Updates 3/3/2015

The past couple of weeks have been very eventful. Thank you, to all crew members that have volunteered and put in the tremendous effort required to pull together such a gargantuan effort.  Our core of volunteers has been instrumental in making things happen.

We are forever grateful!

(Credit: Ross Tipps)

Recently we have been informed of an increase in parking rates at the Port of Los Angeles Berth 87 parking lot. We understand the frustration and inconvenience this provides for all of our volunteers. Some of the early feedback is related to Pacific Battleship Center paying parking for all volunteers. If we had the budget to do so, we would be more than thrilled to provide this to our volunteers. Unfortunately, and to be quite frank, we do not have the budget to pay for parking at this time. At the moment, our number of paid staff necessary to operate the organization is approximately 15% under the minimum requirement. Our start-up debt continues to be a large and expensive matter. The uncertainty of fuel prices and future energy issues remains to be a concern. Given circumstances, our only options out are to balance a budget. We must reduce expenses and increase revenue. We have cut expenses as much as possible and are focused on maximizing our revenue through overnight, youth programs, events, and admissions. It will take an entire summer in order to make up for our off-season to balance the annual budget. When calculating the expense of parking, we are estimating $10k to $12k per month. Still, we will continue to explore solutions and opportunities to reduce the parking burden and hope to have answers soon.

The parking was increased at the cruise terminal and Catalina Express. It is not an isolated increase to only the IOWA. The adjustment was enacted to bring the cruise terminal and Catalina Express in line with other regional airports and cruise terminals. Although it would be simple for us to feel attacked, that is simply not true. We have a very good promotion and marketing relationship with the Port of Los Angeles evidenced by the recent major press conference held on our decks announcing the end of the PMA and ILWU negotiation. In addition to this press conference, we have worked together on joint advertising, built relationships with LATCB, and continue to communicate daily on ways to create a vibrant waterfront.

As a vibrant waterfront, we plan to see an increase in attendance and revenue through the future. Recently, our attendance and revenue have been trending up and getting us closer to being in the black during the off season. Summer is our highest revenue generating season. We are seeing an uptick in group sales, events, and overnight bookings that our sales team has been focused on.

Our new youth tour program is growing, primarily due to the new Victory STEAM field trip program launching on April 1st. Events sales are up due to follow-up, heads, and word of mouth spreading. Thank the sales team when you have a chance for a job well done.

The Camp Battleship team continues to do a great job in providing a positive experience to our overnight youth visitors. Kudos to the entire overnight team for turning this into a great program!

Thank you to the entire crew for pulling off our great public events programming. The help from all departments has made these exciting, interesting, and engaging. Thank you to those crew members that go above and beyond and take on job tasks outside their normal scope of work.

This shows your commitment to a strong team. With that being said, we will be saying farewell to Jamie Perez. Jamie has been a tremendous asset in strengthening the events venue and placing the critical building blocks to carry forward. She will be missed, but she is moving on to a great career opportunity. We will see Todd Caleca stepping more into this role and we look forward to his involvement in the events department.

(Click for details)

Coming up in March we have Music Under the Guns and Movies Under the Guns. These two series are becoming popular and help strengthen our role as a community asset. Todd Caleca and Jamie Perez have been critical in the execution of these events and we thank there focus and attention to providing great programs.

Our AQMD abatement order has been modified and extended to permit us to continue operating until March 1st, 2016. Thank you to our volunteer attorney and consultant with Mike Getscher taking the lead in keeping this situation at bay. Our power situation and lease amendment associated has once again changed. The lease amendment was modified to include requirements that we could not accept as they would expose us to a multi-million dollar liability. We are now proceeding with the design of a temporary power solution based on the original design created by the Port of Los Angeles. Our goal will be to transition onto temporary shore power within 12 months.  Once we have the design, we will begin procuring donations and in-kind materials to cover the install. Thank you to the ECA for their early committment towards trenching for the project.

As you may know, ship operations are rotating into more of a maintenance type of organization. As we proceed forward, our priorities are shifting to maintain the ship to prevent future major maintenance issues. We appreciate everyone's support as we transition and thank you to our loyal crew members for maintaining the ship! With the recent reorganization, we have hired Mary Ma to be our painting guru. Mary has been a long-term volunteer and critical to the maintenance and improvement of the battleship and a welcome addition to the team.

(Click for more info on Education Program)

Our education department will be introducing a new program - Victory STEAM Field Trip program - on April 1st. The guide is being printed as we speak and should be available shortly.  Thank you to HCBF and the volunteer help we received in putting this together.

Recently, a few of us attended the California Association of Museums conference, which was beneficial in establishing relationships and validating our future direction. Thank you to Associated Foundations for sponsoring the fees related to the conference. While we were at the conference, a group of us were able to attend the new Battle of Midway video on the USS Midway. It is a great combination of holograms and human story that includes some of the technology and story components we have discussed. I encourage everyone to go to the MIDWAY to watch this movie.

(Click for Documentary)

Speaking of movies, we will be introducing a new arrival video in the wardroom. Kert VanderMuelen of Digital Park put together this great piece that introduces our guests to the ship. A big thank you to Kert for continuing to volunteer and to devote so much effort to our project. Stay tuned as I hear he is working on something else. (BTW: he is also the documentary producer of our film sold in the store.)

As the population of the tour space continues, we see major improvements throughout the ship including the painting on 03 level by Mary Ma and Linda Ayers. Stan Sato and Derek Cross pulled another genie out of the bottle with the recent locating of a dentist chair. Stan continued his amazing work as Dr. Wood on the aft quarterdeck and we thank all of the donors and volunteers that have contributed to this refurbishment project. A special thank you to the security team for taking on some of the chipping duties when the help was needed. This is teamwork!

For me personally, the next couple of weeks will be busy with trips to Des Moines, IA and Annapolis, MD. I will be working with our Board of Directors while in Des Moines on fundraising strategies, future planning, and critical meetings to the future of our organization.  Following Des Moines, I will be headed to Annapolis, MD for the annual HNSA board meeting. While at the HNSA board meeting, we will be discussing the upcoming conference in San Pedro and areas critical to the future of museum ships.

We will be introducing the LA Waterfront passport program on or about April 1st.  The brochures and passports have been printed (courtesy of the Port of Los Angeles) and are currently onsite. We will be working with our community partners to acquire the redemption stamps and prepare signage for the execution of the program. Thank you to the Friends of the LA Maritime Museum, Barry Herlihy, Loren Roberts, and the Port of Los Angeles for the perseverance and focus to bring this project to fruition after over a year of planning.

I personally appreciate the contributions of each and every one of you. See you on deck!


-Jonathan Williams