by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
What’s a fellow who earned a degree in political science from the University of Florida and was on the pre-law track doing running a museum? Like a lot of people’s career stories, one thing just led to another.
Since the early 1990s, Museum of Science & History President and CEO Michael Oberg has been involved with the institution albeit casually at first.
“My wife, Yvonne, was the art director at the museum and I was the litigation manager for an insurance company. Since I knew quite a bit about business regulations, I would volunteer my advice on things like how to make sure contests and raffles would properly be conducted.
“When the job of business and finance manager became available at the museum 12 years ago, it occurred to me I had always thought she had the most fun job, so I put in an application. They had 250 people applying for the job, but they decided they had to give me an interview because my wife was working here,” said Oberg.
After the Board of Directors waded through all those applications, it turned out he was the leading candidate and since joining the staff, Oberg has risen through the ranks of responsibility for the fiscal health of the institution. After a year at MOSH, he was named CFO and shortly thereafter, vice president. After seven years as second-in-command he was elected as president and CEO following the death of his predecessor Margo Dundon.
“I quickly discovered the museum is actually several businesses under one roof,” Oberg said of his initial impression of MOSH that remains today.
“It is not uncommon for someone who is more of a business manager to be the CEO of a multi-disciplinary museum because it’s so multi-faceted. We have an educational department that takes care of our curriculum needs, so it’s a school. It’s a retail shop because we have a very successful museum store. It’s also a physical plant and a traveling road show for the exhibits that change. It’s running capital programs and fundraising. We even have a construction company for all the build-out we do for new exhibits and improvements.”
Oberg said he realizes MOSH is in a unique position among museums when it comes to the balance sheet. He credits the leadership and vision of the Board of Directors who he said put the museum on track for success years ago.
“It’s unusual for a not-for-profit to have even a modest surplus but MOSH has had a budget surplus for the past 12 years. That’s like hitting a home run every time you come up to the plate.”
He also said many people who never come near a board meeting are involved in the day-to-day success.
“Lots of people here at the museum are responsible. We have an excellent staff and a great group of interns and volunteers who deserve a lot of the credit.”
Since Oberg came up through the ranks, so to speak, he has an appreciation for what happens when staff members can develop an “ownership attitude” toward what they do and where they do it.
“Some of the people who have become department managers first walked in the door as teen interns,” he said. “We’re very much about building a person from the ground up and I’m a big fan of giving people opportunities for promotions. It gives us a continuity of staffing and that’s good for the institution.”
Oberg pointed out MOSH is on track to break its attendance record of $509,000 in admission. He expects this year to hit the $570,000 mark for the first time. He said the museum now has a $2.3 million annual operating budget and he has watched the institution’s endowment increase from $1.2 million 12 years ago to close to $5 million this year.
With 85 percent of MOSH’s income derived from earned revenue, Oberg said the institution is unique because it’s not as dependent on corporate sources and public funding to keep the doors open and the lights on, but that doesn’t mean the current budget issues on the state and City level won’t have an impact on the future of the museum. He knows MOSH, like other cultural institutions, will have to make adjustments.
“Last year we received $350,000 in funding from the City, or about 12 percent of our budget. We hope we’ll be able to retain 90 percent of that funding for next year. Losing that 10 percent will be painful, but if we go any deeper than that, we may have to make some major changes. This is after all a business,” said Oberg.
When you run a business, it’s usually best to deal with the day-to-day issues and challenges while making sure you don’t lose sight of the big picture. Oberg said he and the staff are getting ready for some new major exhibits and enhancements.
A permanent aquarium exhibit is currently under construction that will include components that will duplicate the environments as well as the flora and fauna from what is found in a natural spring habitat, a cypress swamp and the ocean.
“The exhibit is based around part of our mission which is to include indigenous natural sciences,” said Oberg.
There will also be a new pre-visit area adjacent the planetarium where MOSH’s educators will conduct program introductions while the light level slowly diminishes to allow visitors’ eyes to adjust to darkness.
“At the same time, the area itself is going to be an exhibition about the history of space travel. We have ordered perfect replicas of all the spacesuits from the Mercury program through the Space Shuttle,” said Oberg, who added several NASA astronauts will be invited to attend the opening of the exhibit.
The biggest event on the schedule of upcoming events, Oberg said, is something that will “revisit a topic we haven’t covered in several years – the human body.”
Next year, MOSH will host a $700,000 exhibit that will be centered around a 60-foot human body replica that visitors will be able to walk through and explore.
“We have partnered with Baptist Health Center for what we’re going to call ‘The Incredible 60-foot Man’,” said Oberg.
With everything that’s “new and improved” at MOSH, it’s easy for him to maintain an appreciation for the museum’s own history since Oberg walks by the dinosaur fossil skeleton that has become the institution’s iconic image.
“It’s from one of the museum’s very first capital programs. People who saw it 40 years ago are now bringing their grandchildren here to see it,” he said.