§80r–3 Council

Summary

Creates a council inside the Smithsonian called the National Museum of African American History and Culture Council. The council must advise the Board of Regents on planning, design, construction, running, maintenance, and preservation of the Museum. It must recommend yearly operating budgets, report each year on how the Museum gets, lets go of, and shows objects about African American life, art, history, and culture, and write its own bylaws. Under the Board’s general policies, the council alone can acquire or dispose of artifacts (money from sales must be used to buy more items), set rules for using the collections and museum resources (including programs, education, exhibits, and research about African American life, their role in U.S. history from slavery to today, and their contributions), care for and restore collections, and accept and use gifts, bequests, and donations of personal property to help the Museum. The council has 19 voting members: the Secretary of the Smithsonian, one Board of Regents member chosen by the Regents, and 17 people appointed by the Regents with input from relevant organizations and council members. The Regents had to make the first appointments within 180 days after December 16, 2003. Appointed members normally serve 3-year terms, but at the start the 17 appointees are staggered so six serve 1 year, six serve 2 years, and five serve 3 years. Members may be reappointed but cannot serve more than two terms (time filling a vacancy does not count as a term). Vacancies do not stop the council from working and are filled the same way as the original appointment; a replacement serves the rest of the term. Members are unpaid but may receive travel and per diem at rates authorized under subchapter I of chapter 57 of title 5. The council elects a chair from its members by majority vote. It meets when the chair calls it or when a majority requests it in writing, but at least twice a year and at least four times during the first year after the first meeting. A majority of the voting members then in office is needed to conduct business, though fewer members may still receive information.