Presidential Museum looking for volunteers

After becoming debt free and transitioning to new ownership, the Presidential Museum is now in need of more volunteers.

The newly formed Friends of the Presidential Museum and Leadership Library has scheduled an organizational meeting 6:30 p.m. Feb. 21 at the museum to recruit and train more volunteers to keep the museum open during the weekends.

“By having Friends, it’ll just be people interested in keeping the museum open as a museum rather than an archive where stuff is just stored,” said Jack Westerfeldt, interim chairman for the Friends of the Presidential Museum. “Hopefully we can keep (the museum) open at least five days a week as volunteers.”

With only four former trustees forming the basis of the Friends group currently, Westerfeldt said he hopes to recruit at least 10 to 20 volunteers to aid in the upkeep of the museum and its vast collection of memorabilia focused on the presidential office.

Interim Museum Director Charles Cotten said the Friends will also be beneficial in helping keep the museum’s finances in order by creating an endowment fund, organizing fundraising events and setting up an endowment fund.

“That’s one of the purposes of the meeting of Friends is not only to organize volunteers but to see if there is any interest in helping to create an endowment fund in the payment of necessary bills or if there’s any interest in doing a fundraising event to offset fundraising expenses,” Cotten said.

Once burdened with an accumulated debt of around $125,000 in 2010, the museum was saved from closure by a $150,000 donation from John Bushman, owner of Investment Corporation of America, going mostly toward operating costs as the debt was slowly paid off, Cotten said.

Though it couldn’t make a full recovery on its own, the Presidential Museum settled its debt after museum officials made a deal to transfer ownership of the collection to the University of Texas of the Permian Basin.

The transfer was completed in October 2011, with the museum now funded as an archive to receive state funds for a portion of its finances, Cotten said. Under university rules, UTPB cannot fund the collection as a museum, Cotten said.

And although the museum is finally clear of debt, Cotten said he would like to prevent any future debt with the help of the Friends. The museum has a base operational cost of around $75,000 just for utilities, Cotten said.

“We’ve cleaned everything up. We’ve paid all the debts off, and what we need to do now is not have the same kind of problem in the future,” Cotten said. “The university is under the same constraints as the old board of trustees was in. The best way to ensure everything continues to be protected is to raise enough money to make sure the bills get paid.”

Westerfeldt said ensuring that the museum remains open in the community is important in bringing more tourists to the area.

In 2011, the museum attracted around 3,500 visitors from every state and more than 27 countries, Cotten said.

“We feel like anything that will bring in tourists or businesses is important to remain open,” Westerfeldt said. “This is the only museum dedicated to the office of the president. We have people all over the world drop by to see what we have.”

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