I am responding to a fairly old message; was clearing my mailbox when I
came accross it.  Something happened last Friday that I thought very
relevent, so am responding now.

We have a travelling exhibit in house support for which, I had solicted
from a number of local Mexican-American businesses (the exhibit is on
Vaqueros--Mexican cowboys).  When one of them, who had comitted $200 of
support, received my thank-you letter, he called in to renig; said he did
not see a single Mexican-American listed as a board member on the
letterhead.

Whoopee!  That gave me the ammunition I have needed to move the board to
action.  We happen to have two empty seats.  I have already talked to the
Nominating Committee Chairman about the problem and he began developing his
prospect list as we spoke.

As I noted in an earlier message, we do have two African-Americans on the
board.  I made that point to the Mexican-American who called.  His response
was that the Mexican-American population is probably five times as large as
the African.  Yet in seven years, I have not been able to get the board to
address that need.  They will now.

Money talks!


------
Robert Handy
Brazoria County Historical Museum
100 East Cedar
Angleton, Texas  77515
(409) 864-1208
museum_bob
[log in to unmask]
http://www.bchm.org

----------
From:   Ross Weeks[SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent:   Tuesday, March 16, 1999 10:14 AM
To:     [log in to unmask]
Subject:        Re: Ethnic Diversity

It is up to the museum's CEO to put before the nominating committee the
names of minorities who might be willing to serve on the board.  The board
typically will not take that initiative.

You don't identify the kind of museum you have, nor where it is.  Those
make
a difference in how an institution builds the diversity of its board, in my
experience.

If the museum has an educational program, for example, the educational
community has a stake in it.   Schools typically have ethnic diversity in
faculty and administration.   Social service agencies and government bodies
include potentially helpful board members.  Corporations are more and more
ethnically diverse, and encourage their executives to provide expertise to
the non-profits in their communities.  There are businesses owned by
various
minorities.

My personal view is that "ethnic diversity" is a means to an end.  A museum
board needs to represent its constituency, and also find ways to broaden
its
following.  No board member "ought" to be chosen unless that individual can
assist the museum in its mission and its support.  Ethnic nominees should
be
proposed on the same basis that other members are nominated -- how can they
help?  Having token ethnicity on the board for the sake of looking good on
grant applications, being politically correct, or whatever, serves no good
purpose.
Ross Weeks Jr.
http://histcrab.netscope.net

-----Original Message-----
From: jennifer marie cohlman <[log in to unmask]>
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.museum-l
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tuesday, March 16, 1999 9:20 AM


>Hello,
>
>I was wondering if anyone had ideas on approaching your mueum board to
>become ethnically diverse?  Particularly if the board seems open to the
>idea, but unsure how to take it to the next level.