Colleagues:

I'm working with a small local/regional 501(c)(3) history museum and
have been asked to seek models for organizational structure that might
help us.

This local museum has operated for 16 years using support staff only
(presently a part time office assistant and a curator who mainly deals
with exhibits). The Board members act as a sort of management team with
the Board President the primary manager.  Needless to say, there has
been a lack of professional direction, but it appears that hiring a
director is not possible right now.   The museum has put major emphasis
and funds on changing exhibits which are developed by volunteer teams,
but with a curator doing much of the work. The exhibits are, in fact,
quite good.

Now the museum has inherited a 40 acre ranch with a significant historic
home and several outbuildings. A tidy endowment will come with it, but
income from it may not cover much more than the cost of maintenance.
Presently a By-laws Committee is working to restructure the organization
to effectively manage both entities. The idea presently being put
forward is to have, under the Museum Association Board of Directors*,
independent "Boards" or "Councils" to manage each of the two entities,
the museum and the ranch.  Even if more staff is hired, the idea is that
each 'council' of volunteer managers would be making most decisions for
'their' entity.  At this point, this includes site development,
programming, fund raising and financial management.  The idea of moving
other historic buildings onto the ranch has already been broached, as
well as other major decisions of long term import.

There has not been emphasis on collection management in the past, and,
in fact, at times the museum has called itself a 'non-collecting'
museum, due to lack of storage space. The house, however, comes with all
of the family furniture, antiques and household items, as well as some
agricultural equipment, so collection management now looms much larger.

*The Board of Directors would be composed of two representatives each
from the museum and ranch, two 'independents' and a financial officer.
It would start as a seven person board but could expand to 15.  (Concern
for immediate expansion to 15 is that there would not be a large enough
pool to fill so many positions.) It would also oversee a third entity,
the "Foundation" which is not a separate foundation, but an
endowment/investment development and management committee.


So, here are some questions for all you good heads out there:

1. Do any of you have management models that are working well for an
organization with two rather different facilities under a single
organization?

2. What advantages/disadvantages do you see to the proposed model, and
can you foresee any management or organizational pitfalls if this model
is adopted.

3. What specific functions should be managed overall (i.e. not
separately by the two different committees or "councils"), and what
types of decisions should be reserved for the Board of Directors?


Any and all suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Reply either to the
list or to me personally, and, if possible, include your current
position or experience as replies will be passed on to the committee.
(Flag me if any comments need to be held confidential.)  Thanks so much.

Lucy Sperlin
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