Hi Melinda,

You certainly bring good energy to this class and I admire your
thoroughness. The first job I landed in the museum field was director of a
small historic house museum.  Looking back on that experience, I might
pursue board issues; for example, what Tom Hunter brought up in his post
"Definition of a Museum,"the board moving from management to policy making.
Also, how to educate the board on fundraising and advocacy. There was a
recent thread on controversial exhibits, which did not draw forth as much
comment from the list as I would have hoped. Planning is extremely
important, but so is anticipating and expecting the "small" crises that go
with nonprofit management. Museums are becoming more of a presence in the
community, which in itself is fraught with possibility as well as problems.
How will the administration meet these problems? Head-on in a mutually
satisfying manner, or back down and withdraw as in the example given by
Ellen Cutler in the "Controversial Exhibit" thread. Perhaps you may want to
give actual case studies from the archives of real problems in contmeporary
settings and have your students dialogue in small groups and frame
solutions. Crisis managment is a big part of administration of small
institutions because the inhouse resources just do not exist. So I would
suggest, yes by all means, present the theory, but also get some hands-on
experience with current issues. Just my two cents.

Terri McNichol
Ren Associates- Assisting Museum Communities
707 Alexander Road, Bldg. 2 Suite 208
Princeton NJ 08540
609-586-8441

Ren, a Chinese cardinal virtue, stands for benevolence and universal
empathy, encompassing five values of courtesy, magnanimity, good faith,
diligence and kindness-simply translated, it means humanity.




----- Original Message -----
From: Melinda Gilpin, Site Manager <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, January 09, 2001 9:39 AM
Subject: If I had only known....


> Greetings to all!
> I will be teaching, for the first time, a course entitled "Historical
> Society Administration" at the graduate level (Mostly MA candidates).  I
am
> interested in getting some opinions from hist. soc. administrators about
> what they wish they had known before landing that first job in the museum
> field.
> Due to the nature of the class - a six week session with two 3-hour
meetings
> per week - I am interested in giving practical real-world expectations and
> knowledge without bogging the students down with reading.  The major
project
> will be the completion of a grant proposal to the state humanities
council.
> I am also considering having the students complete smaller assignments
such
> as collection item donation forms, press releases, and other associated
> paperwork related to the topics.
> Does anyone have any opinions of subjects or information that "should" be
> included - anything you wish your professors have told you?
> Also, I will be developing a "coursepack" of articles, technical leaflets,
> etc. for the course - any good references the group would like to share?
>
> Thanks in advance for any opinions and advice!
> Melinda Gilpin
> Historic Site Manager
> Harding Home State Memorial
> Ohio Historical Society
>
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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).