First, I want to thank all of you for answering my question. I respect and 
admire all of you for the dedication you have to our field. After thinking 
deeply last night about my situation, and upon reading your responses, I 
recognize that our committee was indeed in the wrong. Since this has 
happened, the Marketing Chair has issued a letter apologizing to the entire 
Board but asking permission to move forward as backing out of this contest 
now can have negative repercussions. We have also asked that the board begin 
conversations about the roles of committees. You are all right, these are 
growing pains. I am not losing any more sleep about this. Thank you so much 
for your valuable input.

Liz

>From: JENNIFER ALEXANDER <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: CHILDMUS - A Forum for Childrens Museum Professionals 
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: CHILDMUS - A Forum for Childrens Museum Professionals 
><[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: [CHILDMUS] Decision Making Responsibilities of Board 
>Committtees
>Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2005 19:53:03 -0700 (PDT)
>
>Liz,
>
>Yech.
>
>I feel like I should apologize before responding, because I'll try to be as 
>frank as your email in hopes it will be helpful -- but hopefully I'm 
>reading your note correctly!
>
>I think that probably, the committee overstepped its bounds by choosing the 
>name without running it past the board...this is the kind of "courtesy 
>vote" where it helps keeps other board members involved/invested.  Choosing 
>Logos and their associated words (is that what you meant by "name"? is it a 
>mascot of some kind?) is definately something the whole board should have 
>approval on, unless it is a minor thing that won't be used much.   Of 
>course, not everyone is good at it but no one likes to read about it in the 
>paper when they are supposed to be a decision maker.  If time is a crisis, 
>at minimum, a phone call between the board chair and the committee people 
>or staff would keep the board leadership in the loop and they would share 
>the blame if the larger board feels left out.
>
>Of course, in reality, some people do the work and others just come to 
>meetings.  It's incredibly difficult, when you're one of the workers, to 
>keep touching base with people who aren't as deeply involved.  Personally, 
>I think the whole board-run non-profit thing is nuts -- unless everyone 
>"knows their place" and enjoys that, it can easily get ugly.
>
>So, can I offer any helpful advice?  If you think it works (and frankly I'm 
>not sure what your role should be as paid staff, but someone has to do it), 
>there needs to be a suggestion made to whichever of these board members is 
>the most reasonable, that a dialogue needs to be opened with something like 
>-- "oops, we got carried away, of course we should have run it past the 
>whole board!  It just seemed like such a great opportunity for everyone 
>here.  What do you all think we should do now?  Do people feel strongly 
>that it's not a good opportunity?  Should we talk about what would happen 
>if we decided to back out of the deal now?"
>
>If someone on the board doesn't step in with "oh well, live and learn, 
>let's go with it and work better together next time", then you have real 
>problems!
>
>Generally, unless it is specified at a board meeting that the committee 
>should just go on their own steam, a committee should always bring back a 
>recommendation for the larger board to vote on (at least that's how it 
>works on all the boards I am on).  In theory this saves lots of time, 
>because board meetings just consist of committee reports and their requests 
>for action on their various projects.  In practice, it's hard not to 
>re-debate each issue unless you have a very disciplined chair, or a very 
>seasoned board (who lead busy lives and don't want to be part of every 
>little decision).  Generally though, I wouldn't think of this as 
>micro-managing, unless it gets to a very detailed level.  The committee has 
>a budget and a task, they should keep the board updated, without a lot of 
>detail -- just being sure that they are on the right track.  But something 
>big like choosing a logo or involving the organization in new relationships 
>with other organizations -- that's something to
>  run past
>  the whole board.
>
>Perhaps the real issue here is that some people didn't feel that other 
>people on the board were truly vital to the decision making process -- the 
>marketing people didn't have a gut reaction that they wanted to run this 
>new name past the rest of the board for feedback.  That's not cosmetic -- 
>that's real.  Beyond your regular board meetings, how much communication is 
>there between committee chairs and the executive members of the board?  
