Colleagues: I'm working with a small local/regional 501(c)(3) history museum and have been asked to seek models for organizational structure that might help us. This local museum has operated for 16 years using support staff only (presently a part time office assistant and a curator who mainly deals with exhibits). The Board members act as a sort of management team with the Board President the primary manager. Needless to say, there has been a lack of professional direction, but it appears that hiring a director is not possible right now. The museum has put major emphasis and funds on changing exhibits which are developed by volunteer teams, but with a curator doing much of the work. The exhibits are, in fact, quite good. Now the museum has inherited a 40 acre ranch with a significant historic home and several outbuildings. A tidy endowment will come with it, but income from it may not cover much more than the cost of maintenance. Presently a By-laws Committee is working to restructure the organization to effectively manage both entities. The idea presently being put forward is to have, under the Museum Association Board of Directors*, independent "Boards" or "Councils" to manage each of the two entities, the museum and the ranch. Even if more staff is hired, the idea is that each 'council' of volunteer managers would be making most decisions for 'their' entity. At this point, this includes site development, programming, fund raising and financial management. The idea of moving other historic buildings onto the ranch has already been broached, as well as other major decisions of long term import. There has not been emphasis on collection management in the past, and, in fact, at times the museum has called itself a 'non-collecting' museum, due to lack of storage space. The house, however, comes with all of the family furniture, antiques and household items, as well as some agricultural equipment, so collection management now looms much larger. *The Board of Directors would be composed of two representatives each from the museum and ranch, two 'independents' and a financial officer. It would start as a seven person board but could expand to 15. (Concern for immediate expansion to 15 is that there would not be a large enough pool to fill so many positions.) It would also oversee a third entity, the "Foundation" which is not a separate foundation, but an endowment/investment development and management committee. So, here are some questions for all you good heads out there: 1. Do any of you have management models that are working well for an organization with two rather different facilities under a single organization? 2. What advantages/disadvantages do you see to the proposed model, and can you foresee any management or organizational pitfalls if this model is adopted. 3. What specific functions should be managed overall (i.e. not separately by the two different committees or "councils"), and what types of decisions should be reserved for the Board of Directors? Any and all suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Reply either to the list or to me personally, and, if possible, include your current position or experience as replies will be passed on to the committee. (Flag me if any comments need to be held confidential.) Thanks so much. Lucy Sperlin [log in to unmask] ========================================================= 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).