The Northwest Arkansas Museums Consortium was established in 1996 when 10
museums in our two-county region undertook a Passport program.  We currently
have 12 members: an air museum, a university natural history museum, a
crafts guild, two military parks with museums, two historic homes, and five
history museums.  Since that time we've met quarterly, rotating at member
museums.

> 1.  Have you set up committees or designated individuals in
> leadership roles (i.e. president, vice, secretary, etc.)?

We have no formal officers but do have a facilitator (who is more or less
the chair) and a recorder.

> 2.  Who else should we include?

Early on we decided we'd limit ourselves to the two-county area and that
we'd start with the "bigger" museums (and I use that term very loosely....
current members include 3 all-volunteer museums and 4 that have only 1 or 2
employees).  We started "opening" our membership to others as they heard
about our group, and plan sometime in the undetermined future to officially
invite others to join us.  "Others" would include anyone who has collections
and/or exhibitions.

> 3.  What kinds of goals did you
> set early, and did you accomplish them?

After the Passport program, we did the following.  Established a weekly
column in the largest local paper (runs on Sundays), with rotating
authorship by the various member museums (easy to accomplish... the editor
was already a friend and was running a similar column for the area
libraries).  Established a quarterly "Museum Marquee"  listing of all member
museum events; the Marquee is included in member newsletters and is
distributed at each member museum; this entailed only one member setting
deadlines, receiving and combining news, and distributing a copy to each
museum.  Held a few (usually about one a year) workshops for ourselves on
various topics... just decided what topic we wanted and found a speaker;
topics have included volunteerism, disaster preparedness, and educational
programs.  Worked on other small details like gathering lists of museum
store vendors, sharing job openings, working with the local tourist
associations, etc.  Our largest goal was to produce a consortium brochure,
which was accomplished in 1999.  That took a lot of group effort and
volunteerism on the part of editors, a photographer, and a layout artist.
Since we couldn't find any startup grants, we decided to pool money from
each museum to fund the initial printing, and then, with brochure and
successful distribution in hand, approach funding agencies for reprints.  We
worked out an equitable funding schedule, with smaller museums paying only a
small amount and larger museums paying more, and then each institution
received a proportional number of brochures.  Other brochures were
distributed to state tourist associations, hotels, etc.  These have been
VERY well received and very popular.  Our recent goal, earlier this year,
was to establish a mission statement; that was accomplished over the course
of three meetings.  We hope to establish long-range goals in the next few
meetings.

> 4.  Did you get media support?

Yes, for the weekly column described above.

> 5. Did you get funding, or establish yourselves as a separate entity?

We have not become a separate entity as yet.  We envision that may happen
one day.  We've agreed that should we apply for grants or foundation support
that we would do so under the auspices of one of our members' 501(c)(3)
status.

6.  Is there any advice you want to offer to us?

Even if no tangible goals are envisioned, simply meeting together, getting
to know one another and one another's institutions, and discussing mutual
concerns and successes is a big advantage.  We already feel better about
disaster preparedness and feel that we can count on each other for resources
and talents when needed.  I do think that the success of our consortium has
rested upon two very strong members who are committed to its success.

I'd be happy to answer any questions about our consortium.

(Ms) Allyn Lord
Assistant Director
Rogers Historical Museum
322 South Second St.
Rogers, AR  72756
501/621-1154; 501/621-1155
[log in to unmask]
www.rogersarkansas.com/museum

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