Reply comments indicated by ***** below.
Colin Macgregor Stevens
Museum Curator
Burnaby Village Museum
City of Burnaby,  BC,  CANADA
(604) 293-6500
Business: [log in to unmask]
Museum Webpage:
http://www.burnabyparksrec.org/villagemuseum/villagemuseum.html
Personal: [log in to unmask]  Personal website:
http://bcoy1cpb.pacdat.net
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-----Original Message-----
From: Kiersten F. Latham <[log in to unmask]>
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.museum-l
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: June 4, 1999 09:25
Subject: changing ownership/governance


>Can anyone give me some advice on how to deal with a change in
ownership/governance of a small historical society museum?
******* This problem exists for larger institutions too. The same principles
and problems are involved, just the scale is different.

****** Our city museum went through this in 1990 when the governorship and
ownership transferred from a society to the city, and likewise our city's
art gallery just went through it last year and finally resolved the
collection ownership last week  In that case both parties agreed that the
city owns the art collection, but that both parties have the use of it, and
the city provides a grant towards exhibition costs to the former gallery
society who have set up another gallery in the city. There are other terms
of the agreement but that is the core of it.

> For instance, how does one deal with the ownership of the collections?
****** If the hand-over is amicable, attempt to get the society's officials
to sign a legal document transferring the collection ownership en masse (or
a signed form along with an itemized list if they or you can do one) to the
city.  If the hand-over is hostile, look at the existing collection records
to see what the old donation forms and records say (if these documents
exist).  Was the collection given to "the museum" or to ":the society" or
"to the people of ____"?  A legal battle can be expensive, be bad public
relations for all concerned, and be very hard on the people involved (we had
several staff quit due to the stress during the transition of our art
gallery).  In our museum's case, the society did not have the resources to
store, care for or display the many tons of the 50,000 plus items in the
collection, so after some posturing in the press, they quietly faded away.
Our bureaucrats chose to not start up a "friends of the museum" right away
out of concern that members of the former society would join it and then
work to control the museum that way. We presently sell annual passes, but
still (9 years later) do not have an overall  "friends of the musuem" group,
though we have two friends groups, one each for our 1912 carousel and 1913
interurban tram. We also have cultivated a good relationship with our local
historical society (who had been our museum's initator, but not the
governing society). With the art collection, the issue was headed towards an
expensive legal settlement where the ownership of every piece would have had
to be examined. Fortunately, after about 6-7 months of difficult times for
both parties, a win-win settlement was agreed to.

>What role should the former owners (historical society) play after the
transfer of operation to the other entity  (city)?
******* If the handover was amicable, the former owners could be brought on
board as volunteers, possibly even as as a "friends of the museum" group.
It would take some adjustment for them to go from being the decision makers
to being helpers. Clear guidelines, like job descriptions, would help all
parties in this case. The type of work can include volunteer interpretation,
fundraising, public relations, accessioning, Christmas decorating etc.

*******If the hand-over was antagonistic, a cooling off period of a year or
two is probably best. This also allows the city museum to establish new
procedures. We found that some people simply cared so much for the history
and collection that it was not really important to them who controlled the
collection, simply that it was cared for and displayed well. Some of our
former board-members have come on board as active volunteers, whereas others
have remained distant, though staff have tried to maintain a polite and
professional relationship as these people did devote a lot of time, effort
and money into the musuem over the years.

>I know this happens quite often, but I can’t seem to find any literature on
the subject that is specific to this situation.
>
>Thanks ahead of time.
>
>K.F. Latham
>Museum Director
>Legler Barn Museum
>Lenexa, KS 66215
>www.kc.net/~lhskc/
>also at [log in to unmask]

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