Hello Janis,
I just wanted to chime in with our experience with our Collections Committee. Generally it's hard to get attendance for meetings with outside contributors, but we found success in setting the meetings several months in advance so everyone can mark their calendars and plan accordingly.
We also only require one-two board members in attendance (usually Board President and another member who is interested). Our committee votes via a simple majority, and then makes a recommendation to the Board. The Board needs a quorum to make a decision, but the committee can just make the recommendation without requiring a set number of members in attendance.

We also try to bring them fun projects every once in a while to keep interest!

On Thu, Jun 2, 2016 at 12:05 PM, Janis Wilkens <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Thanks to everyone who responded to my CollComm problem! Ended up with some interesting ideas, which we’ll be considering as we feel our way toward a reasonable solution. You folks are a great help!

 

_________________________________
Janis Wilkens
Registrar
Levine Museum of the New South

 

 

From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Todd Bothel
Sent: Tuesday, May 31, 2016 6:16 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [MUSEUM-L] Collections Committees

 

Janis, at three of the institutions I have worked at as Curator/Collections Manager/Registrar I have been the one and only authorized person to determine what should be accessioned into the collections. I have found that at these institutions, the board had little interest in what was coming in the door and trusted that I, as the person who was most familiar with the collections, had the best judgement to accept or reject artifact donations. I have worked an mostly smaller museums where we didn't have space or time to lay out potential donations for board or committee review. This may not be the best way to do it, but it generally has worked for me.

-----Original Message-----
From: Janis Wilkens <[log in to unmask]>
To: MUSEUM-L <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tue, May 31, 2016 3:32 pm
Subject: [MUSEUM-L] Collections Committees

Folks, we’re dealing with an ongoing problem with our collections committee. It’s supposed to have at least three board members on it, can also have interested community members, and three staff members (myself, the exhibits director, and the historian, all non-voting). The trouble is, we can’t seem to get enough board members interested in participating, or if they agree to be on the committee, they then don’t come to the meetings. So we end up with meeting after meeting at which we don’t have a quorum, and have to scramble around trying to get the members to approve our decisions ex post facto by email.

 

I’m wondering whether anyone out there has tried other procedures for approving new accessions, rather than the traditional collections committee and its regular meetings. Conduct all “meetings” by email? Give staff members votes? Give up on direct board input, or just require one board member as a representative? Or what? We have a lot of material to get through, and we’re stumbling over this. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks!

 

_________________________________

Janis Wilkens
Registrar
Levine Museum of the New South
200 E. Seventh St.
Charlotte NC 28202-2508
704.333.1887 x 257  |   fax 704.333.1896
[log in to unmask]
www.museumofthenewsouth.org
Office hours: Tuesdays 10:00–4:00; Wednesdays 10:00–4:00; Thursdays 12:00–6:00; other times by appointment

 

 

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