Lesson Plan: Administration and Governance
I. Overview of the museum governance and administration structures
- With pen on blank overhead: start with board in circle
- talk about the roles of the board
- support with handout on roles of the board and sample committee structures of a museum board
- Add director
- talk about general role and differences in size of museum
- show overheads of sample director position descriptions from large and small organizations (get sample job descriptions for small museums to complement)
- Start to flesh out staff positions
- Start with second person — business manager? Educator? Curator? (depending on the needs of the museum — program heavy, collections, etc.)
- Add third position, fourth, etc.
- Show sample organization charts from a variety of
museums
- Support with handout of sample organizational structures
- Ask students to draw a sample chart for three different
museums
- A small historic house museum (think of Morris-Butler House or others you are familiar with) — two1/2 FTE
- A small living history museum with strong emphasis on touring programs (note actors/interpreters are hourly contractors) — seven FTE
- A medium sized museum of Native American Art and Culture — 35 FTE
- review their organizational charts and compare with "real life" examples
from Morris-Butler, Freetown Village, and Eiteljorg
II. Professional Roles
- Handout on museum positions and responsibilities
- Scenarios and responses with students role playing various museum positions
- Writing position descriptions (see overheads)
- Annual performance evaluations (see overheads)
III. Strategic Plannning
- Role of strategic planning (use AAM "Visions" guideline as sample process)
- General principle of feedback loop
- SWOT analysis
- Have students think about a museum or organization they are familiar with (could be church, cub scout troop, fraternity, etc.) and do a SWOT analysis.