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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