At first glance, the letter from CircEsteem looked like a bad joke. “Greetings!” it read. “After much deliberation and due diligence, the Board of Directors of CircEsteem has terminated Paul Miller’s employment as of June 22, 2009.”
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According to the complaint, Miller started offering workshops under the CircEsteem name in 2001, and the next year formed a for-profit corporation called Pro Clown Productions, which developed programs for CircEsteem. Pro Clown allegedly covered the expenses for the after-school classes CircEsteem eventually offered, and also received any profits from those classes. Miller also registered Internet domain names for CircEsteem, and incorporated it as a nonprofit (with himself as CEO and “Chief Goof Officer”). CircEsteem’s name was trademarked, and over the next few years the organization thrived as its programs expanded.
But, the complaint goes on, Miller “became increasingly frustrated by the fact that he had to work under the direction of and in accordance with the decisions and plans of the Board of Directors.” He was “entrepreneurial,” and “believed that he was entitled to unreasonably high income from CircEsteem’s operations.” Although he was on salary, Miller paid himself an additional $125 per hour when he performed with the group and “sought additional income” in the form of fund-raising commissions and program “residuals.” Finally, according to the suit, in March 2008 he “conceded that CircEsteem had ‘grown beyond [his] managing capabilities,’” stepped down as CEO, and moved to Kentucky while retaining a staff position at “a substantial annual salary.” The board also agreed, at about this time, to pay Miller a $280,000 “royalty fee” for Pro Clown’s after-school business.
Trudi Langendorf, a longtime CircEsteem board member who was among those who quit earlier this year, says the current board is missing the point of this “really complicated” story, which is that “Paul has consistently done stunning work with those kids—stayed with them and transformed their lives.” A status hearing was scheduled for July 8.
Launched as the Chicago Academy of Science in 1857, the Notebaert has had a long-standing identity problem that can be blamed on living in the shadow of the Field Museum. But, in spite of cutbacks last year, it chalked up attendance of more than 300,000 (much of that in school groups), has a newly expanded 45-member board, a growing partnership with Green City Market, and a budget for the new fiscal year of $7 million. Gustafsson says the goal is to be the “premier resource for nature and science education, with a focus on the environment and conservation.”
