By Leslie Collins
Northeast News
June 22, 2011

Board members of the Friends of Kansas City Museum at Corinthian Hall are hoping to strengthen their organization through a proposed merger with Union Station Kansas City Inc.

Current Friends of Kansas City Museum President Katrina Henke proposed the idea during a recent board meeting. Nine out of ten directors at the meeting voiced interest in researching the idea further, Henke said.

Asked why she’s proposing a merger, Henke listed several reasons.

“We’re just struggling like a lot of boards are right now filling important positions,” she said. “The concern was we have an obligation to do the right thing and to keep our organization strong. So, we started looking at options to restructure our organization and make it work more efficiently.”

After four years as serving as president, Henke wanted to step down, but remained in the position since no one offered to fill it. Other vacant positions include recording secretary, membership chair and volunteer chair.

“I think we’ve got a good board and people work very hard, but for various reasons, people haven’t been able to step up in those positions,” she said.

Currently, the Friends of the Kansas City Museum is a separate 501c3 organization from Union Station.

Being a separate 501c3 requires the Friends group to create a budget, elect members to fill board positions like president and treasurer, fill out a 990 tax form, balance and update the books, maintain a website, pay for directors and officers insurance, among other legalities.

Merging with Union Station could lessen that load.

“Most friends groups are not separate 501c3’s. Most are under the umbrella of the parent organization,” Henke explained.

If both the Friends board and the Union Station board voted in favor of the merger, Union Station could assist in several areas.

Friends of Kansas City Museum would no longer need to fill out a 990 tax form or pay for directors and officers insurance. Union Station would keep separate books for the Friends group, maintain the membership list and send out renewal notices.

“They have much stronger resources,” Henke said of Union Station.

Friends of Kansas City Museum would become a committee and would no longer be required to elect positions like president, membership chair and others.

“We could focus our energy on supporting museum activities because right now several of our most active board members spend a lot of time working on corporate governance activities like our books, our budget, our website…” she said.

For those questioning Union Station’s support of the Kansas City Museum, Henke said, “From my perspective Union Station is very supportive of the museum. Years ago people questioned that support, but they’re not the same organization they were five years ago. They have really helped us keep the name of the museum out in the public view.”

One example, she said, was during the Princess Diana exhibit Union Station. To coincide with the exhibit, Union Station displayed Strauss-Peyton photographs, owned by the Kansas City Museum, of prominent Kansas City families wearing wedding attire.

If the two merged, Friends of Kansas City Museum would still have input on activities at the museum and would not share operating funds with Union Station.

“I personally feel like we will be able to get more people to join this committee because it’s not quite a judiciary responsibility,” Henke said. “People that love an organization don’t necessarily want to go to 12 meetings a year and take notes or create budgets. It’s hard to find people who want to donate that much time to do those types of tasks.”

Asked when she thinks a decision will be made about the merger, Henke said it won’t happen until at least a few more months.