Hi Jenifer, I work for the National Museum of the US Air Force (NMUSAF) in Dayton, OH. Staff development is a high priority here and as time and money allows specialized training is encouraged. To address your specific questions: Specific training opportunities in place: NMUSAF offers an in-house "museum orientation course" designed for new employees here at the national museum as well as folks working in our field locations at air force bases all over the country. This is a 4.5 day course that provides a general overview of professional museum practices as well as guidance and training in NMUSAF specific issues (web-based artifact data base, a/c restoration and maintenance, security issues, etc.). Most of the sessions are taught by other NMUSAF staff. This is offered biennially and at no cost (aside from the travel costs incurred by participants). Lately we've begun opening the course up to civilian museums who have a/c on loan from us. We've also begun offering shorter courses (1-3 days) on narrower topics like collections management or a/c restoration in the off years. The Air Force History and Museums Program, of which the NMUSAF is a part, offers some specialized training, mostly related to straight historical topics (history of American air power, etc.). Staff can also pursue management or leadership skill development courses offered by the federal civilian personnel system. These are competitive and very good, but expensive and designed for senior staff employed in any of the federal agencies/departments/etc. They're not museum specific. Who initiates training: ultimately the responsibility for training and development lies with the individual employee. Supervisors/managers are encouraged to in turn encourage their employees to seek out and pursue opportunities but really it's up to the employee. I believe there is some required training for new supervisors and the museum orientation course has become a sort of de facto "must take" for new employees. Training $$ allocated per employee: no, there is no per employee training $$. Departments within the museum are encouraged to include training $ in their annual budget projections. The Air Force History and Museums career program (it's centrally managed out of Texas) have some training money available on a first come/first serve basis. This goes fast. I was able to take advantage of this money to attend the JIMI (Jekyll Island Management Institute) a couple of years ago. Out-source or in-house: General professional development opportunities are out-sourced. Folks learn about an opportunity (like JIMI or an AAM sponsored workshop or whatever) and pursue it. However our collection management division did recently bring in someone from the Campbell Center to conduct a one-day on site training. So we're flexible! Trends: My observation is that there has been a discernable push for increased professional development from senior management. They've identified a need for staff to stay current and a need to provide specialized (hard skills) training for some of our folks who do not have professional degrees. There's also (I think) a trend towards developing leadership and management skills in some junior staff, especially as we begin to see senior staff retirements in the near future. Overall in the last 7-8 years staff professional development has really become a priority. It's just that budgets are extremely tight and there are still some supervisors that claim they "just don't have the time" to have staff (or themselves) pursue prof development opportunities. Hope this helps! Sarah Sessions Civilian Museum Certification Program Manager National Museum of the USAF [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).