Sector 2: Building Your Internal Coalition

In at nutshell: "Leadership is relationship."

How do I get board members more engaged? How do I motivate my staff and volunteers to change?

"Leadership is relationship," according to James Kouzes and Barry Posner (social scientists who have been systematically studying leadership for 25 years). So they might (and I would) claim that you engage and motivate one of your most valuable resources – the people who make up your internal coalition – by focusing more on your relationships with them and less on short-term end products.

The pressure to produce – exhibits, attendance, funds – is strongly reinforced by our visitors, our funders, and the bills that show up in the mailbox. And establishing and achieving goals (as Cinnamon will describe in Sector 4) is a key component of success. But rarely is there an outside pressure that reminds small museum leaders how foundational creating trusting and empowering relationships is to long-term success. Harvard Business School recently redefined leadership: "Leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence and making sure that impact lasts in your absence."

So how do we make this happen?

Begin with the heart of your museum and clarify or establish your mission with board, staff and volunteers. Talking about mission should not be about "wordsmithing." Encourage conversations about what your museum does and why your work matters to your community. Be sure to share (or better have someone else share) the stories that make your heart swell. Arm your coalition with stories of children returning with their parents after a school tour, or the visitor who shed a tear over the painting that reminded him of his mother, or the genealogist who discovered the first photo she'd ever seen of her great-grandfather in your collection. Use your mission to refocus and remind your board, staff and volunteers about what is most important.

In working with your board, consider asking board members to share their "passion stories" about why they joined. Then tie those stories back to aspects of your mission and use them to motivate discussion about what kind of board members your museum really needs. If your goals require the museum to raise money, forge connections to new audiences or partners, or develop expertise in construction, marketing or management, then you can recruit board members to help you meet your goals. Encourage those in leadership roles on the board and those involved in nominating to recruit for those skills and connections and to lay the groundwork with board members who don't meet those needs to transition into a different relationship with the museum. And as you move toward a more engaged board, include board development and education as a part of the conversation. Most board members would like to learn how to fulfill their role even better, so provide them with small doses of museum standards and best practices. Serving on the board shouldn't be about attending a few meetings: that is not a relationship. Instead, board service should be about developing a stronger connection with a valued organization that knows what it wants each board member to bring to the table.

In working with your staff and volunteers, think about building a team. If a sports team is a useful analogy for you, then think about your role as coach or quarterback. But if sports teams are a bit foreign, you might think about a weight watchers group or a chess club. These groups push each member to be more successful and provide camaraderie, even if their pursuits are individual.  Host regular staff and/or volunteer meetings that have a professional development component (museum standards, customer service, topical education) and also a social component (food, sharing mission stories, etc.). If possible, consider field trips to other museums with follow up conversations about what effective and ineffective and could apply to your site. And in your daily interactions, be aware of how small acts of encouragement reinforce the kind of work you want to see (and how being ignored or dismissed does not).

When you focus your interactions with board, staff, and volunteers around NOT ONLY reaching goals BUT ALSO about cultivating relationships, you help create a long-term foundation for ongoing success. Next week, we turn our focus outside the museum to consider your reputation in the community.

Stacy Klingler currently serves local history organizations as the Assistant Director of Local History Services at the Indiana Historical Society. She began her career in museums as the assistant director of two small museums, before becoming director of the Putnam County Museum in Greencastle, Ind. She was chair of the AASLH Small Museums Committee (2008-2012) and attended the Seminar for Historical Administration in 2006. While she lives in the history field, her passion is encouraging a love of learning in any environment.

Nontraditional Museum Volunteers

It would be wonderful to have a corps of museum volunteers willing to assist with every possible task at any possible moment. But people have numerous demands on their time. Many families include two adults who work full-time. How can a museum compete? There is no easy answer and certainly no single solution, but there are ways to develop a successful volunteer program. One avenue is to look toward a less traditional volunteer model.

Youth Volunteers

Science and natural history museums, zoos, aquariums, and children’s museums actively engage young people in volunteering. It is less common for youth volunteers to participate in small general museums, historic sites, or house museums, but there are overlooked opportunities for young people to offer volunteer services in these venues. Any youth volunteer program needs solid planning and quite a bit of structure to ensure that the volunteers have a rewarding experience and contribute to the museum’s operation. Youth volunteers are usually accepted at a museum at around age thirteen and can continue through high school. While some young people are motivated by school service requirements, more volunteer to follow some interest. They act as tour guides, greeters, assistants in educational programs, and “explainers,” as well as serving in many other capacities. Youth volunteers generally need to have a parent sign a release form and may need references from a teacher, coach, or counselor. They typically have to commit to orientation and training and to volunteering a certain number of hours to the museum. Although not required to do so by law, a museum would be prudent to correlate its guidelines for youth volunteers with child labor laws.

Family Volunteers

Museums can offer opportunities for families to spend some quality time together. Special events, such as historic celebrations, are appealing to families. Outdoor events, such as a cleanup day, might be inviting. A family could participate in an educational program. The volunteer opportunities need to be tailored to fit the needs of the particular family, which can involve considerable staff time to plan but can also be rewarding for both the families and the museum.

