Mark Evans, the President of Confluence Technologies, Inc. has the profile you want for Pittsburgh’s future. The young CEO of a financial services company that was one of the high tech industry’s 50 fastest growing companies in 1998, he travels widely, brings important national clients to Pittsburgh, and he loves the city. “Carnegie Museums represents a broad slice of what is good about Pittsburgh,” he says, and he backs it up by being a dynamic volunteer in the Corporate Committee of Carnegie Museums.

Recently he brought his investment fund clients to Pittsburgh for a three day user-group meeting, and his corporate membership helped show them that Pittsburgh is a good place to do business. His clients enjoyed a catered banquet at Carnegie Science Center, a private showing of the Omnimax film Everest, and a reception at The Warhol. T

Confluence Technologies, Inc. is an outstanding corporate citizen, supporting Carnegie-on-Tap, purchasing a table on Founder Patron’s Day, holding events at the museums, and matching employee gifts to educational and cultural institutions. Corporate membership helps Mark Evans give something back to his community. His own staff enjoys corporate membership, his clients get benefits, and his family uses the museums regularly.

“It doesn’t really take a lot of time, money, or energy to have an impact,” he says. “Many of the annual corporate gifts at Carnegie Museums are in the $500 to $1000 range.  Intelligent people see the obvious return on that after ten seconds of thought.” 

He took his four-year-old daughter to see the “Road Kill” exhibit (where beetles clean the bones of dead animals) at Carnegie Museum of Natural History, and he says that afterwards they had an eight-hour conversation about the “circle of life,” about rust and oxidation. “The museums facilitate conversations,” says Evans.  “They show how big and different the world is.  The museums are the children’s eyes, where they can see the Arctic, and Africa—where they can stand on the mud next to the animals.”

Mark Evans is going to help Carnegie Museums seek corporate support from the high tech community. It’s one way that Confluence Technologies, Inc. can benefit clients, employees, their family members—-and Pittsburgh itself. 

Member Profile: The McDonald Family

Theresa McDonald, herself a Junior Troop Leader for the Girl Scouts, knows what kids like, and knows how to arrange opportunities for them at the Science Center. Her 12-year-old daughter Jennifer car-pools down with friends for lengthy visits.  Recently 7th-grade Jennifer and her oldest brother Matthew worked on their Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science (PJAS) project at the Science Center: testing which kind of antacids work best, commercial types or generic brands, and wrote thank-you’s to the companies that helped her. Matthew won PJAS local and district awards for his project on the effect of anti-bacterial soaps on germs, and starts at Penn State next fall in chemistry.  At 15 Jeffrey really likes the trains in the Miniature Railroad & Village—all the kids are scouts and can get a Merit Badge in Railroading at the Science Center.

Theresa likes the Kitchen Theater,  and  has made recipes like strawberry ice cream at home. Her husband William works long hours, and joins in when he can. The McDonalds do it all, from sports like climbing the rock wall to measuring the speed of a thrown baseball (the boys once got in a film doing that), to watching metal casting in The Works, to riding in the motion simulator. 

The McDonald’s are now Reciprocal Members, having upgraded their fun at the Science Center to include all of the Carnegie Museums. Now they can bring friends: “guests privileges” are one of the benefits of this new level of membership.
 

Thank you!

Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh gratefully acknowledges the following organizations and companies for their in-kind support of recent membership activities:

Breadworks
Carmike Theaters
Giant Eagle, West View
National Amusements
Nature’s Goodness
Paragon Wholesale Foods Corporation
Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre, Inc.
Pittsburgh Public Theater
Playhouse Theater
T.G.I. Friday’s
The Frick Art & Historical Center
 

Travel Films

Check the Calendar in this issue for each week’s Travel Adventure Films.  Offered free to Carnegie Museums’ members, Travel Films are shown on the following schedule:

Sundays 2:30pm Carnegie Music Hall, Oakland
Mondays 8:00pm Mt. Lebanon High School
Tuesdays 8:00pm Carnegie Music Hall, Oakland
Wednesdays 8:00pm North Hills Jr. High School
(note return to original location)
Thursdays 8:00pm Baldwin High School
 
 

February 28—March 4    Bermuda: Gem of the Atlantic
Clint Denn

The moderating influences of the Gulf Stream makes Bermuda the most northerly tropical point for reef-building corals.  Its natural land crabs, white-tailed tropic birds, European goldfinches, and yellow-crowned night herons, making this region a living gem.
 

