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Current Issues State Trust Land Reform Read about this critical issue here. MSC and the Desert Discovery Center The McDowell Sonoran Conservancy (MSC) recently presented a proposal to support planning for the Desert Discovery Center (DDC) to the McDowell Sonoran Preserve Commission and the Tourism Development Commission. MSC's non-profit mission is to advocate for, educate about, and provide stewardship of Scottsdale’s McDowell Sonoran Preserve. Among many other services to the Preserve, we provide free educational programs to thousands of residents and visitors every year. The Desert Discovery Center is intended to be the educational focal point for the Preserve. Its timely and effective development is very important to the Conservancy.
Thanks to the work of a small group of private citizens and the leadership of the City of Scottsdale, public interest in the DDC has been rekindled after a long lull. To build on the momentum from recent consulting work to define a theme and concept for the DDC, MSC has proposed a plan to support continued progress. MSC has offered to fund and hire a project director to develop an implementation plan for the DDC and to lead DDC planning activities. The project director will work with a broadly-based steering committee on which MSC board members and staff will be a minority. The project director and the steering committee will communicate regularly with the Tourism and Preserve commissions, the Scottsdale City Council, and the public. Key decisions will be made in a transparent manner with public information and input. The project director and DDC planning activities will be funded through the efforts of MSC and the steering committee. It is not expected that public funds will be required. We encourage you to read the entire proposal, which is available at the link to the left.
Our proposal makes the public steering committee and the project director, not MSC, the key decision makers. We're the only local organization dedicated entirely to the Preserve. Over 15 years our stewards, friends and contributors have donated millions of dollars in volunteer services, land, and cash for the Preserve. We believe that we should support the DDC development as it is consistent with our mission. We are prepared to offer our resources to encourage timely and effective progress to DDC completion. The MSC proposal is intended to support planning only. Decisions about governance, i.e., who will eventually operate the DDC, will be made later, ultimately by the Scottsdale City Council. The Council will no doubt require that the selection of an operator be done by a completely neutral group in an objective and open manner. Some have suggested that MSC should simply give its money to the currently constituted private DDC study group and let them lead the planning for the DDC. But this isn’t MSC's money to dispense unconditionally. Our donors will expect financial accountability and material progress in return for their funding of the Discovery Center. They're not interested in control, but they are interested in results. It would be up to those donors, not MSC, to decide whether they would prefer to give their money, directly or indirectly, to the DDC study group as currently constituted.
Because a new entity eventually may be needed to govern and operate the DDC, one option would be to form it now. Since the DDC is not yet well defined, we suggest this is premature. In any case, it would take time for a new entity to write bylaws, develop basic business policies and systems, get approval for non-profit status, raise money, hire staff, etc—whereas MSC currently offers the necessary capabilities and resources to provide logistical and administrative support to the DDC planners. Our proposal avoids wasteful duplication now, and can be an effective bridge to the time when a new DDC support entity may be necessary.
In a recent editorial in this newspaper, editor Robert Leger issued a call to Scottsdale's leaders to think big and think broadly about Scottsdale's future. We believe that our offer to fund DDC planning and project management is generous, forward-looking, and in the very spirit editor Leger has solicited. |
