That’s somewhere between very odd and fucked up, especially that last piece. Even for a small non-profit, that’s more than a bit screwy.
Is this museum a 501(c)(3) organization? Can you get a copy of their bylaws and other related documents?
I work in a history museum here in the U.S. and maybe I can shed some light on some of their actions.
This is something you cleared with the director of the museum, right?
If I came to work on Monday and saw that volunteers had thrown out artifacts I’d flip a lid. All museum’s are going to have collection policies and they typically don’t allow for things to be thrown away without filling out the proper paperwork. As far as the other stuff, well, I’d flip something but not my lid. It’s not your call as a volunteer to take it upon yourself to clear that stuff out of there.
Although museum’s are often hurting for money (mine is no exception) this seems exceedingly petty on their part.
Is the President the head of the board of trustees or the actual director of the museum?
Do you know what the museum’s current mission statement is? Every museum has one. Here’s the minimum you need for a decent museum plan.
I. Preface: Mission statement, bylaws, professional code of conduct.
II. Collections Policy
III. Intended Audience: How your facility will serve the community and who your target audience is.
IV. Interpretation/Education/Public Program/Exhibits: What your museum will be doing to fulfill its mission statement.
V. Physical facilities: Safety, security, etc.
VI. Personnel Policies
VII. Operating Budget
VIII. Development Plan: Strategy for raising funds.
IX: Marketing/PR Plan: In a nut shell, advertising.
X: Strategic Plan: Long term plans for the museum.
This is a minimum of about 50 pages double spaced and typed.
That is wholly inappropriate on the part of board members.
That’s a legitimate concern on his part.
It’s true, ultimately you’ve got to get people through the door if you want to fulfill your mission statement. However, non-profits are constrained in ways that a regular business is not. Museum’s are at any rate.
Quite frankly it sounds like the museum you volunteered at has a dysfunctional board of trustees. You’re probably better writing it off as a loss rather than trying to save it. It pains me to say that though.
Odesio
Three individuals shouldn’t own it. The museum should be owned by some sort of incorporated entity.
As a member of the board you would be expected to bring some money to the table. That can come from either personal donations or via contacts you have.
Members of the board should not be involved in the running of the day to day operations of the museum. The fact that their board is so involved reinforces my opinion that we’re looking at a dysfunctional board.
Odesio
Thanks for all your feedback, I always enjoy tapping into the wealth of experience and opinions here.
Odesio, those are great points. The museum really has no head, just a President of the Board who wants to do everything his way, on his own, when he gets around to it. Plus a couple of other Board members and a handful of volunteers. It’s only open 2 days/wk now. Those three Board members must own the incorporated entity that owns the museum, I’ve seen an Inc. on the signage under a name different than the museum’s.
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Yes, the museum had agreed to be a part of the mural grant, the application is signed by the President. He just couldn’t be bothered to respond to the award letter, which asked a couple of simple confirmation questions.
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I realize you’re right, that curators are in charge of development – it was a matter of nasty, dirty stuffed animals, outdated toys in broken boxes with pieces missing, and dusty fake plants. The upstairs gallery space had always looked like someone’s basement, which is why moms in the community had ceased frequenting the place. We knew this because we are very active in area mom’s groups – the consensus in the community was that the place looked like a junk heap. And it was dirty.
That’s why people had quit coming, quit bringing their kids to classes.
So we told them that, we explained WE ARE your target audience. We said, if you’re going to re-open the museum, you HAVE to make it look different than it did when you closed. Otherwise there’s no point. It closed for a reason, and “lack of love for science” is not it.
And since you have no money for new exhibits (beyond what I painted on the walls, which DID change the feel of the downstairs exhibit hall), at least de-clutter the space and clean what you have. So that it’s bright and welcoming. Not dingy and dirty
Anyway, that’s what that was all about. I think we ended up sticking a filthy Elmo in the closet in the hallway.
- Thanks for providing that outline, that’s really interesting. My friend and I developed an action plan of concrete goals, it was about 20 pages in Powerpoint form. And our presentation seemed to shock them, I don’t think they had any kind of written plan. Of course our plan wasn’t the whole enchilada, we just concentrated on tying current and potential patrons’ individual and community needs to the museum’s needs by doing concrete, inexpensive things that could be accomplished NOW. We wanted to create some exhibits - with their permission ;).
They didn’t “get it”. My friend wanted to be the Executive Director. They put her in charge of updating the website (which is still, to this day, the old ugly version). She quit, too.
I’m glad I walked away, it was the right choice. You’re right, there’s no overcoming that level of dysfunction.
Interesting experience, though.
Board seats at the local historical museum conglomerate are for sale. Donate or fing x dollars, you are a member. Fall under that you are politely asked to leave. In addition they acquire other sites, basically gut them and then “de-acquire” things they don’t consider necessary. The COO pulls down a salary equal to any major corporate for-profit leader would.
Yeah – I agree for profit non-profit corporate museums need pitted.
