A Handbook for Museum Trustees


Book Description

Harold and Susan Skramstad, two of the field's most highly regarded experts in museum management, outline the tools you and your board need to handle the challenges facing museums today. A Handbook for Museum Trustees was written to help museum trustees better understand the "why" and the "how" of trusteeship, giving board members and museum directors a thorough understanding of their critical and non-negotiable duties. The book clearly identifies areas of responsibility and offers valuable, how-to advice on board discussion and decision-making, providing practical guidelines for improving board practices and fine-tuning the work of the effective board. "Not only will the tens of thousands of us who work in museums benefit from A Handbook for Museum Trustees," says Stephen E. Weil, "so, too, will the millions more who pass through our doors."




The Effective Museum


Book Description

The Effective Museum: Rethinking Museum Practices to Increase Impact features practical suggestions for how to be more successful at achieving a museum’s intentional purposes. These practical suggestions can help you: revise your museum’s conceptual framework revitalize your audiences and supporters reorganize your museum reinvest in your resources (staff, collections, facilities, etc.) reposition your programming and restore management basics. This book seeks to help you rethink these key museum practice through a diversity of suggestions, not a single system. However, the suggestions share definitions and frameworks and a unifying voice and structure. While any museum can adopt whichever suggestions are appropriate, the last chapter helps you explore how the suggestions might be mutually reinforcing. Each chapter includes a) generalized statement of a problem and the need for new ideas; b) new suggestions implementable in many museums; c) the likely resistance; e) a summation of the idea’s potential impacts and benefits, and e) the start of an implementation process. The suggestions vary in form—some are suggested strategies, others lists of options or research questions or implementation steps. In attitude, The Effective Museum is not thou shall, but much more think about trying this suggestion Underlying all suggestions is a new way of thinking about museum practices as a basis for readers to build their own learning and legacy.




Museum Governance


Book Description

In Museum Governance, Marie Malaro addresses a range of issues facing museum administrators and trustees, arguing they can handle their duties intelligently only if they understand two points—why our country sustains a nonprofit sector and what constitutes trusteeship. Armed with this knowledge, trustees can sort out knotty problems relating to corporate sponsorship, entrepreneurial activities, and fundraising in ways that preserve the integrity of the nonprofit. Malaro first explores the principles of nonprofit governance. She explains the purpose and use of professional codes of ethics and offers practical advice about board education and its role in fostering the long-term health of an organization. She then applies these principles to situations frequently confronting trustees, discussing how to set collection strategies, balance mission and entreprenurial ventures, handle deaccessioning, maintain effective board oversight, approach automation, and deal with repatriation requests.




Leadership Matters


Book Description

First published in 2013, this revision of Leadership Matters features nine new profiles and a new chapter of emerging museum leader voices, proving that leadership is as much about individuals as institutions. Using personal insights from the history museum field’s most engaging, innovative and entrepreneurial leaders, these profiles focus not only on museum directors and CEOs, but also on the “leaders within”—deputies, department heads and team leaders -- and those demanding change from the community. Baldwin and Ackerson weave together the voices of 21st-century museum leadership at its best, creating a resource for graduate students, mid-career professionals, institutions, and boards of trustees to move from the status quo to being agile and influential, fostering leadership that will make a difference. Too many museums and heritage organizations still consider leadership development a ‘nice-to-have’, but not a necessary component for a successful executive director or department head. The field struggles to address a new round of cultural warfare fueled by widespread societal division and the overwhelming lack of diversity and equity in museum leadership at all levels, including boards of trustees. Additionally, the field continues to ignore the gender pay gap despite a workforce hovering at 50-percent female and with the potential to grow significantly over the next decade. More than ever, successful museum leadership isn’t the result of longevity, scholarship or curatorial achievement. In fact, today’s successful museum leaders bring myriad skills to the table, creating a style that works both personally and professionally. This snapshot of museum leadership focuses on history and cultural heritage organizations to help readers understand the power of individual leadership and its relationship to organizational strength. This book features: • 36 interviews – nine of them brand new to this edition -- with leaders in the field from a range of positions and institutions • 10 myths of museum leadership and why they’re wrong • 10 simple truths of museum leadership • A leadership “agenda” with criteria and goals for individual and organizational development







