The Witte Museum

“Process to review the form 990: the witte museum's president and ceo, treasurer, chief financial officer, and chief administrative officer review the form 990 in draft form. If changes to the draft are necessary, the changes are completed prior to the printing of the final form 990. The final form 990 is available for review in electronic form, by the organization's governing body prior to filing with the irs.”

“Compliance with conflict of interest policy: the witte museum's bylaws contain a conflict of interest policy, approved by the board of trustees in may of 2020. The conflict of interest policy applies to the board of trustees, the witte team and volunteers. In the event that a board member has a conflict of interest, he/she is required to abstain from voting. All witte staff and trustees sign a code of ethics, which was passed by the board of trustees in january 2018.”

“Review of ceo/top management official compensation: a committee reviews the performance and contract for the president and ceo. Data is obtained from other non-profit organizations and similar local and national non-profit operating entities, which include national museums with comparable operations, capital and expansion execution. The information is presented to the executive committee in executive session with the recommendation for the salary and contract for the president and ceo. The contract is approved by the executive committee. The contract is reviewed annually. The review of the contract was performed in september 2020 for fiscal year 2021. (the contract is october 2016 - september 2021, with 2 year extensions upon review.)”

“Review of other officer official compensation: the president and ceo reviews the performance and compensation data for all officers. Total compensation is approved as part of the annual budget approval process.”

“How documents are made available to the public: the witte museum makes any documents subject to open record requirements available to the public upon request.”

“Program services and accomplishments: the witte is where nature, science and culture meet, with more than 200,000 square feet of exhibition and program space, located on 10 acres along the san antonio river. Permanent galleries in the susan naylor center include the naylor family dinosaur gallery, mclean family texas wild gallery, and the kittie west nelson ferguson people of the pecos gallery. The robert j. And helen c. Kleberg south texas heritage center focuses on the history of the region, while the h-e-b- body adventure focuses on health and wellness. Collections are visible in the b. Naylor morton research and collections center and windows-on-the-world exhibitions in the mays family center provide a global context to texas. Seven learning labs serve as the foundation for the witte's hands-on experiential education programs. The witte also owns on offsite collections repository housing 320,000 artifacts and specimens. The witte has been continuously accredited by the american alliance of museums since 1974 and is a smithsonian affiliate. The covid-19 pandemic forced the witte to close to the public on march 13, 2020 by emergency decree during the busiest month of the fiscal year. The witte's re-opening task force considered national public health standards, museum best practices, and technological innovations to ensure that reopening the museum would not harm team or visitor safety. The witte was one of the first accredited museums to open across the country on may 30, 2020 and has become a benchmark for professional organizations. From october - december 2020, visitation was down by 48,286 people as compared to last year. The witte's admission, school groups, membership visits, free tuesdays, and special event visitors were all lower than the previous year. The covid-19 pandemic heavily impacted the witte's exhibition schedule. After cancelling the summer and fall blockbuster travelling exhibitions, the witte team created several internal exhibitions and extend the duration of others. In this period, changing exhibitions included: fiesta couture: behind the seams, beyond the gallery: a peek into the witte collections, and an ofrenda for dia de los muertos that celebrated the lives of those in the community that were lost during the covid-19 pandemic.”