Your questions sound very familar. I served on the
Board of Trustees of the Andrew Carnegie Free Library
and Music Hall, which included operation of a small
Civil War Museum, in the small Pittsburgh suburb of
Carnegie, Pennsylvania in the late 1990s (this
institution has one full-time and seven part-time
employees). These are problems experienced by many
small non-profits.

I am not sure what your Constitution or By-Laws says
about Board membership or quorum requirement. However,
in general you need Board members who will provide
some commitment to the institution. If they are not
willing to, at least, attend a monthly--or even
quarterly--Board meeting, they should be asked,
politely, to leave the Board so someone who has more
time to commit to the institution can join the Board.

That said, you will always have a few Board members
who do almost everything, while others barely do
anything. It is unfortuate, but it comes with the
territory. In some ways, this could be a good thing.
At least, the slacker Board members are not getting in
your way!

>   A board member has proposed that:
>    
>   1) Each board member have a fund raising goal of
> $1000 per year
>   2) Each board member have a membership sign-up
> goal of 10 members a year
>   3) Each board member will work at least five
> events a year, or find a subsitute volunteer
>   4) Each board member will do their best to attend
> meetings, or at least arrange a proxy vote
>   5) Each board member will join as a member of the
> museum (which is very reasonable at $10 per year for
> seniors, or $15 per year for regular individual)

All laudable, but very idealistic goals. I think you
could reasonably mandate items 4 and 5--although I am
not a fan of proxy voting for Board members. It is
going to be difficult to enforce the other goals.

Your institution needs a long-range/strategic plan to
address the funding needs of the institution. And,
from what you have said, you need this very soon. If I
were you, I would go on the Internet looking for
similar long-range plsns; then YOU prepare a draft
long-range plan for adoption by the Board.

Once usch a plan is adopted--and it should include
Board participation requirements--then you have
benchmarks to judge the progress of the plan, and
Board participation.

Hope these comments help.

gaw

--- SC Museum <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Date: Thu, 1 Jun 2006 11:49:59 -0700 
From:  "SC Museum" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: [MUSEUM-L] Setting board fundraising goals &
duties 
To: [log in to unmask]

> Dear Listers:
>    
>   The museum for which I work has an issue that is
> causing quite a lot of anxiety, and I was hoping
> that others might share their experiences,
> suggestions, policies, et. al. on the subject.
>    
>   I work for a very small (one employee) museum that
> has had a very hard time getting board participation
> in events and in attending meetings.  The board has
> twelve to fifteen directors who are all volunteer. 
> Currently, the museum board has no fund-raising
> goal, or membership goal.  Obtaining a quorum is a
> regular challenge, money is going out and very
> little is being raised, and a few individuals end up
> working most events throughout the year (we have
> about one to two a month that require a few hours
> ticket selling, etc.)
>    
>   A board member has proposed that:
>    
>   1) Each board member have a fund raising goal of
> $1000 per year
>   2) Each board member have a membership sign-up
> goal of 10 members a year
>   3) Each board member will work at least five
> events a year, or find a subsitute volunteer
>   4) Each board member will do their best to attend
> meetings, or at least arrange a proxy vote
>   5) Each board member will join as a member of the
> museum (which is very reasonable at $10 per year for
> seniors, or $15 per year for regular individual)
>    
>   How does your institution address fund raising?
> How is it approached when recruiting new board
> members?  Any comments, etc., are most appreciated. 
> I will share your thoughts with the board, who will
> then make their own decisions on fund raising
> policies.
>    
>   Thanks in advance.
>    
>   Teresa Whitt, Director/Curator
>   South Charleston Museum

gaw

Glenn A. Walsh
Electronic Mail - < [log in to unmask] >
NEWS - Astronomy, Space, Science:
< http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/#news >
Author of History Web Sites on the Internet --
* Buhl Planetarium, Pittsburgh: 
  < http://www.planetarium.cc > 
* Adler Planetarium, Chicago: 
  < http://adlerplanetarium.tripod.com >
* Astronomer & Optician John A. Brashear: 
  < http://johnbrashear.tripod.com > 
* Andrew Carnegie & Carnegie Libraries: 
  < http://www.andrewcarnegie.cc > 
* Duquesne Incline cable-car railway, Pittsburgh: 
  < http://www.incline.cc >

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com 

=========================================================
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).