As trustees know, museums are complex institutions. At a large museum, especially, there are seemingly thousands of moving parts that enable the institution to carry out its mission, engage audiences, navigate changes happening in the field and in communities, and ensure financial stability, not to mention the daily operations and oversight of staff. The pace of museum work, coupled with the fact that departments can feel somewhat siloed, means that getting a bird’s eye view can be tricky for even the most seasoned trustee. It’s hard to keep track of those thousands of moving parts while focusing on one’s own role in the institution.
 
My recently published book So You Want to Work in a Museum? can help. While written primarily for students, recent graduates, and career changers who want to learn more about the field they are considering or planning to enter, trustees may find it useful as well.
 
The book starts out looking at museums by type and by structure; though I mention university museums, municipal museums, and other governance models, the focus is on board-governed nonprofit museums. Then, it moves on to organizational structure. Because museums are idiosyncratic, no one structure can describe every institution, but the sample organizational chart I created gives an example. In writing about structure, I wanted to focus on the trustee role, something that’s not often introduced to prospective or entry-level staff. Not only do I think it’s important for staff at all levels to know about the various ways in which trustees serve museums, but I also wanted to show that trustees and staff are partners in working toward the museum’s mission. Though junior staff might not have many opportunities to interact with trustees, I discuss ways that staff at all levels can get to know board members and see them in action (while keeping in mind that staff should check with their supervisors to learn about protocols for communicating with trustees).
 
The section of the book that trustees might find most useful is a department-by-department guide. Within each department, I look at three or four specific jobs, covering the main tasks along with the required skills and recommended preparation. Each job also has a section called “keep in mind.” These are aspects of the role that are neither pros nor cons, but rather are points to consider that might not be apparent, like the fact that education jobs require significant weekend work, or that conservators often get the chance to travel with artworks as couriers.
 
Board members at most museums likely have regular interaction with curators, development and membership staff, conservators, and educators (though this will vary by institution). Trustees are much less likely to get a window into other jobs that are not as visible but are still key among all those moving parts. Not only are roles like registrar, facilities manager, shop buyer, mount maker, conservation technician, and prospect researcher important, but they’re also quite interesting to learn about. Staff in those roles are accustomed to constantly having to explain what they do; they would undoubtedly appreciate trustees taking the time to learn more about their responsibilities.
 
For each department, I profiled someone currently working in one of the positions covered in that chapter. These profiles include people from across the country; from history, science, art, college, and specialty museums; from museums with staff that can be counted in the dozens to those with several hundred employees.
 
Former MTA President and Trustee Emerita Mary Baily Wieler graciously provided a profile for the book. She wrote about aspects of her background that prepared her for board work, talked about the ways her museum service differs between institutions, and mentions some of the highs and lows: “My favorite part of the job is tackling the tough issues and making decisions to ensure the financial sustainability of the museum and providing proper governance oversight of the museum director. My least favorite part of the job is chasing donors to renew their memberships.” Mary also gives some excellent advice to prospective staff: “Civic engagement is a rewarding part of one’s professional and personal life. I’ve made life-long friends and enhanced my skills all in support of each museum’s mission. I would highly recommend board service to anyone contemplating joining the museum field.” She also makes an important point about the staff and trustees’ common goals: “Museum staff members need to recognize that board members are their partners in ensuring the long-term sustainability of the museum. They are volunteers, dedicated to the museum’s mission and providing wisdom and oversight for the greater good and in the public trust.”
 
I greatly appreciate Mary’s input, which makes the trustee role more accessible to readers. I hope that book similarly sheds a light on the complex behind-the-scenes realm of museum work, and that trustees find this bird’s-eye view useful.
 
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Tara Young is an independent museum consultant based in Massachusetts. She teaches museum studies at Tufts University and has worked in and with museums for more than 20 years. Visit her website at www.tarayoungconsulting.com.

Since 2002 when our first edition of Templates for Trustees was released, MTA has provided tools for transforming museum board composition. MTA believes in the importance of a mission-driven board reflecting and understanding the current composition of its community and the people they serve. It is our goal to help you clearly see your current board and set strategic goals to reach your future vision.

Self-reflection is the first step to determining how to diversify your board. As 2019 board rosters are newly finalized, now is the perfect time to perform a self-evaluation of your board’s demographics.

