Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Arizona Mineral and Mining Foundation changes name.

According to the New Year 2011 newsletter (Volume 1, Number 1). the foundation has changed its name to the Flagg Mineral Foundation. The change makes it clear that the Foundation is not affiliated with the Arizona Historical Society. The AHS took over the Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum at the end of July and plans to convert it into the 5C Arizona Centennial Museum featuring cows, cotton, etc.

Fortunately, the Foundation owns many of the best mineral specimens currently in the mineral museum. They were considered too valuable to place under the control of politicians when the collection was begun 5o years ago.

The Foundation recently paid $2,000 for an appraisal required by the AHS for a loan agreement. However, a satisfactory load agreement has not been negotiated with the AHS thus far. The Foundations is considering offers from other museums to house the collection.

9 comments:

  1. Be careful here. If you take out your minerals (if that is possible)and remove them and to somewhere else or just store them somewhere safe will that play into the hands of the AHS? What % of the museum's collection makes up the Flagg Foundation?.....Maybe thats what the AHS and Gov wants, for you to pick up your "toys" and leave? That would free up the AHS/Gov to do what they want? Does the Flagg Foundation have powerful members?

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  2. Sure is funny.... The Governor destroys a long standing museum, destroys its interpretive goals, the volunteers will probably leave, she hopes to raise millions of dollars for a boring exhibit, donors are not interested anymore, out of state exhibits firm to be hired to do the exhibit (how can a exhibits firm from back east do a better job of cattle, citris and climate!! lol),exhibit will cost millions. Funny indeed.
    And the AHS which is supposed to do all of this had the governor blow in the directors ear. Would have loved to be in that room when it happened!!
    The AHS has a major museum in Papago Park to boot. Lots of space there for an exhibit. And taht building isnt even paid for yet.
    Guess it isnt as sexy as a Centennial close to the capitol.
    What does the AHS Board of Directors think about all of this. Its their agency, they are supposed to run it. I know they voted for it but what do they know?

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  3. There are currently two mineral collections in the museum building. The Flagg collection has about 1000 premium collectible mineral specimens. The state collection has about 20,000 specimens,of which about 10% are on display. Many specimens in the state collection have scientific value, but no aesthetic or monetary value. That made it particularly inappropriate to transfer them to the AHS.

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  4. I'm a geologist (not currently living in AZ, but spent my formative years here), and I am completely appalled by these shenanigans! The AZ Mining and Mineral Museum is a gem (pun intended!). How are citizens, particularly children, supposed to learn about how rocks/minerals are related to society if we shut down the public museum willing to show them? I smell a dirty political rat...and whatever needs to be done to celebrate the state's centenary should not be thwarting the public from learning about one of the most important historical/economical aspects of the state! That is completely backwards...

    Brewer is doing Arizona a huge disservice with this move. The AZ Mining and Minerals Museum has always been one of my favorites, and I have always been extremely impressed with the quality of the museum. I hope this is still a reversible decision.

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  5. Reversing the decision requires repealing House Bill 2251.

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  6. In an earlier comment you stated that the AHS had over 60 employees. I went to their own website and it listed 44 employees. I did a little checking and only 40 of those are full time employees! Four of the 44 are seasonal employees and two of those are on a "on call basis" leaving 40 as a total. Far cry from the 60 plus.

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  7. The JLBC Appropriations Report (at www.az.gov) shows how many full time equivalent postilions are funded, not how many people they actually have. For FY 2009, it was 59.9. That dropped to 53.9 in FY 2010 and 51.9 in FY 2011.

    Curiously, the funding (dollars) for personnel remained about the same even as the number of positions dropped. Perhaps they all got raises.

    If they actually only have 40 employees, perhaps there were also bonuses. Just speculation of course, but there appears to be a discrepancy between what you see and what the JLBC thinks they are funding.

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  8. Bonuses!! Not bad if you can get one. Their director gets over $120,000 a year. But she is, of course worth every penny!!! LOL

    What is posted in their website is reality.

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  9. What is posted on the JLBC website is also reality. So the questions is, what is the AHS really doing with the money the state is giving them for nonexistent employees?

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