I’ve given this some thought. Whether or not you threw away anything of value it isn’t the volunteers who are at thought. Somebody should be there to give some direction to the volunteers. It was a failure on the part of museum staff…such as it was.
A lot of small museums end up failing and it’s usually because they didn’t make the right decisions that would allow them to exist in perpetuity. If they don’t have any written plan of action then that’s yet another reason for you to run far far away.
Generally the director of the museum is hired by the board of trustees. He or she may not have the title of director but that’s what I call it for ease of communication. This is the person that runs the day to day operations of the museum. It’s really a position that requires someone who has a lot of experience in museums. She dodged a bullet, your friend. Sounds like she’d have board members interfering with her constantly.
Don’t let it sour you to participating in museums in general. We’d be thrilled to have so many volunteers at ours but our place doesn’t really attract the mommy crowd. Find another museum and see what you can do. Just one tip.
Getting warm bodies into our buildings is very important to us. It’s one of the few concrete ways we can show our board of trustees and others that we’re doing a service to the community. However, generally speaking, we’re not such number whores that we’re willing to let anyone use our facilities for any reason. Most museums, save the really small ones, are going to have an outreach program of some sort. If you’re going to use our museum’s facilities for a mommy play date group then we want the kids to be doing something that relates to our museum’s mission. For example my museum is not a children’s museum but we had kids making soldier’s housewives (sewing kits) and other arts and crafts activities. This provided the kids with something fun to do, they learned a little about history (part of our mission), and we get warm bodies in our facilities. Win for everyone.
Provided the museum actually has the staff and facilities to do these things they’ll probably be happy to have you show up.
Odesio
What history museum is this? It sounds like a very large museum if they’ve got the funds to pay their executive officer so much.
Most museum bylaws these days limit the number of years someone is allowed to serve on the board. It’s true that board members are expected to bring money to the table either through direct donation or contacts. Typically the board members of a museum are not paid.
Also a museum cannot keep every item they run across. If I’m running a Civil War museum and I come across some WWII helmets I’m not going to keep them. I’m going to give them to another non-profit entity that can care for the item. Some museum’s might sell the items but that’s considered pretty unethical these days.
Odesio
Have you thought about trying to adapt some of your ideas from the proposed exhibits into science projects or lessons for your kids to do a small group setting? Sure, you would be reaching a smaller audience but at least some of the kids would get to learn some neat science stuff. 
Aw, you’re very kind! We’re still hanging on to our notions, you never know when they might come in handy. I’m not a science teacher, though, I just contributed images.
But a big benefit of the whole exertion is, my NASA friend and I learned that we REALLY enjoy collaborating together! Right brain + left brain = Bingo!
So we applied for another grant from the same arts organization to do a different mural. It’s for a building that’s had a lot of graffiti & it’s huge, like 28’ x 60’. The town wants an actual painting on the wall to discourage random acts. I don’t know how stiff the competition was, but we put in our entry and are crossing fingers that we’ll win. And we’d get paid for that one!
She’s also helping me with the one I already won that I’ll be doing with the kids, the theme is “space”.
Odesio, I was thinking more about this, about our attempts to shape the museum to suit our needs – as you say, I think it was a case of nature abhorring a vacuum. That Board President never gave a thought to addressing the deficiencies that led to the museum’s failure. He just wanted to open the doors.
Re: the playdates, yes, exactly, it’s not hard to give the group’s use of the upstairs gallery a relevant context with appropriate props. Moms are just looking for a safe, easy way to engage their kids for an hour or two.
That was another issue, the museum’s “collection” consists of everyone’s discards. So they had the same science kits you’d buy at Target, only old and worn and missing pieces. On our visits in prior years, nobody was ever playing with them - the older kids were busy building piles out of and leaping into some faded vinyl “walls” (I think you were supposed to be able to build a house with them), working up a good sweat and yelling like banshees while the moms with toddlers glared from across the room.
It was just a disaster, I swear - about 1/4 of the people who stopped at the desk while I was volunteering would start listing off their suggestions for improving the place!
Yep, we’re definitely better off for having given up.
I do have a daydream that the current yahoos will throw in the towel and my mom’s group will buy it. We have over 300 members, that’s got to be enough to raise some cash (and there HAS to be a wealthy “angel” in there somewhere). There are only about 100k people in our town, I’m not sure we could support two museums geared towards children.
But I think this museum is very close to being a place where SAHMs can gather in the morning to build a good community of support while their children are engaged in safe, educational activities. That’s what I was working toward. Moms are SO isolated. If they could come to a place and meet other friendly women, it would benefit the community. That’s what I was about, making mothers and children welcome. I know churches do those kinds of things, but not all of us belong to a church. I don’t know if that’s relevant to you, Odesio, but if you wanted to consider expanding in that direction I’d be glad to offer what I learned.
And then, yeah, have some awesome cutting-edge, interesting science stuff for the older kids, for after school or field trips - but you have to have a teacher to present it. That’s something I learned from watching our users. Designing exhibits is fun, but for genuine education to take place you really need a teacher.
At least when it comes to science education.