Our new edition of the Building Museum Boards template provides the perfect tool for collecting and reporting on board data; your Governance and Nominating Committee can work with our cloud-based system to add board members to your museum’s account, send a tailored profile survey via email, and have responses automatically tabulated. You can easily pull reports on the data they submit and have a clear overview of your board’s composition. In your assessments, it is important to consider not just factors of age, gender, and ethnic background, but also expertise, skills, personality, and areas of influence. A balance of all of these factors are important to creating a robust and self-aware board.

Only by collecting and reviewing this data can you begin to understand the steps that your board needs to take to diversify; further tools in Building Museum Boards will help you to manage your prospective board member list and firm up the ongoing responsibilities of individuals and committees to ensure that the steps you take now continue into the future. The work of the Governance and Nominating Committee is never done; your board profile is not a static document and it will evolve over time as new board members join, others term out, and your strategic plan changes.

MTA members also can take advantage of our Resource Library that contains sample governing documents and board diversity plans. Our members freely share these documents and encourage adaptive reuse.

It is never too early for self-reflection and our affordable tools give you the resources you need to get the process started.
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Earlier this month, the Alice L. Walton Foundation, Ford Foundation, and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation announced a historic philanthropic grant to support board diversity and inclusion in the field. In partnership with the American Alliance of Museums, 50 museums in 5 cities will be studied over a multi-year period. We know many of you are already tackling this work at the board and staff levels. If you haven’t started, there is no better time than the new year to begin. MTA is ready to help and looks forward to tracking the progress that our field can continue to make in this arena. 
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We have occupied a front-row seat for seeing the gap between boards that are well run and led and are boons to the organizations they serve, and those that are far less so. We have seen how public agencies and governance activists have sought to close that gap by insisting on tougher rules and tighter regulations. We believe, however, that much of the variance stems instead from a very different source: the human dynamics, social architecture, and leadership of the board itself.
 
We seek as a result to focus attention on building more engaged leadership in the boardroom, not just the executive suite. Governing boards should take more active leadership of the organization, whether a corporation, hospital, or museum, not just monitor its management. We expand the working concept of governance from one of arms-length oversight to trustee leadership of the most strategic decisions.
 
Rather than being concerned with whether trustees should serve staggered or limited terms, we worry more about whether the chair can help direct the board in guiding strategy, setting the ethical tone, and gauging risk in concert with the chief executive, and whether the trustees’ talent and collective chemistry make the board a substantive player at the table. This calls for a different kind of vigilance in the boardroom, a deeper kind of relationship between trustees and executives, and a new kind of leadership from both.
 
The emerging governance model is a result of forces not of its own making. In the private sector, increased regulation, ownership pressures, and governance reforms over the past decade have been intended to strengthen the board’s oversight function. Yet as boards have become better monitors, they have also become better leaders, delving into a host of other areas that had been delegated to top management in earlier times.
 
We believe that directors in the private sector and trustees in the non-profit community can and will more actively lead in the years ahead, and on balance we anticipate that this should fortify their organization’s success and performance. But that is not a given. Poorly handled, this new enablement can cause serious damage, resulting in fractured authority and dangerous meddling.
 
A New Model of Collaborative Leadership
 
In a 2002 letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, Warren Buffett lamented his multiple derelictions of duty as a director of some forty corporations over nearly two decades: “Too often I was silent when management made proposals that I judged to be counter to the interest of shareholders,” Buffett wrote. “In those cases, collegiality trumped independence [and a] certain social atmosphere presides in boardrooms where it becomes impolitic to challenge the chief executive.”
 
A decade later, biopharmaceutical Amgen Inc. CEO Kevin Sharer painted an almost opposite picture of the relationship between the governing body and corner office: “You’re a lion tamer and they’re the lions. Respect them, but if you let them eat you, they will. Working with the board is vital, complex, and beyond your prior experience—unlike anything you’ve done before. It is among the most complex human relationships, especially if you’re the chair, when you’re their boss, and they’re your boss. Get the relationship right, or it will hurt you.”
 
Allow for a little hyperbole on both sides—Warren Buffett was never that neglectful, and Kevin Sharer carried neither whip nor chair to keep his directors at bay. Still, the difference between the two observations illustrates a striking reconfiguration taking place in how boards operate and how directors and trustees work with top management: the emergence, in an extraordinarily short time, of the potential for boards to be a vital partner and new force in governance.
 
