Director of Bucksport's Northeast Historic Film to retire
PHOTo / Amber waterman
David Weiss at the Alamo Theatre in Bucksport.
The founding director of Northeast Historic Film, David Weiss, plans to retire.
NHF is a nonprofit moving-image archive, founded in 1986 and a leader in its field. Weiss was the subject of a recent Mainebiz story about the NHF and its ancillary operation, the Alamo Theatre.
This week he said and the board of directors were not ready to publicly announce his retirement until now. “I will take a break,” he told Mainebiz, when asked of his plans for the future. “But I don’t plan on being completely disassociated from Northeast Historic Film.”
The executive director position was posted this week. The board will begin reviewing applications Oct. 1 and hopes to complete the hiring process by December.
For the transition period, he said, he plans to provide some overlap to help get his successor up and running. He also plans to remain involved at some level and is a board member, but said he wants to get out of the day-to-day operation.
“I’m not racing away,” he said.
For almost 30 years, Weiss’ level of commitment has been such that he never drew a salary.
“Well, it wasn't as if the salary was really there,” he wrote in an email. “Karan Sheldon and I started NHF from nothing. Each year, the budget was constructed to maximize the growth and development of the organization by hiring staff, improving facilities, and doing innovative projects. To pay myself would have required layoffs or drastic cuts in important programs. I supported myself with a moonlight job [as a project consultant] which I could fit in around the edges.”
“This is a significant transition,” said board president Richard Rosen. “[Weiss] demonstrated, with what he’s accomplished and his body of work, his open-ended, enthusiastic dedication to preserving the moving-image history of the Northeast. He’s also been thoroughly committed to making it accessible to scholars, students and the general public.”
Rosen said transitioning from a founder is challenging for any organization.
“That’s why we’re approaching it as deliberately as we are,” Rosen said. “It clearly is an exciting opportunity for someone to come in and assume the role as the first executive director after the founder.”
Both Weiss and Sheldon, who is also on the board, have helped map out the transition process. The board is working with Jeff Wahlstrom and Starboard Leadership Consulting in Bangor, and aims to raise $350,000 for the transition process. To date it has raised more than $175,000 from the board, friends and foundations.
“We want to be sure we have the financial capability to see our operational budget established on a good foundation, to fund the consulting expertise to move through the transitional process, to fund the salary of the new executive director and to fund the salary of the collections manager [an existing, paid position] outside of the normal operating budget,” Rosen said.
NHF’s 2014 operating budget is $524,000, with five-and-a-half full-time employees augmented by interns and volunteers.
In terms of the future, said Rosen, the organization is on a strong foundation.
“I think we view this as the launch of the next phase of Northeast Historic Film,” Rosen said.
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