The Churchill Centre Annual Review for 2013
Dear Churchill Centre Members and Fellow Churchillians: We are pleased to present this review of the activities of The Churchill Centre for 2013, which was a year of excitement and accomplishment for our organization. Global interest in Winston Churchill remains high and we are encouraged by the success of our efforts and the positive reception they have received from so many of you. We continue to devote ourselves to energetically carrying out our mission:
To foster leadership, statesmanship, vision and courage among democratic and freedomloving peoples through the thoughts words and deeds of Winston Spencer Churchill. Here are some of the highlights of the past year as we continue our dedicated path to the fulfillment of our mission. WINSTON CHURCHILL RETURNS TO THE UNITED STATES CAPITOL Our signature achievement of the year was the placement of an iconic Oscar Nemon bust of Churchill in the permanent collection of the United States Capitol, seventy-two years after he first addressed a joint session of Congress in the dark aftermath of America’s entry into the Second World War. Over a period of nine months, we were fortunate to have the opportunity to work with the office of the Speaker of the House of Representatives to commission and donate the bust and to plan the dedication ceremony held in Statuary Hall on October 30, and in the speaker’s words to be the “linchpin” of the event. This was the most significant official recognition accorded Churchill in the United States since the White House ceremony celebrating his honorary citizenship in 1963. The bust was generously donated by Churchill Centre Chairman Laurence Geller. A standing room only audience of over 300 people, including the Secretary of State, all four Congressional leaders and numerous members of the House and Senate, along with the British Ambassador and members of the Churchill family were present to honor Churchill’s memory and, thrillingly, to hear his recorded words echo mere yards from where he originally spoke them. Most importantly, Churchill’s image will now be seen by hundreds of thousands of
visitors to the Capitol each year and interest on the part of our national leaders in his life and legacy is greater than ever. We intend to build on this foundation to ensure that knowledge of Churchill’s “thoughts, words and deeds” continues to grow in our nation’s capital. NATIONAL CHURCHILL LIBRARY AND CENTER AT GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY During 2013, we continued to make excellent progress on the development of the vitally important National Churchill Library and Center in Washington, DC. This facility will provide a long-desired and essential permanent home for Churchill studies, scholarship and education in the heart of our nation’s capital and is an essential element in advancing the mission of our organization. It will provide a base for The Churchill Centre to grow and prosper and to maintain our history of outstanding programs and services to our members and to Churchillians around the world. This initiative has the enthusiastic support of major Churchill institutions in the U.K. and of the Churchill family and is tentatively scheduled to open in 2015. The new Library and Center will include a comprehensive library of books by and about Churchill, state-of-the-art exhibit space and an education
The Churchill Centre Annual Review for 2013
center, event and office space and other features, ultimately to include an Endowed Professorship in Churchill Studies and Modern British History in the University’s history department. It will be located in the heart of the George Washington University campus, a few blocks from the White House, the State Department and a host of international organizations.
Churchill studies. The strength of our commitment to FH is evidenced by the fact that we have devoted a very substantial portion of our membership dues to the costs of editing and publishing this high quality periodical. In the past two years, we have significantly expanded its potential market by creating a digital version and by modernizing the design. Further design improvements are planned for 2014.
Through the generosity of our members and supporters, we have assembled a collection of some 2,000 volumes which will form the nucleus of the Library. We continue to work with GW on the mechanics of the Library and Center, including definitive governance, exhibits and programming, design and development and other features. Most importantly, we have made good progress on fundraising with substantial amounts already committed and a donor pipeline intended to ensure that the full amount required to build out the space will be available in 2014.
To ensure the long run future of Finest Hour and provide further support for its widely acclaimed editor Richard Langworth, we have appointed David Freeman as Associate Editor effective January 2014. David is a respected Churchill scholar well known to Churchillians around the world and is excited about the opportunity to team with Richard to keep FH at the top of its field and ensure its long run continuity and success.
