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

Wed Dec 21 10:32:15 PST 2011

Just curious here: has anyone ever done a "still standing alone or not" analysis.  Does anyone know how many (%) museums/archives in BC have little or no operations support from their municipality or city? 

Kathleen Trayner
Archives Specialist
Saanich Archives
3100 Tillicum Road
Victoria, BC V9A 6T2
Tel: (250) 475-1775 ext. 3477
Email:  archives at saanich.ca 
Web:  http://saanicharchives.ca ( http://saanicharchives.ca/ )

>>> "Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv." <bcma at lists.vvv.com> 12/20/2011 4:45 PM >>>
Colin has outdone himself this time; have never seen so pertinent, pointed, or exhaustive a set of experiences/observations/insights on community museum management in Canada as what he's written here.

In terms of morale, we all ought to print and keep this item handy for those dark hours ahead - the bright ones, too.

Dan Gallacher

----- Original Message ----- 

From: Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv. ( mailto:bcma at lists.vvv.com ) 
To: bcma at lists.vvv.com ; curator at whistlermuseum.org 
Sent: Tuesday, December 20, 2011 12:15 AM
Subject: Re: [BCMA] pros/cons of being a Municipal Museum/archives.....

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 ( tel:604-932-2019 )  Fax: 604-932-2077 ( tel:604-932-2077 )
email: info at whistlermuseum.org 
web: www.whistlermuseum.org 

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-- 
Colin MacGregor Stevens
Richmond, British Columbia,
CANADA

* Web site: http://bcoy1cpb.pacdat.net 
* Military Vehicle Preservation Association # 954 (since 1977)
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