[BCMA] pros/cons of being a Municipal Museum/archives.....

Tue Dec 20 18:41:28 PST 2011

Please ignore earlier draft of 27 Nov which was sent by mistake. The Dec.
20 version is the "final" one.

Colin Stevens

On 20 December 2011 00:15, Colin Stevens <seaforth72 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Here are some comments from one who has worked for several societies, for
> several municipalities, as well as for federal national historic sites and
> parks. I also went through a transition between society and municipal
> governance for museums and in another case was on the scene a few
> years after such a transition had occurred, clearing up loose ends.
>
> *PRO MUNICIPAL GOVERNANCE OF MUSEUM & ARCHIVES
> ** Steadier funding
> * Union wages usually for the staff.
> * Manager/Director may well be Exempt Staff, meaning they are outside
> of the Union, so that in event of a strike they can the cross-picket lines
> to ensure that the collection and facility are safe.
> * Good wages usually.
> * Note that Exempt staff are *NOT* protected - no matter what they may
> say about an "Old Boy Network of Managers" backing each other up. I have
> worked as both a Unionized Curator and as Exempt Manager.
> * Annual union negotiated pay increases possibly. Some municipalities have
> wage freezes on, so it varies. Many try to at least keep up with cost of
> living.
> * Good benefits - Dental, medical, paid vacation, stat holidays (if full
> time.) Auxilliary i.e. part time staff, usually get about 12% in lieu of
> benefits.
> * Pensions (This beats having to save 1.5 million or so dollars for
> retirement on a Society Curator's wages)
> * Access to Capital Project funds (Usually one-shot projects usually over
> $5,000 to $10,000 such as a new building or new roof) In a city, capital
> funds are usually by department and there are limits. Kind of like a
> Christmas shopping list -  a little present for everybody or somebody gets
> a new bike this year, and someone else gets one next year instead of each
> getting unicycle.
> * There is always money in the bank to pay salaries - main condition is
> you are supposed to stay within budget. Surprisingly one is not supposed to
> have large amounts of unspent money either. One is expected to come in on
> or just under the budget.
> * More stable governance - The senior people one deals with in a City
> staff are professionals, though with human frailties. They are used to
> dealing with big budgets, often including multi-million dollar budgets.
> * A Union means rules for proper treatment of staff and far fewer
> arbitrary actions such as dismissals. In a society, one may have
> professional business people on the Board and one is almost certainly going
> to have amateurs who may be excellent or .... well, the opposite. For
> example one Society President I served under as Curator was a retired coal
> miner. He was elected as President the same evening that he joined the
> Society. When later told that the museum's annual budget was $25,000
> ($20,000 for me and $5,000 for all other museum expenses) he freaked out
> and announced to me that he would work to raise the $5,000 for the
> museum but that he expected me to raise my own salary! At the same museum I
> had 5 Presidents of the Board in 3 years. One was the Mayor who was
> professional in his approach due to his years of experience in municipal
> government, then there was a good President, a bad one, a good one and
> finally another bad one. The final one refused to consider any fund raising
> ideas and laid me off. None of the staff could understand why ... until
> after I had moved on to an Executive Director position at a National
> Exhibition Centre, the President of the Board hired himself as the Curator!
> It had been a rough roller-coaster ride - I was doing the same quality of
> work (e.g. attendance went up over 1,000% in 2 years) but was portrayed as
> a great success or a great failure by the good/bad Presidents.
> * Within a Society governing a museum and archives, one can easily end up
> with cliques on the Board. These best solution is a good strong President
> but staff have no control over this though they can sometimes influence
> matters by helping to train Board members etc. A bad President can be a
> huge problem too however.
> * People serving on Boards of Societies can mean well, or they may be on
> the Board for selfish motives - e.g. power, prestige, to have a high
> community profile especially if they have political aspirations or a desire
> for hands-on operation of the museum and archives (something Board members
> should not do normally). Education of Boards is critical. The most
> simplistic version of the role of boards is that Board members should Give
> money, Get Money or Get out. In reality in addition to raising money to
> operate the facility, they should also set the policies (ideally with
> professional staff advising them), hire a Director/Manager and then step
> out of the way. By the way - to Educate Boards you usually have to bring in
> outside consultants, who will usually say exactly what the staff have been
> saying all along, but because they are "consultants" and not employees,
> they are listened to.
> **
> *CON MUNICIPAL MUSEUM & ARCHIVES
> *
> * Some grants are not accessible directly to municipally run museums e.g.
> BC Gaming grants. The BC Arts Council does not like funding municipally
> governed museums but depending upon the governance model, they may agree to
> do so - It is best to talk with them in advance.
