David,  Whether you know it or not, you are now a Project Manager, or
maybe it should be you are in a job that is a natural for a trained
Project manager.   Moving a company or a department is a Project.  As
such, for best chance of success, manage it as a Project.  This
entails the following basic steps of the profession.

        Step one!  Define just what you are supposed to accomplish.
Or a better way of putting it:  By what criteria or definition will
the project be done and accepted by the person who assigned you the
task.  By rights, he or she should have clearly defined the goal, but
in real life it is often very vague.  As such, you should define your
understanding and then get the boss to confirm or amend it.  This may
sound simplistic, but it will prove invaluable all the way through the
project.

Step Two.  Assess the job, the amount of work, the changes from what
you have now to what is wanted at the new location and when.

Step three,  Talk to all the people who will be involved, both in
doing the work, deciding how they want the new facility, whether
anyone wants to do something with the collections before they are
moved.

Step four,  Write out a step by step plan of the work or tasks needed
eg: inventory all the items to be moved; label all items/boxes etc.  
	
Step five, Working with those who will be doing the work, make
estimates of how much time, labor and money will be needed for each of
the main steps. 

Step six,  prepare a first schedule and budget for the project and
present it to the boss.  You may well find that some of the early
assumptions and hopes may cause people to rethink the plan, and even
the goal.  So be it, but it is far better to do it at the begriming
rather than "discover" some land mine half way through the project.

Publish the approved plan, schedule and budget to all concerned.  If
they are realistic and blessed, you will find far more support and
help than not having a plan or having only vague words.

Constantly monitor the work and the plan and adjust the plan as needed
or, if say you are falling behind schedule, call for reinforcements.

Keep you boss fully apprised of the work; the good as well as any
problems that come up.   No boss wants to hear of a problem that has
been festering for a long time out of fear of criticism. 
On Fri, 20 Mar 1998 09:14:59 -0700, you wrote:

Never lose sight of the goal.
Good luck
John Bing, PMP

>Hello.
>
>Plans are in the making for the Billings Curation Center
>to move into a new facility in approx. 18 months and I am
>in the process of laying out plans for the actual move.
>
>QUESTION(S): Has anyone on the list ever gone through the
>             process of moving an entire repository?  In
>             particular, one with ethnographic/archaeological
>             collections?
>
>At the moment, the very thought seems a tad overwhelming.  So, in
>order for me to cover all bases, I would welcome any input, assistance,
>ideas, concerns, helpful tips, etc, that you would care to share.
>
>Most appreciative,
>dkw
>_______________________________________________________________________
>_______________________________________________________________________
>                                                 David K. Wade, Curator
>                                             Department of Anthropology
>                                                  University of Montana

Laguna Beach, CA