Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum Revenue and Competitors

The Patriots Point Development Authority is a State of South Carolina "enterprise agency" and is responsible for the operation of the Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum. As an Enterprise Agency, the museum receives no appropriated funding from the state legislature. Primary sources of operating revenue are museum admissions, sales at the museum gift shop, educational programs such as the youth education and camping programs, and commissions from lease functions, on-site vending franchises and the Patriots Point Links. Additional income from landside leases has, for some years, been dedicated to a capital fund for maintenance of the historic museum ships and other capital projects at Patriots Point. Overall governance of the Patriots Point Development Authority is vested in a Board of Directors appointed by the Governor of South Carolina with each member serving a term of four years. Selection of three members of the Board, including its chairman, is at the discretion of the governor. The two remaining appointed members are legislatively mandated, one to be appointed by joint recommendation of the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and the Speaker of the House and the other by joint recommendation of the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate. The Mayor of the Town of Mount Pleasant, as an ex-officio member, rounds out the Board as its sixth voting member. This Board meets regularly to approve strategic planning initiatives, revisions to development plans and contracts, long-term leases, etc.