Welcome from Jim Tanner, MHC Board Chair
Geoffrey Giglierano has been named as Executive Director of the Missouri Humanities Council. He succeeds Michael Bouman, who recently left MHC after almost 15 years of dedicated service. In fact, Geoff is already in the office in St. Louis at work. While the reader can learn more about Geoff in other features of this special announcement, I’d like to take this opportunity, as the 2010 Chairman of the board of directors of the Council, to say a bit about the board’s hopes for this new era.
It is a very challenging time for a person to step into a leadership position for any organization. We are still in the middle of what is generally being described as the worst national economy since the Great Depression, and those economic woes are reflected in the State of Missouri’s pressing need to cut its next budget by an additional half a billion dollars. At the time of this writing, it appears that the Missouri Humanities Council has been “zeroed out” and will receive no new funds into the Council’s Cultural Trust in the next state budget. This means as we head into the sesquicentennial remembrance of our great Civil War, the Council will need to develop a more robust fund-raising program of our own.
What is heartening to the board of directors, however, is that Geoff sees these daunting challenges as opportunities. The circumstances in which we are operating have substantially changed (which is no great surprise: after all, as the historians among us keep reminding everyone, the one constant in life is change). Hence, it is time for us to rethink our principles, our practices, our processes, to ensure that we continue to be the best possible stewards of the resources for which we are responsible. Necessity requires us to consider new approaches, new ideas, new ways of going about our business of revitalizing the humanities for the people of Missouri. In this kind of environment, leadership is crucial. The board’s search committee, which worked several months reviewing almost a hundred applications, believes it has found the right person in Geoff Giglierano to lead the Council through these changing times. Geoff has an extensive background in museum programming and administration, development and communications, and in assisting organizations as they go through transitions. All of us join in wishing him well as he takes on his new responsibilities and begins working with the Council while we move into an era of exciting possibilities.
Welcome, Geoff!
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