I have a friend, who is a curator in a small history museum, which is
governed, by the city.
The museum has its own line item detail budget and is under the
Museum/Recreation Services Dept. A management system is being set up
Which consists of:A director who is the city administrator and has very
little direct involvement in the museum. A property maintenance supervisor
who oversees daily operations and focuses on building/maintenance needs. A
park & rec. supervisor who handles the budget and edits museum
publications, and is overseeing daily museum operations. All of the
supervisors have no museum
training or experience.

Then there is the "registrar" who actually fulfills the
job description of director, head curator, registrar, grants writer, plus
budget development, marketing, etc. She has all the responsibility and work
involved in managing the museum. There is one aide who is to assist the
"registrar" who has 8 months museum experience and is learning the basics
in
museum management.


She is being micromanage by supervisors who have no training, or museum
experience. Her opinions and recommendations are being overridden with no
discussion many times.  She has to submit daily logs for both her aide and
herself
do.  She has to ask permission to; go to the store for museum purchases,
attend
meetings, change her lunch break for even 1/2 hour, alter her hours to meet
museum needs such as for special programs, events, exhibits, and open
houses.  Notifications of these needs are not enough, the asking for
permission is a must. She must continually defend, explain and write up
detailed proposals for all programs, events, and exhibits for approval.
Then
present a time line to her supervisors. She must present short and long
range plans
for approval.  They then check up on her as to how and when these are
getting done. So much emphasis on control, and majoring on the minors,
rather than the health of the museum.  She has previously managed a small
museum for 9 yrs. and also owned her  own cultural tour company.  She is
experience and qualified for her job. Yet she does not get the trust and
respect
to perform her duties.

She previously worked directly under the museum director/city
administrator.
He never treated her like this. This new structure started in Dec. She has
informed the director that she plans to resign unless this situation is
rectified. He is hopefully
going to come up with a plan to set boundaries and procedures, which will
allow the museum staff to function with out such stiff restrictions. This
situation is not productive and threatens the museum operations. We have
called many museums and no one has to do daily logs, and ask permission for
such trivial matters.  She is tired of defending her position,
museum programs, and operations. I don't think any curator worth their salt
would work under these conditions.  Do you agree? Does any one out there
have to work under these conditions? If so how do you handle it?

She needs some examples of city/museum governing systems that we could draw
from and use.  The city wants to eventually return the museum back to the
historical society who had it before.  The city owns the buildings and the
historical society owns the collections.  She has been trying to create
more
community ownership and partnerships.  She has also been working on
establishing a new "friends of the museum" group who would be able to
assist the historical
society in running the museum, and fund raising. Does any one have some
formats
for a "friends of the museum" group?

Has any one had to transfer their museum from municipality to non-profit?
How did you do it and what type of funding do you have?

Are there any curator positions available for which she could apply? She
loves museum work and does a great job; her colleagues support her and
admire her work.  We hate to see her leave the field she loves.  We want to
help her situation.

From: Concerned curator