The University is working closely with us on fundraising including outreach to its Board of Trustees, its substantial global alumni base and other supporters. The new Library and Center has the enthusiastic support of a broad range of constituencies at GW from the Board of Trustees, the Office of the President, the Library system, History Department, School of International Affairs and divisions and departments. Full information on this facility is available at www.library.gwu.edu/churchillcenter and we actively encourage all of our members and friends to support this initative both financially and through donations of books and materials. COMMUNICATION AND PUBLICATIONS
Finest Hour Finest Hour continues as our flagship publication and the leading international journal in the field of
During the past year, we have converted over 800 articles of FH to a new editable format, so they can be re-utilized more effectively. This will enable us to create themed collections of articles such as “Churchill and Empire”, “Churchill and America” and “Churchill and His Family” that can be featured on our website and published as affordable, easy to distribute e-books. Until now, the content of past issues has been difficult to access and this initiative will refresh and release it for a much wider audience at an affordable cost. We are excited about moving forward with this initiative in 2014.
Chartwell Bulletin In addition to his new position as Associate Editor of FH, David Freeman also took the helm of our monthly Churchill newsletter Chartwell Bulletin whose circulation has now been expanded to over 20,000 readers around the world. CB has been re-designed in a new and more attractive format and the editorial content has been significantly enhanced including original material such as interviews with leading Churchillians and more exclusive reporting, links to upcoming issues of FH, news about the Churchill world and more audio and video.
The Churchill Centre Annual Review for 2013
The Churchill Companion
We published a revised and expanded edition of The Churchill Companion (initially released at the end of 2012) with a striking new cover and there are now some 5,000 copies in print. This is our most successful publication, an engaging and highly readable “fact book” about every aspect of the Great Man’s life, and has been received with enthusiasm by Churchillians around the world. Our success in producing this high quality publication on an affordable basis makes it possible to distribute very effectively to students around the country and at our conferences and local chapter meetings.
Through the dedicated efforts of Dan Myers and John Plumpton, our two Twitter feeds (@churchillcentre and @churchilltoday) have expanded and now reach almost 7,000 regular followers. With some 15,000,000 of Churchill’s words and his highly active sixty-years in the public eye, Twitter’s 140 character limit ensures that we will be able to continue to “tweet” for many years without running out of things to say!
Churchill Companion Volumes
CONFERENCES AND EVENTS
30th International Churchill Conference
The Churchill Centre previously funded in excess of $100,000 to enable Sir Martin Gilbert to complete the 1942 companion volume for the official Churchill biography, just published by Hillsdale College Press. TCC’s Chairman Laurence Geller CBE made a donation to the Churchill Centre to cover all of its costs in connection with this eagerly awaited volume.
Our annual International Churchill Conferences have long been our flagship public event. The recent 30th Conference held in Washington, DC October 31 – November 2, 2013, in partnership with George Washington University ranks as one of our most successful ever with 350 attendees, increased participation by students and teachers, expanded media coverage and an outstanding program.
Website
Future Conferences
Our website, winstonchurchill.org, remains the definitive online resource for information about the life of Winston Churchill and The Churchill Centre. Our talented webmaster, John David Olson, has successfully used sophisticated search optimization techniques to build traffic to the site, which now receives a very impressive 1,500,000 unique visitors a year and consistently ranks at the very top of internet search results. We have added improvements and new content to the site (for example, including a “Sign Up for Free Churchill Newsletter” banner on the homepage and the highly popular “Churchill’s Other Lives” audio series) and are in the preliminary stages of planning an updated design to better showcase the outstanding site content and make login access and navigation easier and more effective.
