I have been maintaining a blissful ignorance of the whole business of
relocating the NSS "headquarters." But somebody posted something on
the Texas cavers' e-mail list pointing to the commission's report for
the April BOG meeting and urging us to send opinions to the BOG. So
here's one (that you will take for what it's worth since I don't
really know what all has been going on for the last few years about
this).
There is a conspicuous lack of bottom line in all the options. How
much would remodeling existing buildings cost? How much would it cost
to build on the open-land options? Looks like a progress report, but
nothing one can base any decisions on.
I am impressed by the low cost of the rural land in the Mammoth Cave
area. Around here (Austin, Texas), you'd be looking at $10,000+ an
acre for large parcels of anything that can be built on. My five
acres, worthless for agriculture, twenty miles from the middle of
town, and on an unmaintained road, is assessed at $20,000 an acre.
I keep hearing about a thousand-member drop over the last year. Is
this a time to create a monument to the NSS or to hunker down and pay
attention to business? I realize that the plan is to raise donations
for whatever is bought or built, but what about future operating
expenses? Do you plan to raise again as much as an endowment to cover
things like utilities and repairs, or will that come out of
(apparently decreasing) dues income?
It looks to me like all the plans assume doing more than just
increasing the amount of space available for existing NSS services.
The Huntsville buildings are five to ten times as large as what we're
presently getting by with. The discussions of the Kentucky options
emphasize the proximity to tourists. Clearly plans for expansion
include some public-outreach sort of things--a museum with displays
and so on. Don't forget that that sort of thing comes with lots of
expenses for additional staff, etc. There would be a great danger that
the tail would end up wagging the dog, and the NSS would turn into a
museum with a national association attached. That's exactly what
happened to that American Cave Conservation Association. I recall when
some BOG members were really worried that it would steal our members
and our franchise as a nationwide cave-conservation organization, and
it turned into nothing more than a musuem and show cave in Horse Cave,
Kentucky.
One advantage of the rural locations in Kentucky is that we wouldn't
have to build more than we really needed immediately, provided, of
course, that those NSS members with an edifice lust can be sat on. On
the other hand, I suppose some excess space in the Huntspatch
buildings could be rented out. -- Bill Mixon
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If a thing is not worth doing, it is not worth doing well.
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