| I delivered the following report to the GSBF Board meeting in Fresno last weekend. I hope you will find it informative about your Garden.
The mission of the Bonsai Garden at Lake Merritt is to provide education, inspiration and enjoyment of bonsai to novice visitors and bonsai enthusiasts within a museum of bonsai masterpieces. It is important that we know our mission at the Garden and keep it in mind as we review our progress over the year. Financials
Volunteers March and April are the first times in recent memory that we have fully staffed docent positions for the Garden prior to the beginning of the month. This is primarily due to the organizational work of our docent coordinator and the several new docents who have joined us plus the continuing service of our long-term volunteers. In the next few months, we will be launching a program to recruit additional volunteers from among those who have expressed an interest in working with us. Our goal is to have two docents per shift and be open a full seven days a week instead of our current six. Our number of volunteer hours for 2014 increased by 6% to 6,779. Again, if you are interested, please contact me at [email protected]. Marketing We have launched our Bonsai Garden YouTube channel, Bonsai Garden YouTube channel. with videos of our first Bonsai School class and of our 15th Anniversary Celebration. We are currently emailing to a list of interested readers numbering over 500 on a monthly basis. Additions to our mailing list comes from those who become members, so please stop by and purchase a membership pin for a friend. We are also participating in social media and have regular columns in the Golden Statements. Our number of visitors increased by 35% in 2014 to approximately 28,261. The Autumn Lights Festival brought over 3,100 visitors to the Bonsai Garden. Many of whom had never visited previously. Our light display this year will be even bigger and better. Our 15th Anniversary celebration held at the Mammoth featured awards to our three previous Chairs and five volunteers who have donated over 1,000 hours to the Garden. The celebration also brought together a dozen Clubs and bonsai organizations from across Northern California to display their bonsai and distribute literature about their events. This feature was successful, and we are planning on holding this again next year. Museum We participated in the American Alliance of Museums’ (AAM) Museum Assessment Program (MAP), which culminated in having a Peer Reviewer visit us this year in March and attending our Board meeting. Our Peer Reviewer, Greg Nace, president of the Pittsburgh Botanical Gardens, was quite impressed with the quality of our Garden and encouraged us to become a recognized museum and AAM member. This requires that we complete application forms and hire a full time director. If we wish to move to the second level and become a certified museum, we will need to complete a series of assessment programs much like the one we just completed. Our goal with the MAP program is to establish a structure for us to follow in improving our organization and collection management. With even the first level of AAM membership, we will have access to an improved level of funding opportunities. Greg said that donors want to make sure the museum is sustainable which is why both the funders and the AAM require at least one paid staff member. Greg also said that we should focus on hiring a museum director who can create and drive a fundraising program for us. We will soon receive Greg’s report and use that as a tool in creating our strategic and operational plans. Infrastructure We have just completed an upgrade of our reserve area, which has improved our bonsai pot storage capacity and improved our opportunity to reclaim some of our irrigation water. We are currently in the process of installing video cameras to improve or security and enable us to view the Garden remotely from any computer or smart phone. We are in the process of upgrading our shohin display area with new pedestals and signage acknowledging our donors to this area. We will continue to construct shade structures and develop a museum store in the next few months. We are developing plans to manage a reduction in water usage this year. These plans range from a reduction in water usage to capturing runoff from our irrigation system for reuse. Funding Our fundraising program needs to be revamped and we need to identify donors both inside and outside the bonsai community. We have identified fundraising courses that we can take to improve our skills in this area and are seeking an individual to help us with this effort. Again, if you are interested, please contact me at [email protected]. Museum Store The test we conducted with selling gift merchandise at the Mammoth was successful, so we will take the next step and open a museum store at the Garden in the coming months. We will convert the greenhouse next to the docent house into a store and sell merchandise like t-shirts, membership pins, and gift cards with our bonsai art on them. This will help us create earned income that will add to our financial stability over the long term. We are investigating other items to sell like calendars and photobooks of the Garden. We are also considering holding a bonsai fair across the entire Lakeside Garden area as a second fundraising event for each year. This type of event would also help us introduce the Garden to new visitors. As you can see, we have been busy this past year and looking forward to being even busier in the months to come. Please let me know if you are interested in joining our team. You will be glad you did. Warmest Regards, Joe Byrd Chairman, Bonsai Garden at Lake Merritt |