March 7 – 11  Bobbie Burns’s Bonnie Scotland
Sherilyn Mentes

Scotland conjures up visions of kilted lassies, a monster lurking in the inky waters of Loch Ness, and Robert Burns, who put the joys and sorrows of Scottish life into verse. Travel through pine forests and bleak moors to peaceful little St. Andrews and serene Edinburgh.

March 14 – 18  Crown Jewels of the American Rockies
Joe and Mary Liz Adair

Strung like pearls along the towering Rocky Mountain chain are four magnificent National Parks: Glacier, nestled against the Canadian border; Yellowstone, a looking glass into the Earth’s gaseous and molten core; the Grand Tetons, America’s youngest range; and Rocky Mountain, the “park of parks” at the top of the continent.
 

March 21 – 25  South Africa: Out of Darkness
John Wilson

Go wild and explore the world in one country! Lush coastal forests, incredible mountain peaks, serene beaches, flowering deserts, wide open grasslands, national parks, a wealth of wildlife, and new cultural relationships offering an example of hope to the world—that’s South Africa!

Giving Made Easy

This new section will show how various types of gifts to Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh can help to meet personal, business, or tax needs, in addition to supporting the work of the museums.

Why You Need a Will
At income tax time, many of us think about organizing our financial matters to minimize future taxes. A Will is an essential part of any personal financial plan.

Having a Will ensures that your property is distributed after your death as you intend.  In the absence of a Will, property that does not pass to a joint owner or under a beneficiary designation, such as on a life insurance policy or retirement plan, is distributed according to the “intestate law” of your state.  This disposition may be quite contrary to your intent.  For example, under Pennsylvania’s intestate law, your spouse is entitled to only $30,000 plus one half of the balance of any property that is part of the probate estate.  Your children get the rest.

Another reason to have a Will is to name the people whom you would want to serve as guardians of your minor children.  If guardians aren’t named in a Will, guardianship is determined by the Orphans’ Court, which may produce a result much different than what you would want.

Finally, a Will ensures that the charities for which you provide during your life are included in your estate plans.  Presuming annual growth of at least five percent, a bequest in the amount of twenty times your normal annual gift to a particular charity ensures that the charity will continue to receive your annual gift each year in perpetuity. A charitable bequest is deductible for inheritance and estate tax purposes.  To discuss a bequest to Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh or one of our Museums, call or write to Sally Davoren, Director of Gift Planning.
 

Travel with Carnegie Museums

Galapagos Islands Adventure  July 31 –August 10
“Nowhere in the world can match the fascination the Galapagos Islandsd have hadfor travelers and naturalists over the past 150 years,” says Seddon Bennington, director 
of Carnegie Science Center and host of this special trip.

A well-appointed yacht will be home while you explore the unique life and environment of the Pacific Island group.  Sign up soon—space is limited to eighteen explorers.
 

Colorado: See the Earth from Top to Bottom
Denver, Colorado Springs, and Breckenridge
July 27-31, 1999

A once-in-a-lifetime chance to see Earth’s rare secrets.  Join Director Jay Apt of Carnegie Museum of Natural History, and Mineralogist Marc Wilson in an unforgettable descent into Colorado’s famous (and soon-to be-closed) “Sweet Home Mine,” a former silver mine where great mineral specimens come from.  Take a rare VIP tour of the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD), where the United States government operates its Space Control Center in a vast underground complex inside Cheyenne Mountain, safe from nuclear attack.

Highlights of the trip include the exciting exhibits of Denver Museum of Natural History, still-operating 19th-century equipment of the Western Museum of Mining and Industry, and the Garden of the Gods, where incredible red rocks rise up from the ground. Top it off by going all the way up Pikes Peak on a cog railway. 

Call 622-5774 for information on theses and other great trips designed exclusively for members of Carnegie Museums.