Effective Fundraising


Book Description

Create a sustainable revenue model that can propel your mission-driven organization into the future Effective Fund Raising: The Trustee's Role and Beyond is the result of author F. Warren McFarlan’s two decades of research at Harvard Business School, along with over forty years of active social enterprise board service. This book offers a depth of knowledge and insight that will prove invaluable for trustees, donors, and others related to and responsible for the success of social enterprise. Social enterprise organizations have played a vibrant and important role in the USA for the past century. And yet, the business of fundraising has not become any easier or more elegant. In this book, you will discover how to help raise the financial resources that your organization needs to perform its good deeds. This book focuses on the steps and strategies you need to know to secure funding to fulfill your mission. Development is the lifeblood of most social enterprises, be they large or small. You’ll also discover how to harness the energies of the right people to ensure the long-term success of your development efforts. Learn why an effective, sustainable revenue model is critical to the success of even the most exciting mission-driven organization Understand the core elements of the revenue model, including governance, fees, the annual fund, capital fundraising campaigns, planned gifts, and more Develop a strong plan for sustaining your organization’s revenue, regardless of organization size Build the skill of asking for money and lead your organization to a revenue and philanthropy orientation Many social enterprise CEOs spend over half of their time on fundraising. Why? Simply put: without a sustainable revenue model, even the most exciting mission-driven organization will collapse. The dirty truth is that, with no fund raising, there is no social enterprise or enduring mission. This book will help you shoulder the burden of fundraising and ensure the long-term success of your venture.







The Leadership Partnership


Book Description

The Leadership Partnership is volume two in the Museum Trustee Association’s Templates for Trustees series. The book and customizable web-based templates feature tools that help boards to consider their options, identify their priorities, and plan their actions at this critical moment in a museum’s life cycle. In addition to the manual and on-line website, purchasers have access to the ongoing assistance of MTA staff. As nonprofit management becomes more challenging, thinking about the relationship between the board and the director is evolving. The bright line between the board’s responsibility for policy and the staff’s responsibility for management is blurring. The Leadership Partnership explores and supports this critical partnership between the executive director and the board and helps leadership develop strategies and approaches appropriate for the individual institution. A series of online surveys allows board members to look at their own performance, that of the board as a whole and that of the executive director across ten critical areas of museum management: mission, vision and strategy; professional development, board operations, individual relationships, oversight, finances and fundraising, collections, facilities, and public engagement. The final template guides users into turning the findings from the surveys into a leadership plan, to be presented and discussed with the board.




Building Museum Boards


Book Description

Templates for Trustees is a four-part series designed by the Museum Trustee Association to focus attention on key processes and tasks of governance. The books and web-based customizable templates include tools that collect information and then guide the board in using that information to organize their thoughts, identify their priorities, and plan their actions. All templates in the series have two parts: a printed guide and an on-line website. Purchasers of the books have access to the ongoing assistance of MTA staff. Building Museum Boards examines emerging practices in nonprofit governance including diversifying board composition, improving board effectiveness, and strengthening the governance committee. The text and templates guide the governance committee through every step of the nomination and board-building process including identifying and cultivating board prospects; crafting job descriptions for members, officers, and committees; ensuring compliance with conflict of interest standards; and orienting and activating new board members. The entire process is summarized in an interactive calendar.




Museum Administration 2.0


Book Description

Wondering what a museum director actually does? About to start your first director's job? Looking for guidance in starting up a museum or working with a museum director? Hugh Genoways, Lynne Ireland, and Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko have taken the mystery out and put common sense and good guidance in. Learn about everything from budgets and strategic planning to human resources and facilities management to collections and programming. They also help you tackle legal documents, legal and ethical issues, and challenges for today's 2.0 world. Case studies and exercises throughout help you review and practice what you are learning, and their extensive references will be a welcome resource.