>Sounds like more may be needed...maybe you could collect a weekly/bi-weekly 
>email from each committee chair about what their commitee is doing or if it 
>is in-between projects.  If the name/logo was really not a big deal (it's a 
>little hard to tell from your email how important this is to the overall 
>image of the museum), then what you have is a sign that your board chair 
>(possibly relating feedback from other board members) has developed prickly 
>feelings about who really has the power in the organization -- again, 
>regular communication is the
>  answer.
>
>I can't tell you how many times I've been in this exact situation 
>before...with lots of bruised feelings (egos?) all around, and me feeling 
>baffled that people were mad they weren't included when they weren't part 
>of that aspect of the project before...or when it seemed like they'd 
>stepped back.  But, in hindsight, I can see that the best organizations 
>have boards that keep lots of information flowing, and lots of courtesy in 
>letting each other know what's in the hopper.  Our Board growing pains 
>nearly put us under...but now we have a great board that respects each 
>other's strengths...and yet I still sometimes find it hard to keep everyone 
>in the loop!
>
>Hope this helps a little!
>
>-Jen from Kidcity
>Middletown, CT
>
>"Liz N." <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>Hello all! I am in need of some serious advice. I am going to be specific
>about my question rather than general--and most of you will agree that this
>is a sticky situation. I am the Director of a new children's museum in 
>Ohio.
>We opened last August and I started in September. Our Board, until that
>time, was extremely hands-on. Many were personally involved in the
>development of the museum. After I was hired, they took a more formal role.
>Actually, it was not until November when they developed board committtees.
> >From November on, many of the committtees have been fairly active, but 
>none
>as active as the Marketing Committee. They have had a tall order and have
>done their job well, making great decisions that for the most part, the
>Board has supported. In April the Board voted to approve a new
>organizational logo. In June, the Marketing Committee reported that it 
>would
>run a logo naming contest locally for children. Our Marketing Chair, who is
>in management at a local television station, helped us by developing PSAs
>for their station and others. A local parenting magazine gave us a half 
>page
>ad in their publication for free (they were going to be promoted in the
>PSA.) Needless to say, the deal was great because this magazine has given
>us 6 months free for the publicity they got. This past week, the committee
>reviewed close to 100 names. The editor of the magazine (who has since
>joined our committee as she has great knowledge of family audiences in the
>area), artist who created the logo, and our extremely talented committee
>found a name they liked. We called the young lady, gave her her prizes, and
>in August the winner's name will appear in our ad that the magazine created
>for us (and as a special gift is giving us in color at no charge.) We've
>also asked her to appear at our one-year anniversary during a presentation.
>This morning, I read an email (sent to the entire Board) from my Board 
>Chair
>that the name is something the entire board should vote on, and that the
>Committee needs to make a recommendation. Umm, it seems what is done is
>done. My Marketing Chair sent her an email back, and later called her to 
>say
>that no one raised any concern at the June Board meeting when we mentioned
>the contest, and it concerns him that the Board is micromanaging the
>committees. She has asked him to draft an argument to the Board of Trustees
>and have them decide if we should give naming responsibilities to the 
>Board.
>This minor argument has bloomed into an ugly situation. I am trying to stay
>on the outside of it, obviously. While our bylaws state that the 
>committtees
>cannot commit the museum to "any program" it seems to me that this is
>micromanagement. The problem here lies in the fact that we are still very
>new, these are growing pains, and the Board has never really developed
>policy regarding the decision making responsibilities of the committees. Am
>I blowing this way out of proportion? Do your board committees have some
>decision making authority? Please let me know. It seems to me that if the
>Board will have to decide on every little "recommendation" the committees
>make then not only will they micromanage, but our monthly meetings will
>become three-hours long. Any thoughts? Any words of comfort? Am I
>overreacting? I feel that this could get us into serious trouble with the
>family of the winner, the parent magazine, and my wonderful marketing
>committee. Thanks.
>
>Liz
>
>

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