Aran,

We are currently working on new by-laws for our museum, which has
recently acquired another property, changing not only the way our
'working board' needs to work, but creating the need to be a far more
sophisticated organization. We have an attorney on the board, and he has
a guide for Bylaws for California non-profits that covers all needed
sections or topics and provides sample wording. Using that, it's
necessary to go section by section deciding what is useful and necessary
for your own organization, because there are options in every area from
how many people on the Board and how they are chosen, to how the bylaws
get revised.

If you can find a similar legal reference guide for your own state, that
would be a good place to start. We have a group of 5 people working on
it, and we are actually starting to have fun, especially as we begin to
see how much better our organization will be able to function when this
is implemented. The team consists of: President, a Past President who
now heads the most critical operational committee, the attorney, the
treasurer, and a volunteer retired museum professional. (There is no
staff in leadership role, otherwise a Director would be on this
committee.)

Because By-laws are, literally, 'laws' that we make for ourselves, we
can make them any way we want. And that can get a little scary
sometimes, depending on who's writing them. There are some 'best
practices' and the opposite, but between black and white the shades of
gray need a lot of thought. We're lucky to have a group with a variety
of experience, willingness to mull over 'worst case scenarios' of
options suggested, and disagree until we find a better solution. (And we
all know when we finally get to that solution, and it feels great!)

I think the hard thing, often, is convincing enough of the leadership
how important this really is. Most folks don't understand the importance
of by-laws and hate the kind of work it takes to write them.

Good luck,

Lucy Sperlin
Heritage Management
Chico, CA



Aran Roche wrote:
>
> Having just reviewed our museum bylaws I see that they are completely out of
> date.  In addressing revision of these bylaws with our museum board of
> trustees I seek guidance and/or reference materials for developing these
> important institutional documents.  Any suggestions for reference guides or
> samples are greatly appreciated.  Many thanks in advance for your assistance.
>
> Aran Roche
> Development Manager
>

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