Sessions needed for 2008 AASLH Annual Meeting in Rochester, NY! 
  
The Small Museums Committee of the American Association of State and Local History is working to identify session topics and speakers meaningful for small museums at its Annual Meeting in Rochester, New York September 9-12, 2008.  The deadline for session proposals is November 16, 2007.  

 
The committee has created a list of possible topics that reflect the 2008 theme, Discover the Power of Transformation and we encourage you to develop or participate in one of these or offer your own.  Our goal is to have multiple sessions with panelists predominantly from small museums talking about small museum specific topics and examples.  We plan to concentrate these sessions into one to two days so that small museums who cannot typically attend a national conference could possibly come for a part of it.  However, there were so many small museum oriented session topics this year in Atlanta, you could easily stay the entire conference and find something relevant to your museum each session time. 

 

Potential session topics on transformation:

 

• Small Museum as Agent of Community Transformation – How has your small museum been involved in community planning and/or economic development planning, especially in rural communities?  How has museum staff worked with city leadership?  Is your museum a vital community member?

 

• Changing Communities – With demographic changes on the local community level, how does a museum keep up and stay relevant?

 

• Transforming Compensation – Those who work in small organizations often know too much about how tight the budget is to ask for a raise in salary?   What kinds of creative benefits arrangements have you negotiated with your board (additional time off, professional development, flexible schedules, etc.) that appropriately rewards you for a job well done without breaking the organizations' bank?

 

• Small Museum Teachings – What can small museums teach the museum field?  Daily operations for small museum staff are usually “front-line” situations where there are ample opportunities to interface with the public and see how effective the museum is or isn’t.  Small museums are sometimes more flexible and responsive to visitor, organizational, or community needs as they arise because of size and resources as well.  How can this environment inform the field in new ways?

 

• Personal Transformation – Museum professionals sometimes make decisions whether to work in a small, medium, or large museum.  Once you make the move from a larger museum to a smaller museum, are you personally transformed and how have your career goals changed, if at all?  A collections staffer working in a larger museum moving to a directorship in a small museum would also have some unique perspectives to share.  What have you learned and what can be shared for the betterment of the field? 

 

• Transformative Relationships – A good working relationship between the director of a small organization and her board (especially her board president) can make all the difference in moving an organization forward.   How do you establish and maintain an open and productive relationship?  What can you do when you don't get along with your board president?

 

• Volunteers/Interns - How have increasing volunteers or bringing in interns transformed your organization?  Why has having unpaid staff made a transformative impact?   How does rapid turnover of volunteers in key staff positions affect your organization?  How do you cope?

 

• Admission Fees (point/counterpoint?) – Can you successful transition from not charging admission to charging admission?   Or charging more for school tours?  This topic might be a great one for a point/counterpoint discussion – where different arguments are presented but a consensus is not the goal? Help others to think about what charging admission communicates to visitors, the community, schools, and other constituents.

 

• Publications For Sale – Is publishing a book still a good money maker for small historical societies and museums? How has the publication world changed over the last 10 years?   Have changes in the publishing industry made printing or reprinting materials an important way to serve the mission and fund the operating budget? 

 

• Technology Transformations (Good, Bad & Ugly) – How has integrating new technology transformed your organization for either better or worse?   Did you improve your website but underestimate the time it would take to maintain it?  Has posting collections on your website increased your in-house visitation? How did you harness technology (websites, computers, podcasts, desktop publications) to your advantage without allowing it to harness you?

 

• Communications – Have you transformed your newsletter, events publication, website, press releases or other forms of communication to increase interest and attendance at your site?

  

• Surviving Slash & Burn Transformations - How have you successfully decreased your services in response to budget and/or staffing cuts while making the case to reinstate funding or pursue new funding sources?   How does an organization survive massive turnover?

 

• Transformative Career Experiences –  Professional development, books, mentors, and projects can change the way we see ourselves in the field – can we learn how to rejuvenate ourselves from the stories of others transformations?

 

• Transformations in 50 Minutes or Less – Can we provide a transformative visitor experience in the space of a normal visit?   If not, what CAN we do to work toward a transformative visitor experience?

 

Please consider sharing your small museum transformations.  Small museums have accomplished greatness on shoestring budgets for years – share with us how you did it.  Also, please consider submitting a general proposal about common small museum practices and issues.  The proposal form is available on the AASLH website, www.aaslh.org.  
 
If you have any questions about the proposed topics or would like to discuss a topic you have in mind, please email me at [log in to unmask].  I would be happy to provide feedback, more information, and/or help link you with other potential co-panelists.

 

The committee offers 1-2 scholarships each year to the Annual Meeting made possible through generous donations by small museum staff like you.  If you would like to make a small, or large, contribution to the SMC scholarship fund, please let me know.  Scholarship applications will be made available spring 2008.

 

Best regards,

Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko

Chair, AASLH-Small Museums Committee

Director, General Lew Wallace Study and Museum

Crawfordsville, Indiana

765.362.5769