NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Almost completely inactive since last fall, Downtown Development Inc. in North Adams is revitalizing its board of directors and will be focusing solely on the planned $3.7 million renovation of the Mohawk Theater on Main Street.

 

This board will be key to the success of the renovation effort, said a project consultant. 

 

Downtown Development Inc. (DDI) is a group of downtown businesspeople who, when in recent years the city participated in a state program for downtowns, worked in partnership with the city to encourage downtown activity and development. The main reason for a July 13 meeting was to reorganize the board of directors, adding several people as members who had been on DDI's Mohawk Theater subcommittee.

 

One of the major reasons why Downtown Development Inc. is taking over the project is because it has an already established nonprofit status, a great help in fund-raising, said DDI President Jack Dempsey. 

 

Thomas Douglas Architects, Northampton, made a presentation on the renovation of the city-owned theater, built in the 1930s in an art-deco motif and now vacant. The total construction cost will be $3.47 million, and the renovated theater will seat 935 people, they said. A renovated Mohawk could include space for a cafe fronting on the sidewalk. 

 

Next, Gene C. Wenner, a Pittsfield resident and president of Arts & Education Consultants, hired as a capital campaign consultant for the project, spoke of both the individual and collective responsibilities of members of the DDI board. 

 

Wenner said when he studied possible action plans for the Mohawk restoration a year-and-a-half ago. He presented then options for proceeding: 1) Form a brand-new not-for-profit organization; 2) Use an existing organization, DDI, which already established nonprofit status. Those involved chose the second option, which Wenner had recommended. 

 

The revitalization of the board of directors "is the first step of what I propose to be a capital campaign," Wenner said. "Because very clearly if you are going to go ask people for some serious money for a capital campaign, they will want to look first of all at who is responsible for this, who is the board of directors. It is the board of directors that they will want to look at." 

 

For the Mohawk project, the board of directors needs to be "established and responsive and responsible for all of the things that are going to take place in the future," Wenner said. 

 

"This is really in my mind a very exciting venture," he said. "There's a lot of work that needs to be done, and it has to be done by people that are willing to give their time and their talents and their resources to make it happen." 

 

Wenner noted that he works with many boards of directors and teaches classes in nonprofit management and governance at Berkshire Community College. 

 

"By and large boards of directors do not understand a couple of important things. Boards of directors are responsible legally, financially, and morally/ethically for the organization they represent. No one else owns it," he said. "In other words, they own the organization. They are responsible for it." 

 

He said the new board of DDI is based foremost on the idea that the board will be responsible for the Mohawk restoration and its future operation. 

 

"In order to accomplish that this must be a board of interested citizens that represent the community in lots of different ways," Wenner said. 

 

He said the organization should function according to its bylaws and members of the board must strive constantly to preserve and protect the image of DDI in the community. Specific requirements of the board will be programs, fund-raising, marketing, facilities, finances, and leadership. Members of the new board expressed their preferences to serve on four committees of the board: program committee, development committee, facilities committee, and marketing committee. 

 

"Program development for the Mohawk Theater will become increasingly important as you move ahead because in a way to try to convince other people that they should help invest in the restoration of the theater, you as a board have to be clearer and clearer about what that facility will be used for, what programs will go in there, what kinds of community center this could become," Wenner said. 

 

"Now, that seems to be a long way off, but in a way it's not, because you're not going to wait until the theater's about ready to go and then decide what kinds of programs are going in." 

 

Jonathan Secor, a member of the board and director of performing arts and film at Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, will be helping develop a user profile detailing potential programs for the theater, Wenner said. 

 

On fund-raising or development, "Obviously we are looking the potential for raising at least $4 million to make the restoration possible," he said. 

 

Money raised above this amount could possibly be used as an endowment to offset the ongoing costs of operation or maintenance of the facility. 

 

"So it's very important that we begin to look realistically at how that money can be raised and from whom," he said. "And in addition to that, further down the pike, the idea of how you as an organization will begin to get the money to support the programs that the program committees are going to help you decide what will go into the theater." 

 

Another function of the board will be to oversee the capital campaign, which usually begins with the formation of a separate capital campaign committee. Members of a capital campaign tend to "have money, they can get money, and everybody in the community knows who they are." 

 

They also need to be willing to serve on a shorter-term basis than board members. 

 

"We can't really start off with a capital campaign until we get the board itself well-organized and starting to move along," he said. 

 

Money is also needed to hire organization staff. DDI in this transitional period does not have an executive director or any established staff to speak of. The presence of staff is essential to people looking at investing money, Wenner said. 

 

DDI should start looking at getting at least a part-time or interim staff member, "somebody that can represent the board and carry on activities as we go into the capital campaign phase of this. It makes you organization look like it's well-organized," he said. "That's what people want to know." 

 

Marketing, getting the word out to the public about the Mohawk restoration effort, is also very important. Part of this will be to conduct a community survey for what residents want in the theater.

 

"Although we've gotten some feedback of that type, we're looking at doing some kind of community survey to ... try to get the word out about what the community thinks the theater ought to include," Wenner said. "We don't know that yet." 

 

Wenner said that after formation of the capital campaign committee, "you go into what's called the 'silent phase' to try to get a lot of money up front from the state, from wealthy people who are willing to pledge some money up front." 

 

"You start the campaign with 'x' number of million dollars, and then you go to the community and say, 'Now we'd like to have your support.' " 

 

Another aspect of marketing is possibly reactivating the Friends of the Mohawk group as a volunteer organization. 

 

"You're going to need arms and legs beyond this board to make this work. You're going to need people that are willing to, for instance, take people on tours of the theater, which is something else in the marketing sense that needs to start to happen," Wenner said. 

 

On facilities, "It seems right now that this is the most important part of the board's responsibility — actually, it isn't at the moment, but it will be," Wenner said.

 

As the capital campaign begins to be successful, the facilities committee will have to oversee the successive stages of the facility restoration, he said. 

 

The board set its next meeting for Aug. 2 at a location to be determined. Milestones so far in the restoration effort include a Mohawk Feasibility Study completed by Coffey Associates, Chicago, in March 1998. In May 1999, workmen completed restoration of the the Mohawk Theater marquee and it was lit. This May, Thomas Douglas Architects completed its preliminary architectural/engineering report on the Mohawk.