We are excited about the opportunity to create alliances with important universities and museums to enhance the attendance at and popularity of our conferences. Our success in Washington provides evidence of the attractiveness of this approach. The 31st Conference will be held April 3-5 2014 in New Orleans in partnership with the highly acclaimed National World War II Museum along with a one day conference in October 2014 on “Churchill and the Great War” with the National World War I Museum in Kansas City. Both of these Conferences will provide our members and supporters with an “inside look” at two of America’s greatest history museums. We are collaborating with The Churchill Centre U.K. on preliminary plans for a return to London in 2015, the 50th anniversary of Churchill’s death, building on
The Churchill Centre Annual Review for 2013
the great success of our last Conference there in 2011. For 2016, we are considering New York, a city of great importance in Churchill‘s life and long overdue for a Conference. CHAPTERS AND AFFILIATES Our local chapters and affiliates remain the grass roots of our organization and we continue to support them with ideas and contacts for speakers and help in promoting and publicizing local events. While the success of these chapters depends on local leadership, we continue to be effective in establishing expanded relationships with Churchill groups in a variety of cities including Portland OR, Houston TX, Madison WI, Ottawa, ON, and Philadelphia, PA. In 2014, we hope to establish a more formalized “speakers’ bureau” to provide further support for these important relationships. Our Executive Director, Lee Pollock, was able to attend and support a number of local events and keep members updated about TCC’s plans and activities. COLLABORATION WITH INTERNATIONAL CHURCHILL INSTITUTIONS During the past year, TCC has played an active part in fostering enhanced collaboration and communication with other Churchill organizations in the U.S. and U.K., working closely with Allen Packwood (the Director of the Churchill Archives and of TCC U.K.), Sir David Cannadine, (Chair of the Churchill 2015 coordinating committee) and with our fellow Churchillians at the Churchill War Rooms, Chartwell and the National Churchill Museum in Fulton, MO. In particular, we are supporting an organized program of international events on the 2015 50th anniversary of Churchill’s death which will include a new Churchill web portal entitled “Churchill Central.” We were also pleased to participate in the presentation of a Churchill Award to HRH the Prince of Wales and to secure the attendance of several significant donors at this event. As mentioned above, we continue to enhance our relationship with important institutions such as the World War I and II Museums, the Pritzker
Military Museum and the Franklin Roosevelt Library. RESEARCH AND SCHOLARSHIP A core mission of The Churchill Centre is to support new research and scholarship on Churchill’s life. In 2013 we continued to do so with considerable success, including the following examples: Paul Reid – TCC provided support for Paul as he continued to promoted and publicize the landmark third volume of the Last Lion series, including travel and appearances at our local chapters and other venues. Churchillians around the world are grateful for Paul’s decade of devoted effort in completing this important and extraordinarily popular trilogy. We were particularly pleased to have been able to arrange for Paul to speak to officers and crew of the U.S.S. Winston S. Churchill to give those who serve on this great ship a chance to learn more about the man whose name it bears. Candice Millard – TCC continues to advise bestselling author Candice Millard (”Destiny of the Republic” and “River of Doubt”) on contacts and information as she works on a major study of Churchill in South Africa. Michael Shelden – We have arranged several speaking engagements for Prof. Michael Shelden with our local chapters since the publication of “Young Titan: The Making of Winston Churchill.” The planned six-part TV series based on the book will provide additional opportunities for us to engage with a larger audience. Hal Klepak – We recently secured a research grant from a thrid party donor for Prof. Hal Klepak to continue his innovative research on Churchill in Cuba, which was first featured in Finest Hour 159 this summer. James Muller – TCC is pleased to continue to support our long-time friend and chairman of our Board of Academic Advisor Prof. James Muller in his work, including the forthcoming and eagerly anticipated
The Churchill Centre Annual Review for 2013
new publication of The River War. We are grateful for the contributions of Dr. Muller and the other members of this Board. EDUCATION During 2013, we secured a commitment of $1,000,000 to provide free access to the Churchill Archives Centre digital archive for every secondary school in North American and the U.K. This will enable students to be exposed to and utilize primary source materials from one of the greatest historical archives of the 20th century and will be an invaluable aid in educating them about the life and times of Winston Churchill and his relevance to the problems of the 21st century. This initiative has the potential to be hugely valuable in bringing Churchill further into the secondary curriculum on both sides of the Atlantic and to be a perfect companion to our existing educational efforts. We are currently working closely with Bloomsbury Academic, publisher of the Archive, to design and develop effective delivery systems for this product for the secondary school market. We continue to press forward with other educational initiatives which include our Churchill research paper competition and our teacher training institutes. We plan to submit a grant request to the National Endowment for the Humanities for a teacher training program in the U.K., which will build on the highly successful prior program there. A new effort this year has been to provide a free “digital membership” in The Churchill Centre including a subscription to Finest Hour to some 400 members of the National History Club history honors society. These are students with a demonstrated interest in history and a prime audience for our message. We also continue to work one-onone with individual high schools and universities such as the Rickover Naval Academy in Chicago, Winston Churchill High School in Potomac, MD and King’s College in New York. We are also investigating the value of online educational programs such as those provided by Coursera and Global Online Academy. While these platforms
are in their infancy and participation can be challenging, time-consuming and expensive, their potential to reach a very large audience of students and adult learners is considerable. ADMINISTRATION AND FINANCES The Centre continues to operate with a single full time staff person and other functions being performed on a part-time or voluntary basis.
