I have had considerable experience with the development of performance
indicators in the public sector and - more specifically - in museums. Most
of the work in this area done by the institutions I have looked at has
concentrated on measures of EFFICIENCY (e.g., how many square meters of
gallery space per security officer? or how many artifacts per cubic meter of
collections storage?). While these are all well and good for satisfying the
bureaucrats and the bean-counters, they completely miss the boat in that
they do not in any way address the question of the museum's EFFECTIVENESS.
This is something that my colleagues and I have tried to address, as have my
colleagues further afield, Dr. Friedrich Waidacher in Graz and Carol Scott
in Sydney, Australia.

I would be happy to share my ideas with you - as well as the measures we are
evolving in the Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation, which I will be
leaving at the end of the year to consult on things which include
performance measurement!

You can contact me at: [log in to unmask] or, in my private
capacity, at: [log in to unmask]

(Don't blame me; it's my son's server and HE named it!)

> ----------
> From:         Thomas D. Meier[SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Reply To:     Museum discussion list
> Sent:         Thursday, September 02, 1999 9:33 AM
> To:   [log in to unmask]
> Subject:      Performance Measures
>
> Hi
>
> Does anyone know of a performance measuring system for museums that
> actually works in practice? Quite a lot of material is available that
> treats the increasingly important subject on a rather theoretical level.
> The museums I know off are all still struggling to develop their own
> system, often just because they are forced to do so and not because they
> have learned to use performance measures as a means to improve the
> managament of the institution.
>
> Yours
>
> Thomas Dominik Meier
> Director
> Museum of Communication
> Helvetiastrasse 16
> CH-3000 Bern 6
> [log in to unmask]
>
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