Carol, you may have read, and now see or have, various terms and approaches to the planning process and, perhaps, various components in or for that process, whatever the type of institution. Some of those 'elements' may be more or less detailed, and more or less specific, to an organization's particular needs, location, community, etc., or to one of its areas of activity, or departments. You will want to do what best suites your needs and structure.

However, I feel it is important that a museum (or museum-related organization) will have a well-defined statement of its basic 'goals'. These may be set out in a broader vision statement, or, perhaps, be more detail, say in a mission statement. Such a statement, when memorable, can provide each and every staff person, board member, volunteer, as well as political and other stake-holders, with a solid indication of the organization's main interests and direction. After that, each person, group, or department might develop plans that relate to them, but also relate, in one way or another, to the institution's basic goals. Indeed, they will, hopefully, be developed with basic institutional goals in mind. Someone may want to see and consider each of these specific plans, and their relevance, etc. 

However, it will be important that anyone involved in, or potentially contributing to, the organization in one way or another, has a clear idea of its basic goals. Meetings, applications, debates, donations, the overall management of an institution (and, hopefully, its parts), etc., all seem to 'go' better if major goals are set out and easily remembered by all. Too many goals, or ones that are too extensive (perhaps like an overly-long restaurant menu) are generally not useful, and too often forgotten. Size of an institution is not an issue either. The clarity of the institution's basic goals, however, will be. After that....

Some years ago, an art museum I was associated with, developed a strategic plan that ended up with just three basic overall goals. It took time, but in the end, everyone could remember them, and everything just seemed to run better.

=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).