Jodi:

Does your Advisory Board play a role in providing and/or helping to secure outside financial support to the Museum (e.g. members, donors, business sponsors, private foundation grants, etc.)? If so, and particularly if that financial support is significant, then you have an important additional leverage point with the University administration than what is already provided by your existing policy and the knowledgeable guidance that you provide to the institution.

If knowledgeable guidance is primarily what your Board provides, then your options are more limited. Calling upon professional standards and best practices as you are doing by asking for examples of policies from other comparable museums is a good starting point. Once you have some comparable examples, you may still need some leverage to get attention from a university administration that has already demonstrated a propensity to ignore you. Three possible sources of such leverage come to mind:

AAM Accreditation - as you've been an accredited museum for 40 years, and there was some prior concern about the change in title/status of your Board, AAM staff and its Accreditation Commission might be able to be of some assistance in helping to convince your university administration of the importance of appropriate consultation and involvement of the Board in such important governance matters as the hiring of a Director. Universities understand accreditation, because they also have to answer to an accrediting body. The threat of potential loss of accreditation due to improper/inadequate consultation with the Advisory Board - and particularly the potential for knowledge of this threat becoming public - might be helpful at some point in your negotiations.
State Legislature - as you described that your museum has non-academic state origins and is only part of the university for administrative convenience, you might be able to identify one or more local state legislators who have an interest in the museum or who can be cultivated to develop such an interest. State universities are dependent upon state budget allocations, which typically must be approved annually by the legislature. If you can find a legislative champion for your cause, you may find that the university administration quickly becomes interested in what you have to say.
Public Pressure - if necessary, you may also wish to consider the possibility of rallying public support directly to advocate with the university administration on your behalf. Consider how many people visit your institution, participate in its programs, are members or donors, etc. Any or all of these groups potentially could be urged to advocate for your case.

Any one or combinations of these three potential sources of leverage might be called upon at the appropriate time to assist you in getting the university administration to be responsive to your concerns.

I hope that this advice is of some assistance with your current problem.

Regards,

John

John E. Coraor, Ph.D.

Founder & Chief Consultant

Cultural Management Partners LLC

P.O. Box 1294

Huntington, NY 11743

631-271-3909

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www.CulturalManagementPartners.com

On Fri, Mar 6, 2020 at 1:06 PM Jodi Lundgren <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Hello wise ones!

I am looking for policy and procedure examples on the hiring of new Directors for AAM-accredited art museums that are university or governmental units. Specifically I'm looking for info on hiring procedures in relation to how Advisory Boards are involved and invited into the process and procedure for hiring a new museum Director.

Some background is that we had been accredited for nearly 40 years with a Board of Trustees before our last round of re-accreditation. But operationally and in terms of fiduciary responsibilities we were established by the state and designated as a unit of a state university. With the recent re-accreditation we had to clarify our governance and changed the Board title from Board of Trustees to Board of Advisors to accurately reflect their advisory but not fiduciary capacity. There was much concern over the university (who is less involved and intimate with the operations of the museum) having too much power over important decisions at the museum. We are not mainly an academic museum even though we are on a campus, we are a state museum with very public-facing programs, exhibitions, and collections. Our new policy outlined a special advisory role for the Board in selecting, with the University President, Directors for the museum. But with a recent retirement and new hire the university only invited in feedback from the Board through 3-question anonymous online surveys that were available to everyone and anyone in the public who wanted to weigh in. There were no convenings between the Board as a whole or as individuals with the hiring manager, the Provost. The Board was largely kept in the dark and their special advisory role was minimized. We are hearing frustration from several who feel alienated and dis-empowered, as if their advisory role was greatly disrespected and undermined. And their intimacy and involvement with the museum, which could have been a valuable resource in making this decision, was neglected and unaccounted for.

Please let me know on or off list if you have any specific experiences with this or policies and procedures you can share in regards to how a university collaborates (or doesn't) with a museum Advisory Board in making such an important decision for a museum's future. We'd like to be able to either justify this to the Board or offer alternative routes for the future that will keep the Advisory Board from feeling disrespected and disenfranchised from the process.

Thanks much,
Jodi Lundgren
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