I recently conducted a workshop on better boards at the annual meeting of the Association for Science and Technology Centers, held in Ft. Worth, Texas. It was Halloween so I brought a bag of candy, which went over well given the afternoon time slot.

What struck me most about the group was the number of new science centers either planning or actually opening up. Several new centers have launched, including a beautiful one right in Ft. Worth. So many more centers are planned you would hardly think there was a recession. My guess is that most of these centers were planned years ago and the fundraising was completed before the downturn. Those just in the planning stages now may have a harder time becoming a reality for a few years.

This started me thinking about the challenges of completing a major capital project in a down market. Sure the capital funds may be in hand, but is there the business to fund operations? Time will tell.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 at 11:42 am and is filed under Assorted Musings, Nonprofit Sector, Trends. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.