Linda Tanaka:
 
What a situation to find yourself - my sincere sympathies!  I have been
following the convolutions of the strike with great interest over the past
months.  I do hope the redefinitions of positions can be done humanely, but
with the Board you are dealing with - well, I won't hold my breath.
 
Collections managers -
I won't go over the available literature, as I'm sure you have covered this.
 One bit you might have missed is the 'job book' at Employment Canada.  When
I was working for the CMC (back in the 70's) Employment  interviewed of
sampling of employees at the  ethnology division, and used the data to
compile a job outline for use in Employment Canada offices.  It probably
included the collections manager, albeit under a different name.  It
hopefully has been updated since the 70's.  Not the most professional of
sources, but one your Board would accept.
 
As you have gathered I'm sure, roles and job descriptions in Canadian
museums have changed drastically over the past 20 years.  The primary causes
of this change have been the introduction of information technology, reduced
budgets, and a broadened mandate for most museums.  One job description to
become more common during this period has been that of the collections
manager.  This is probably different in other countries, but I believe has
been the case here.  I currently teach a course in 'archaeological
collections management' here at SFU.
 
Back in the 70's a collections manager could have been someone who literally
worked with the collections - physically moving them about.  A.k.a.
'storesman' in those non-PC days.  Typically, the 'storesman' was at the
bottom of the org chart, under a curator and registrar.  As duties have
concatenated due to budgetary restrictions and increased workload due to the
addition of new projects resulting from the broadened mandate, job
descriptions have become longer, more inclusive and cover more complex
duties.  Many museums are simplifying their org charts by eliminating entire
levels.  Thus a three or four  tiered curatorial department is now two
tiered with half the staff.  (And usually tiwce the work - but that is
another story).  Entire functions, eg. research, have been dropped and
contracted out to 'guest curators'.  What seems to be happening is that all
duties previously performed by a department are being compressed into one or
two job descriptions.  But rather than refer to the new super-job by the job
title at the top (eg curator), job titles are being selected from the
bottom.  This is probably being done to keep a cap on salaries.
 
The list of duties you presented in your first message:
(- be in charge of all research activities (directing what is to be done and
handling the data
produced);
-data processing and all data base management like storage,
archiving and uploading to national databases;
-all activities within the storage vaults (supervising access and activities);
-security for the whole building (determining who has access to the
collections and that the building is physically secure from intruders);
-exhibit maintenance (may include directing teams of trained cleaners)
- responsible for conservation (not active but preventive and not physically
doing the work
but determining priorities and making the collection accessible to the
conservators)).
Wow! what a list.  This is possible for someone with a small collection, or
curator responsible for a large collection with a large staff reporting to
them.  It is physically, emotionally and intellectually impossible for one
person to actually do a good job at all of that at a museum with a
collection of a size the Vancouver Museum has, with a staff the size of the
one currently being proposed for the VM .
 
While I sympathize with the financial difficulties the VM is facing, to
'solve' the problem by asking someone to do the impossible is
-setting them up for failure and an excuse to fire them for incompetance.
-endangering the collections safety & security.
-failing to meet the basic mandate of the VM.
 
It seems to me the Board has fundamentally misunderstood the mandate of the
museum.
 
These are my musings - I hope I have not offended any collections managers
out there.  They reflect what I have seen here in Canada, coloured perhaps
by a deeprooted cynicism.
 
 
 
___________________________________________________________________
 
Barbara J. Winter
Department of Archaeology
Simon Fraser University
Canada  V5A 1S6
tel: (604) 291-3325
fax: (604) 291-5666
email:  [log in to unmask]
___________________________________________________________________