But note the qualifier—potential. This leadership capacity has yet to be fully exploited or even realized at many firms. Too often, directors and trustees remain one of the most valuable but least utilized of an organization’s assets. Smart, experienced, and dedicated men and women are ready to serve. They are sworn to protect and advance the enterprise, to ensure that it does what is best for customers, investors, donors, and visitors. Yet their wisdom and guidance are still too often closeted in the boardroom.
 
But the prevailing model is changing, and quickly. At organization after organization, boards and management have been embracing new practices that help define a more directive, more collaborative leadership of the enterprise. They are jointly taking charge of strategic choices, merger decisions, risk tolerance, ethical climate, and other functions that have traditionally been the province of management.

Boards That Monitor, Partner and Take Charge

A company, hospital, or museum’s executives are no less in the driver’s seat. But the way that they steer many organization is now markedly different—a shared or distributed leadership model that is better suited, in our view, for guiding enterprises that are facing more uncertain, more changing, and more complex markets.
 
Each board will want to fashion its own unique blend of the components of direct and collaborative leadership. “Boards should sit down” annually, urged Ford Motor Company’s lead director Irvine Hockaday, “and say, OK, what are we really doing here, what really is our role given the situation of this company at this time, what are we doing to incarnate that role, how are we going to function with the lead director, and what are our priorities?”
 
Finding the right balance among the board’s leadership components—knowing when to lead, when to partner, and when to stay out of the way—has become one of the premier tasks of the board’s leadership of any enterprise.

At your last board meeting, did you find yourself looking more at your cell phone than listening to the Executive Director? Did the Executive Committee report on the decisions made in advance of the meeting and leave no time for trustee conversation and questions? Did you feel like you could have just read the board packet and skipped the meeting?

Did you ask yourself, “Why am I on this Board?”

At MTA, one of our most frequently asked questions from both Directors and Board Members is “How can I successfully keep my Board Members engaged?” A well-run board meeting is the best chance to prove that you’re not wasting your board members time.
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Here are 10 Tips culled from MTA members & forum panelists to help you hold successful board meetings that motivate members to come back again and again.

​Once a month can be too often to meet, wasting staff time and resources. However, meeting quarterly can be too little, leaving Board Members overwhelmed and forcing attendees to set aside sufficient hours to allow for necessary business as well as robust discussion and interaction. Your meeting schedule should suit the needs of your museum while still respecting the time of your volunteer Board.

​Board Packets should be sent to allow sufficient pre-read time. Consider purchasing board portal software for meeting notices, agendas & supporting corporate documents. Having the archived material at your fingertips allows for the meeting narrative to come alive.

 “Creating a diverse board is hard work,” according to David Ellis, former Director of the Museum of Science-Boston. Using a board matrix like the one created by The Museum Trustee Association helps boards manage this process. (Find MTA Templates Here)

Board members often have busy travel schedules and may not always be in town for your meeting. Ensure that your trustees have the option to attend via conference call at a minimum. Even better, try a video conferencing service for presentations so that participants are both seen and heard.

A Consent Agenda can be used for routine business such as committee reports, minutes and financial data. Doing so can save time and energy, giving you an opportunity to hold robust discussions.

One of the many reasons that people join boards is to meet, interact and make new friends.  “The Walters Art Museum has a social event following every board meeting. Some are board and staff oriented while others allow the board to interact with museum members and donors,” says trustee Peter Stockman. “These events have helped forge trusting relationships among board members and created a positive image of the board as conscientious stewards among our donors”

​Do you feel like you are spending too much time in the same conference room? A great way to shake things and bring Mission into your meeting is by holding the meeting at community partner’s headquarters.

Curators, Conservators, Educators, and Docents can share a Mission-related story. Budget time for a fundraising training session or conduct a pre- meeting survey to find a topic that suits your Board. Trustees today are doers and action-oriented. Allow plenty of time for goal setting and problem solving.

According to Boards that Lead, “Chief executives must run the corporation, but directors must also lead the corporation on the most crucial issues. Monitoring is still important. Governance matters. But the time has come for boards to rebalance their responsibilities. Directors need to know when to take charge, when to partner, and when to stay out of the way.”

​Micah Parzen, CEO of The Museum of Man in San Diego writes his board a weekly e-mail. “Mission Moment Mondays help to regularly remind the board of the Museum’s Why. They are a critical part of our process of creating an indelible through-line between our mission and the business of the institution.”

​There are many more strategies for keeping your museum Board Engaged. Have a success story? We want to hear from you! Please comment below.