Goal 3 - museums are sustainable, resilient and

innovative

Culture, knowledge and understanding:

great museums and libraries for everyone,

Arts Council England 2011

Resilience

• Being aware of the environment in which your museum operates and of the risks, challenges and opportunities it presents.

• Taking action to minimise those risks and to tackle those challenges.

• Being agile and ready to take up those opportunities to ensure the long term survival of your museum, its collections, the service to the public and the wellbeing of your workforce.

Organisational health

Collections Care

Users and their

experiences

Resilience

Accreditation supports resilience

Organisational health

A common purpose (1.1)

A Statement of Purpose expresses the core reason for the museum and pulls people together with a shared goal.

What does it mean? • Why we exist • What we believe• What we want to achieve • Who we do it for

Organisational health

Good communication (1.3.1, 1.3.3, 1.4.4, 1.7.2, 1.8, 3.1, 3.1.2, 3.2.3)

Shares the vision and ensures you work together to achieve the same objectives; builds interest and support.

Tip

• Use newsletters, social media, notice boards and staff meetings to communicate

• Consult the workforce, the public and your visitors regularly

Organisational health

Succession planning for the governing body and key members of the workforce (1.3.4)

Ensures valuable knowledge and skills are not lost and there is no loss of momentum when change occurs

Tip• Train people up• Identify potential successors early on• Consider fixed term appointments

Organisational health

Workforce development (1.7.4)

• Provides people with the skills and knowledge needed to do their job efficiently and effectively

• Contributes to their professional development and feeling of value and self worth

Ideas to try• Have a funded training plan for your museum• Ensure every member of the workforce has a personal training plan

Organisational health

A robust Forward Plan (1.4)

Enables you to identify and share a vision for your museum and the steps towards achieving it with your workforce and community

What does it mean? • Know your resources and context• Analyse risks• Consult and share• Set smart objectives• Allocate resources• Evaluate

Organisational health

Secure tenure of premises (1.5)

Enables long term planning of building maintenance and facilities development

Tip Make sure agreements cover everywhere collections are held: store and display areas, on and off site

Organisational health

Induction for the governing body and the workforce (1.7.3)

Enables them to contribute actively and effectively to the museum’s operation quickly.

What does it mean?• Set up appropriate programmes• Produce individual handbooks with copies of relevant policies and plans and links to further information

Organisational health

An effective emergency plan (1.9)

Safeguards the collections, buildings, workforce, reputation and business and makes sure you can get back up and running as soon as possible.

Tip• Liaise with emergency services• Brief whole workforce• Team up with neighbouring museums• Have a dry run• Keep it up to date

Organisational health

A whole museum approach to environmental sustainability (1.10)

Secures more efficient use of resources, encourages partnerships, raises profile in community

Tip • Carry out a SWOT analysis• Small steps are better than none• Check out what the LA is doing• Consider ‘green’ public programmes

Collections care

Policies, procedures and plans for:

• Collections development

• Collections information

• Collections care and conservation

TipConsider bringing them all together in a Collections Management Framework

Collections care

Collections development (2.2)

• Ensures the museum’s acquisition criteria are closely aligned to its statement of purpose and its ability to care for the collections

• Sets out the criteria and methodology for rationalisation of the collections

• Ensures your collections are more manageable and you are not wasting resources looking after items of no relevance

What does it mean?A reworking and extension of your Acquisitions and Disposal policy

Collections care

Collections information (2.3, 2.5, 2.7)

• Ensures the museum can account for its collections

• Can retrieve them and the information about them

• Can use this information to manage them and use them cost effectively and to the benefit of users

TipFormerly known as documentation, this includes your procedural manual and your backlog plan

Collections care

Collections care and conservation (2.4, 2.6)

• Ensure the condition of the collections is closely monitored to avoid costly damage

• Ensure the environment is monitored and regulated

• Deal with problems effectively before they escalate

• Establish the mechanism for procuring professional advice

TipConsider bringing them all together in a Collections Management Framework

Users and their experiences

Consultation with users and non-users (3.1 & 1.4.4)

Gathers information, ensures you’re on the right track and monitors performance

Tip

• Use newsletters, social media, notice boards and staff meetings to communicate

• Consult the workforce, the public and your visitors regularly

Users and their experiences

Evaluation, analysis and implementation (3.1.2)

Ensures you learn from experience and apply what you’ve learnt to improve services.

Tip

• Needn’t mean a full scale visitor survey – there are simple ways to capture visitor feedback

• Use the data gathered – don’t just file it away

Users and their experiences

Broaden audiences, build partnerships (3.1.3 & 3.1.6)

Increases your market and builds capacity and creativity to enable you to do more with less.

Tip

Do not try and be everything to everyone, all the time

• Develop a strategy and stick to it

Users and their experiences

What does it mean?A warm, knowledgeable welcome, informative signage, clean toilets, quality café, interesting shop, clear layout

User focused experiences and customer care (3.1.4 & 3.2)

Builds loyalty and profile as a destination of choice

Users and their experiences

Creative programming, interpretation and learning experiences (3.3)

Raises profile and reputation, increases the number of new and return visits

Tip• Exhibitions need not cost the earth• Simple, manual interactives give plenty of pleasure• What’s new?