During the past year, we were able to reconfigure the management of the Centre’s cash balances and investment portfolio by transitioning to a low cost index-based investment strategy which is expected to yield significant savings over the next several years. Our long-time auditor, located in the Washington DC area, announced his retirement and we secured the services of a new independent Certified Public Accounting firm, based in Chicago and having substantial experience in auditing of not-for-profit organizations. This transition along with the use of an outside bookkeeping service will streamline our operations and hopefully result in further cost savings. At the beginning of 2013 our offices moved to a new location in downtown Chicago, at 131 South Dearborn Street. As has been the case since 2008, we benefited significantly from the generosity of our Board Chairman Laurence Geller CBE and in particular from the law firm of Perkins Coie. As a result we continue to enjoy rent-free space and a variety of other administrative and support services, pro bono. The Centre’s audited financial statements for 2013 will be posted on our website as soon as completed and our Internal Revenue Service Form 990 will be available for inspection when filed.
The Churchill Centre Annual Review for 2013
Concluding Words We hope that this Review provides a good overview of The Churchill Centre and our activities and either of us would be pleased to respond to any questions that you our members and supporters may have. If (member or not) you don’t receive Chartwell Bulletin, please provide us with your e-mail address so you can enjoy this free, informative and engaging newsletter. And if you are not a member, please consider joining by going to our website or calling us. Finest Hour alone is worth well more than the annual membership dues. The proper conclusion to this Review is of course, to thank all of you for your support both financially and in time and enthusiasm. Our Mission is clear, important and, above all relevant. We must leave no stone unturned in it's worthy pursuit.We know that all of you share our fervent belief that the life and legacy of Winston Churchill are, in these challenging times, more important than ever and should remain a beacon of light and hope for today’s generation and beyond.
Respectfully submitted, Laurence Geller CBE, Chairman
Lee Pollock Executive Director
March, 2014 CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD Laurence S. Geller CBE lgeller@winstonchurchill.org EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Lee Pollock lpollock@winstonchurchill.org MANAGEMENT & OPERATIONS Daniel N. Myers dmyers@winstonchurchill.org WEBMASTER Justin Reash jreash@winstonchurchill.org HONORARY MEMBERS The Rt Hon David Cameron, MP The Rt Hon Sir Martin Gilbert CBE Robert Hardy CBE The Lord Heseltine CH PC The Duke of Marlborough Gen. Colin L. Powell KCB Amb. Paul H. Robinson, Jr. BOARD OF TRUSTEES AS OF DECEMBER 31, 2013 Senator Spencer Abraham Randy Barber Gregg Berman
Paul Brubaker Donald W. Carlson Randolf S. Churchill David Coffer Manus Cooney Lester Crown Senator Richard J. Durbin Kenneth Fisher Tina Santi Flaherty Rear-Admiral Michael T. Franken, USN Laurence S. Geller CBE The Rt Hon Sir Martin Gilbert CBE Richard C. Godfrey Philip Gordon The Hon D. Craig Horn Gretchen Kimball Diane Lees • Peter Lowy The Rt Hon Sir John Major KG CH The Lord Marland J.W. Marriot, Jr. Christopher Matthews Harry E. McKillop Jon Meacham Michael W. Michaelson Robert O’Brien John David Olsen Allen Packwood Kenneth Rendell Consul General Robert Peirce Joseph J. Plumeri
Lee Pollock • Phillip H. Reed OBE Mitchell Reiss Elihu Rose The Hon Celia Sandys The Hon Edwina Sandys Sir John Scarlett KCMG OBE Mick Scully • Cita Stelzer ACADEMIC ADVISERS Professor James W. Muller, Chairman University of Alaska, Anchorage Professor Paul K. Alkon University of Southern California The Rt Hon Sir Martin Gilbert CBE Merton College, Oxford Colonel David Jablonsky U.S. Army War College Professor Warren F. Kimball Rutgers University Professor John Maurer U.S. Navel War College Professor David Reynolds FBA Christ’s College, Cambridge INTERNET SERVICES Twitter: @ChurchillCentre Twitter: @ChurchillToday Editor Twitter: @rmlangworth YouTube: YouTube.com/ChurchillCentre http://groups.google.com/group/ChurchillChat