Corporate Volunteers

Communities with large industrial plants or corporations often encourage their employees to contribute volunteer hours to civic organizations. The companies may have human relations departments that help place employees in appropriate volunteer slots. Some corporations will also match volunteer hours with a cash contribution.

Distance Volunteers

With the growth of Internet use, there are opportunities for volunteers to support museums in new ways and in their own time. This opens new opportunities for volunteers who are employed. They can do research from home. They might be able to enter data about collections. They could develop educational materials that correlate with state-mandated educational goals.

Community Service Volunteers

Some museums have found that with the right supervision, individuals who have been sentenced to public service after breaking the law may be able to lend support to museums. Each museum needs to weigh the potential for their assistance with possible security risks.

Information Technology Support

As technological changes sweep our society, some museums are on the wrong side of the digital divide. With limited budgets and often outdated equipment, such museums can benefit greatly from savvy volunteers who know how to use technology to the museum’s advantage and where to look for assistance in upgrading the museum’s skills and equipment. People with technological skills can also help the museum with a website and with social networking through venues such as Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr. As with all volunteers, it is important to have clearly established objectives and responsibilities in writing for both the information technology volunteer and the museum.

Patricia L. Miller is the executive director of the Illinois Heritage Association, a nonprofit service organization based in Champaign, Illinois. She works with museums, libraries, and other cultural heritage organizations throughout the state. A peer reviewer for the American Association of Museums for its Accreditation and Museum Assessment programs, Miller is an adjunct lecturer in the history department at Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, where she has taught graduate classes in historic site administration since 1985.

An Introduction to The Small Museum Toolkit: Book 3, Organizational Management

Carol Bolton Betts, editor for the Illinois Heritage Association, wrote an overview of The Small Museum Toolkit as part of the IHA’s Technical Insert series.  The IHA has graciously allowed The Small Museum Toolkit to share this introduction in seven blog posts during July and August. The posts will help you to get to know about the content of the Toolkit from an outside perspective.

While money matters, money isn’t everything. A museum may be well funded, but if it is not organized and well managed it will en­counter many problems. The contributors to this book delve into several areas that require astute management in a museum.

In chapter 1, Claudia J. Nicholson likens a museum’s building to an important artifact; it must be cared for and made safe and secure for the collections, staff, and visitors. She discusses policies that help to achieve such security. Part of this involves obtaining proper insurance, and Nicholson writes about the types of insurance that are recommended in a museum. Another aspect of ensuring security is the generation of income. Renting out the museum facility is sometimes a good way to accomplish this. Nicholson lists considerations that will help a museum evaluate whether this is a desirable move.

The remaining chapters of book 3 are devoted to management of the people inside the museum building. Patricia Anne Murphy writes in chapter 2 about human resource administration. She covers policies and procedures that will enable the small history organization to build and manage a great administrative team. She tells what a personnel manual should contain and shows how to write meaningful job descriptions for both paid staff and vol­unteers. Murphy gives tips on evaluating job applicants and then providing an environment in which employees and volunteers can flourish. In chapter 3, Patricia L. Miller concentrates on the importance of volunteers, who make a museum’s programs possible. While a board member is the most important of volunteers, she writes, many other types of volunteers are needed, including nontraditional ones such as youth, families, and even distance volunteers, who may help via the Internet from their homes. Miller tells how to recruit, train, nurture, evaluate, and recognize volunteers. She advises about the legal and ethical con­cerns of dealing with volunteers, and even covers how a volunteer may be let go, if that should prove necessary.

Chapter 4 concerns the ways interns can assist a history organi­zation. Amanda Wesselmann provides valuable information on establishing an internship program. After defining internships and discussing the characteristics of interns, who are usually undergraduate or graduate students, she gives specific steps for recruiting and managing interns. Unpaid internships are increas­ing in the corporate world, but they have been commonplace for small museums. However, Wesselmann suggests creative ways that interns can be compensated, including through course credit. A good internship program should mutually benefit the intern and the organization, and the author suggests meaningful projects to accomplish this. She also recommends intern evalua­tion and feedback.

In the final chapter of book 3, Eileen McHugh ties together many sources that can be organized to ensure a small museum’s survival, especially in times of dwindling financial resources. Collaboration with other organizations—for example, nearby museums, libraries, human service organizations, business as­sociations, schools, and fraternal organizations—is the key. After a museum examines its own strengths it can create a successful partnership program with realistic goals. In the end, all collabora­tive partners can learn much from evaluating the project. McHugh gives details of two successful real-life collaborative programs that can guide others.

Book 3 concludes with three appendixes that relate to several of the foregoing chapters. Appendix A presents an application for employment; appendix B is a sample application rating form for museum education and tour coordinator candidates; and appen­dix C is an employee evaluation form.

Adapted from Carol Bolton Betts, “An Introduction to The Small Museum Toolkit,” Illinois Heritage Association, Technical Insert 177 (May-June 2012). As a volunteer, Ms. Betts has done editorial work for the Illinois Heritage Association (illinoisheritage.org) since 1982. She was an editor at the University of Illinois Press for twenty years, working primarily on books about art and architecture, film, women’s history, and subjects related to the history of Illinois. Earlier she served on the staff of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and taught art history at Villanova University and at California State University–Los Angeles.