Ross Weeks <[log in to unmask]> wrote in article : > Your article-in-preparation, about overly optimistic visitation/revenue > forecasts and how boards may be using rose-colored glasses in projecting > expenditures, could lead to a broadening in scope. Solid museum leaders > often get hurt in the process of a board's reacting to financial stresses. > > An eminently successful fundraiser and museologist, Dr. Rupert Cutler, > was ousted as director of Roanoke's Explore Park not long ago, and a career > motel general manager is now its new director. Interesting that you should offer these two paragraphs back-to-back.... As ex-Education Director of Explore Park, I'm afraid I have a differing perspective on this troubled project. It has been going through rough times PRECISELY because of "overly optimistic visitation/revenue forecasts and... using rose-colored glasses in projecting expenditures...lead[ing] to a broadening in scope." The only difference is that it was not merely the Board's fault, but equally the professional staff's (Executive Director & General Manager) failure to do the job that museum people must do that lead them to this place. Originally conceived of as something far different from a museum entity ("amusement park" springs to mind after seeing the original concept documents) it became one only after the failure of the both the board and professional leadership to fund implementation of its original vision (scheme). I'd note for the record that Dr. Cutler, while a very charming and personable member of the Roanoke community IMNSHO owes his ouster to the fact that he wasn't a museologist....or a good fundraiser. He was a nationally well-connected environmentalist....but that was a dubious asset for leading an outdoor historical museum. While I can't fault his interest or desire to learn, his lack of background or training in museology left him ill-equipt to lead an already troubled project. He came to lead the organization as executive director because of ouster/failure of the previous board appointed leadership to implement either board vision, promoting him internally instead of conducting a sound executive search process. He spent his years w/ the organization saying "yes" to various people....but he seemed to confuse raising money for a institutional mission, with accepting any money offered.... even if it came with strings that expanded the institutional mission and required matching money (sometime on the order of 10-20 TIMES!) that the park did not have to implement these worthy but grandiose schemes. With the failure of the board to set a vision or provide oversight.....and the failure of the professional staff to maintain and impliment this vision, or exercise its professional duties to advise the board of the pitfalls which lay ahead givin its course of [in]action, it is little wonder that this project is in trouble. In general, I'd say that rose-colored management both from boards and professionals have hurt the museum profession more than any other factor. -- Mark L. Shanks [log in to unmask] "Clio Eternum, Vita Brevis"