Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 19, 1993 TAG: 9304190113
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TONY WHARTON LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Medium
"It's based on economics, trying to streamline the operation wherever we could," said Robert L. Steele, vice president for finance and the society's top U.S. official. "A lot of your nonprofit organizations are finding the same thing happening. It's a matter of the economy."
The society's cutbacks will trim the payroll by 10 to 15 percent, Steele said, through a combination of attrition and layoffs. That will bring the paid staff in the United States down to about 110 people.
The streamlining will save more than $600,000 a year on a $13 million budget.
To handle the consolidation, the U.S. headquarters offices in Greenbrier Tower are expanding nearly 50 percent, to about 12,000 square feet, Steele said. The staff in Chesapeake will add six people, bringing it up to 34 positions.
The consolidation reflects not only the state of the economy for nonprofit groups, but the evolution of the society in particular.
When the Cousteau Society was formed in 1973, it drew much of its original attraction from Jacques Yves Cousteau, the scientist and environmental pioneer. His diving adventures were frequently on television, and his hawk-nosed profile was instantly recognizable around the world.
Cousteau is now 83, although Steele said he is still "very, very active." Cousteau is still widely known, but his cause has grown even more. Government-sponsored recycling and "thinking green," once unheard of, are popular social issues. The society is only one of numerous environmental groups.
Society membership has shrunk significantly over the past year and a half. It stands at about 200,000 in the United States and 104,000 in Europe. At its peak in 1991, membership was about 360,000.
"Sure, if we were the only group out there we'd have more members," Steele said. "But that's not necessarily bad. All those groups are advancing the public's education on these issues.
"We've been saying the same things for 20 years now, and finally people are jumping on the bandwagon."
The group's streamlining comes on the heels, too, of the failure of Cousteau's Oceans Park in Paris. There is no connection between the society and the park except Cousteau himself.
Oceans Park was to have been built in Norfolk, but the city withdrew its support in 1986, and Cousteau took his idea to Europe. At the time, the Cousteau Society had offices in Norfolk. Those moved to Chesapeake early last year.
Other society operations shifting to Chesapeake include those based in Los Angeles and New York. The Los Angeles office will be closed as soon as some of its post-production film work is done. All of that office's duties are moving to Chesapeake. The society's New York staff will shrink and its photo library will move to Chesapeake also.
The society will keep its European headquarters in Paris and a small film office in Monaco, Steele said.
The society produces about four finished hours of film a year now in the form of two to three documentaries, he said. That may be reduced somewhat, but no decision has been made.
The society has even stopped selling books, films and T-shirts to members, once a hallmark of its educational efforts.
Charity-watchers at the National Charities Information Bureau in New York City consider the society's fund-raising expenses unreasonably high: 35 percent of the money it receives from members and other contributions goes back into fund-raising efforts.
Steele said that is partially because the society accounts more strictly for its fund-raising expenses than do other groups.
"We do not allocate any of our fund-raising costs to programs, as some do," Steele said. "We've always taken a conservative approach and charged all mailings to fund-raising costs. We think we're still within reasonable limits for what we do."
by CNB