Susan wrote:

> I work for a newly formed (1999) 501 c 3 organization that will operate a museum which is currently being built with city funds.  The city will own  the museum building, and the collections of the museum will be provided by another 501 c3 organization which has been collecting artifacts and documents since the early 1980's.  The museum and the Historical Society have been meeting to negotiate the transfer of the collection over to the museum as well as to discuss other issues such as membership and programming.  Last week, while meeting with city officials regarding the museum project, they indicated, for the first time, that they want the Historical Society to transfer ownership of the collection to the city. They are concerned that if there is ever a falling out with the museum board, the board might move the collection out of the museum building.>>

Dear Susan,

If you are not a institutional member of AAM, I suggest you do that as soon as possible because then you will have expertise at your fingertips particularly in a startup situation. I directed a small historical house museum that was city-owned and financed. The friends group set up
a separate non-profit and "owned" the collection. Actually, they hold it in trust for the people of the state in which the non-profit corporation is located.  It was my understanding that the city cannot own the collection. In fact, gifts that were given to the city were turned over to the non-profit corporation. Can the friends group move the collection from the museum if they see that the conditions are harmful to it? Yes. In the case of our museum, was the city responsible for the financial day to day running of the museum, the maintenance and capital budget? Yes. The city was responsible for the installation and maintenance of the HVAC system, but the Friends group paid the conservator fees and so on.

If you are applying for grants and other sources of funding, which you probably are, it is the non-profit corporation that will receive the funding. It cannot be the city. You will find this extremely beneficial because it is much less labor intensive  to get a check cut from the Friends group instead of all the hoops you have to jump through to get it from the city. Talk to as many people as you who have a similar set-up, big institutions and small,  so you can nail things down in the beginning, particularly the line items on the budget, because they will be hard to readjust in the future.

You do not mention where you are located, but there are also regioanl museum associations which you will want to belong to if you do not already. They can be a tremendous resource as  well. For example, the Small Museum Association and the Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums (MAAM) is presenting a workshop on September 10 in Maryland given by Marie Malaro, author of A Legal Primer on Managing Museum Collections, discussing the legal issues that pertain to museum collections. Ms. Malaro is the expert on this topic and the 4 hour workshop is only $15. Registration due by August 24. Contact: Beth Miller (MAAM) 410-223-1194. And if you are a Maryland resident you will get a free copy of the book.

Hope this helps a little.

Terri McNichol
Museum Consultant