I recall seeing a set of standards that had been developed in 1990 or 1991 by an organization called (I think) The Audit Council for England and Wales on managing "local authority" museums. It addressed virtually every major area of museum work. As well, 42 pages are devoted to standards for conservation in the "Standard Practices Handbook for Museums" published by the Alberta Museums Association. As a former auditor, I can say that having performance standards provides an excellent (indispensable?) basis for planning and conducting the audit. Audit guides, published by a number of organizations, simply take performance standards and decide what particular audit tests and procedures, sample sizes, etc., will be required to assess compliance with the standards. The problem comes when you have to audit a funxtion that does NOT have these, such as museum "management" or where you get into "comprehensive" (value for money) auditing. Harry Needham Canadian War Museum