My experience with mission statements and their creation has been through my involvement with a small non-profit arts exhibiting org which has never had more than three staff (San Francisco Cinematheque—we curate and present experimental film screenings). Keep this in mind as you read.

In my experience, mission statements are created by boards and staff, with possible participation from advisory boards or other bodies of representative stakeholders (this latter may not be relevant, depending on your org).

It usually emerges from a brainstorming process, perhaps guided by an outside mediator. Participants discuss what it is the org does and collaboratively create a statement succinctly describing it. The collaborative nature of the process keeps individual biases or misunderstandings from contributing to mis-stated mission statements.

A mission statement's primary function is to concisely describe what the org does, or what its goals are, in broad, unrestrictive terms. Funding bodies like to see them. For this reason the should be kind of broad (the mission of my org is not to "screen films" but to raise the profile of the work we exhibit——this broadness allows us to create publications and maintain an archives).

I can certainly understand Mr. Fields' distaste for mission statements. If an org's operations to not conform to the mission statement (i.e. you say one thing and do another), as is not unexpected in dysfunctional organizations, staff morale would certainly suffer.

Some thoughts, from one who is proud of his org's mission (and its statement).

——steve polta
——artistic director/archivist
——san francisco cinematheque


--- On Tue, 2/10/09, Richard Fields <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> From: Richard Fields <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: [MUSEUM-L] who defines your mission statement?
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Date: Tuesday, February 10, 2009, 1:51 PM
> The short answer should be your board and staff, with
> emphasis on including the staff. The staff often has insight
> from day to day activities and interactions that board
> members do not.
> 
> Now a side rant. I hate mission statements. I want the time
> in my life back I have spent polishing, revising,
> discarding, and presenting mission statements. A mission
> statement is not a panacea. It will not magically grow your
> development results, increase your visitor satisfaction, or
> improve employee morale. If more time and effort were spent
> on achieving the mission daily, and less on creating the
> perfect mission statement, I think the world would be a more
> perfect place. End rant, going to find my meds now.
> 
> --- On Tue, 2/10/09, Cindy Boyer
> <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> From: Cindy Boyer <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: who defines your mission statement?
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Date: Tuesday, February 10, 2009, 1:17 PM
> 
> 
> 
> 
>  
>  
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> If your institution has been through a mission statement
> change –
> who were the participants?  Board?  Staff?  
> 
>    
> 
> Who are the appropriate contributors to the discussion when
> the
> mission statement undergoes a change? 
> 
>    
> 
> 
> 
> Cindy Boyer 
> 
> Director of Museums and Education 
> 
> The Landmark Society of Western New York 
> 
> 133 S. Fitzhugh St. 
> 
> Rochester NY  14608 
> 
> (585) 546-7029 ext. 12 
> 
> [log in to unmask] 
> 
>   
> 
> The Landmark Society:  Revitalizing Yesterday, Protecting
> Today, and Planning for Tomorrow 
> 
>    
> 
> www.landmarksociety.org 
> 
> Confessions of
> a Preservationist: The Landmark Society blog  
> 
> Facebook
> / MySpace 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>    
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>  
> 
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The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).