E-mail Story
Print Friendly
Send E-mail
Reprint story
Saturday, October 24, 2009
400th Director, 2 Others Laid Off
By Kiera Hay
Journal Northern Bureau
SANTA FE — The executive director of the nonprofit tasked with producing Santa Fe's 400th anniversary commemoration has been given a pink slip, a casualty of plans to reduce the cash-strapped organization's budget by nearly 80 percent.
Two other Santa Fe 400th Anniversary Inc. staffers will also be laid off, meaning a total of about half the nonprofit's work force has been cut.
Outside contracts for public relations and marketing, as well as national-level fundraising effort, are also being eliminated.
"It's a sign of the times," said Santa Fe 400th chairman Maurice Bonal. "My business is downsizing, everyone's business is downsizing. We just adjust accordingly. It's not rocket science."
Altogether, the changes will reduce Santa Fe 400th's monthly expenses from $41,000 to around $10,000, according to Bonal.
Executive director Libby Dover — an events producer recruited from Seattle last year after a national search — will work her last day Nov. 12, as will the nonprofit's accountant and local fundraiser. Those remaining — an executive coordinator, events coordinator and administrative assistant — will have their hours cut.
Future events, which tentatively include cinema and lecture series and a theatrical production aimed at children, will be contracted out to individual producers, Bonal said, though that's likely to be several months down the road.
Planning for Santa Fe's 400th anniversary didn't begin in earnest until 2007, with less than $100,000 in hand. Fundraising efforts have foundered, something organizers have blamed largely on the economy. And this week the nonprofit asked the City Council for an emergency appropriation of $750,000.
Dover was disappointed, but pragmatic, about her dismissal. She pointed out that the 400th commemoration's estimated budget was much higher — about $7 million or $8 million — when she was given a contract for $10,000 a month when she moved to Santa Fe.
You also can send comments via our comment form
|
|