> * If there is not enough money in the bank, you can't be paid your wages.
> (Been there, done that. It is hard to feed a family that way.)
> * Some municipalities have community grant programs (e.g. New Westminster)
> but municipal organizations may not apply. Societies such as a Friends
> Society probably can apply.
> * If the Museum/Archives has a problem with Management of the City
> department, there may be no group to lobby on its behalf. "You can't fight
> city hall" and if Management in the municipality is stacked against you,
> the political wing is a dangerous option.  The usual choice is one of staff
> moving on or retiring if that is an option.
> * Museum is more expensive to run e.g. summer students paid at union wages
> not minimum wages.
> * Museums in a municipal system have to compete with aging municipal
> infrastructure e.g. swimming pools and community centres for limited
> capital funds. A city may prioritize and say only projects that deal with
> safety issues or prolong the integrity of a building (thus a restoration of
> a heritage house room being "cosmetic" and not safety or essential
> maintenance, might not qualify and gets deferred for several more years...
> again.)
> * "Meetings bloody meetings" as a training film starring John Cleese says
> in its title. Very true!
> * A lot more bureaucracy! Many reports, budgets, plans etc.
> * Museums and archives are not only the "little fish in the big pond" but
> also tend to be the salamander in amongst the fish. Sometimes they are
> respected and well treated, sometimes not as they are an odd breed in
> amongst sports oriented facilities for example. A lot depends upon the
> Director of the Parks (or whichever) department. Under one Director of
> Parks, the Burnaby Village Museum was well respected and welcomed. This
> changed under a subsequent Director.
>
> *THE TRANSITION BETWEEN SOCIETY RUN TO MUNICIPALLY RUN*
> This transition can be smooth or rough. It depends mainly if it is
> voluntary on the part of both parties.
> Issues include:
> * Ownership of the collection.
> * What do do with any funds e.g. bequests and investments. In one case I
> was involved in, the old Board, sat on over $100,000 for about 10 years
> before transferring it to the municipality run museum.
> * Staff transfer.
> * Future role of the society and Board e.g. Do they continue? If so, would
> it be as a governing body - not usually the case with a municipality - or
> more likely as advisory or supportive "Firends" body?
> * Capital projects during transition - take care of the essentials such
> ensuring that the roof does not leak.
>
>
>
> *MUSEUMS & ARCHIVES TOGETHER OR SEPARATE?
> *
> * Some municipalities put their museums and archives together under one
> administration (e.g. New Westminster) whereas others split them e.g. in
> Richmond the museum is under Parks and the Archives are under the Clerk's
> Department. Burnaby's archives were split in three  - Clerk's (at SFU
> Archives), Historical Society's archives and Museum's archives. As
> Curator for Burnaby I brought all three archives together from humid
> sub-standard storage sites into one facility with modern archival shelving
> with the museum, but the city's senior officials lied to the city's own
> museum staff and removed the archives. Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa
> Claus, but life is not fair.
>
>
> *WHERE TO PUT MUSEUM AND ARCHIVES?
> *
> * Most cities put museums and archives into their Parks Department.
> Sometimes the word "Culture" is added. A problem arises in the definition
> of "Culture" as to some it means art but not heritage and even if it does
> include heritage,  in some people's definitions heritage is about old
> buildings and trees and does not always include museums.
> Colin Stevens
> Richmond, BC
>
>
> On 8 November 2011 15:02, Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv. <
> bcma at lists.vvv.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I have a quick question.  Would you be willing to share with me some of
>> the benefits and drawbacks of being a municipal museum/archives? Does being
>> an entity of a municipality limit your ability to apply for grants?  Has
>> there been a pronounced change in your ability to fundraise?  What's great
>> about being a municipal museum?
>>
>> Please feel free to e-mail your comments to curator at whistlermuseum.org.
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
>> Leah
>>
>> --
>> Whistler Museum and Archives Society
>> 4333 Main Street
>> Whistler, BC   V0N 1B4
>> behind the Library
>> Tel: 604-932-2019  Fax: 604-932-2077
>> email: info at whistlermuseum.org
>> web: www.whistlermuseum.org
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> BCMA mailing list
>> BCMA at lists.vvv.com
>> http://lists.vvv.com/mailman/listinfo/bcma
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Colin MacGregor Stevens
> Richmond, British Columbia,
> CANADA
>
> * Web site: http://bcoy1cpb.pacdat.net
> * Military Vehicle Preservation Association # 954 (since 1977)
> * Author of "The Ferret Scout Car in Canadian Service" by Service
> Publications (Dec. 2009)
>  * eBay seaforth_highlander and museum_curator
>
>

-- 
Colin MacGregor Stevens
Richmond, British Columbia,
CANADA

* Web site: http://bcoy1cpb.pacdat.net
* Military Vehicle Preservation Association # 954 (since 1977)
* Author of "The Ferret Scout Car in Canadian Service" by Service
Publications (Dec. 2009)
 * eBay seaforth_highlander and museum_curator
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.vvv.com/pipermail/bcma/attachments/20111220/5ffb19e7/attachment.htm 