but better than CPF's
assets being located in several garages and basements around the country.

The Wade Lanning's, Clark Hartzel's and Pete Cimbala's and many, many others
are the hero's in the storage and relocation process.  They gave of their
time and funds to make it happen.  The feet on the ground folks who are
unsung, unappreciated and generally unknown to the rest of us.

Nothing better than Ypsilanti Heritage Museum has apparently come alone.  So
far, no one has the money required to change the status quo.  And so far as
I know, there are no efforts in place or planned to commence to begin to
start to try and figure out the money.

Actually taking an offering at the convention and buying a bunch of mega
lottery tickets isn't a bad idea.  But who would own the tickets/winnings?
CORSA or CPF?  Is such an idea even legal?  You need to burn a second truth
into you heads when having these thoughts.  Here it is: CORSA and CPF are
two separate legal organizations under IRS rules.  They are not both
501(c)(3)s.  Only CPF is.  My suspicion is CORSA would get itself in trouble
with the IRS if it owned the winning tickets.

Now then, the inflammatory content.  If I won a mega lottery, (please
understand since I choose not to participate in any state sponsored
voluntary taxation program, the idea is belly laughable) I would get
together with the Ypsilanti Heritage Museum folks and donate sufficient
money to buy the building next door, remodel it, plus toss in enough money
for them to upgrade their existing facility and enough to maintain the
location for a lot of years.  My stipulation would be the building would be
used forever by CPF for a Corvair wing of the Ypsilanti Heritage Museum.

Why would I sidestep CORSA/CPF you ask?  Because I have no confidence the
combined CORSA/CPF BoD's, while being good intended volunteer car club type
people, have, or will ever have, the necessary time, knowledge and skill
sets to run a Corvair museum as any group of us gathered together over
drinks of our own choosing could envision.  No confidence what so ever.
This is largely a governance issue with how CPF as currently organized....or
not organized.

How much money would it take to do what we would like to see done.  I don't
know what the building next door to the Ypsilanti Heritage Museum would go
for today, or what remodeling would cost, but my guess is at least half a
million dollars.

There.  I said it.  Will make some people mad.  So be it.  Live long and
prosper.  See you in Ventura.

Historically Yours,
			James Rice

------------------------------

Message: 4
Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2008 20:40:12 -0400
From: "Clark Hartzel" <chartzel at comcast.net>
Subject: <VV> CPF Museum
To: "Virtual Vairs" <virtualvairs at corvair.org>
Message-ID: <000001c8cc24$dfd2eb10$6121f362 at grumpyjo>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii"

As CPF Curator, I should be more positive but, I can't ever see us
having our own museum.  Even if someone "gave" us a building, it costs
lots of money to maintain a museum.  Jack Miller at our Ypsi museum says
visitor admission fees don't even cover the electric bill let alone
insurance, heat, water bill, wages,etc.  He recently spent $50,000
installing a sprinkler system to meet city code.  Who would we get to
stay at the museum 7 days a week to run it?  I'm curator for CPF and I
only get to the museum a couple of times a year.  Jack is paid a salary
to sit there waiting for the dozen or so people who may wander in on a
given day.  To fund a museum you need endowments from rich people or the
government.  Let's face it, Corvair people are at the bottom of the
barrel wealth wise.  If we had any money we wouldn't be playing with
rusty Corvairs!
Clark Hartzel