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Are you the one and only staff member?

  • 1.  Are you the one and only staff member?

    Posted 10-08-2014 06:32 PM
    Hi there, I am looking for other colleagues who are the only (paid) museum staff member at their institution so that we can commiserate together. Are you out there? Erin ------------------------------------------- Erin Quinn Valcho Museum Curator Lacey Museum Lacey WA -------------------------------------------


  • 2.  RE: Are you the one and only staff member?

    Posted 10-09-2014 10:19 AM
    Doing the job that five formerly held at this museum (director, interpreter, outreach, volunteer coordinator, curator). I feel your pain.

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    Pacifico Perea
    Museum Director
    Wild Turkey Center Museum - National Wild Turkey Federation
    Edgefield SC
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE:Are you the one and only staff member?

    Posted 10-10-2014 09:46 AM
    Not the only one but there are just 2 of us. It is definitely a challenge since I handle all education programming, school visits, outreaches, and public tours, and I manage all the volunteers, but I love the autonomy. I love having the chance to try new things and see how they go... and I love the diversity of what I do. Every day is a different day :-)

    But it can be stressful, especially when you know certain things need to get done and you only have 2 hands and so many hours in a day.....

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    Rachel Barnes
    Education and Volunteer Coordinator
    William S. Hart Ranch & Museum
    Newhall CA
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  • 4.  RE: Are you the one and only staff member?

    Posted 10-10-2014 05:41 PM
    There are lots of us working in small museums and doing multiple jobs -- actually we estimate more than 75% of the 30,000 or so museums in the US fall into this category. You can find more of your colleagues in AAM's Small Museum Professional Network and the American Association for State and Local History Small Museums Community. We share a listserv (Small Museums Network) that you can join at https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/SmallMuseums/info <https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/SmallMuseums/info> We prefer not to commiserate -- although it is sometimes necessary -- but rather celebrate our creativity and nimbleness :-) ------------------------------------------- Janice Klein Executive Director Museum Association of Arizona Tempe AZ -------------------------------------------
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  • 5.  RE: Are you the one and only staff member?

    Posted 10-09-2014 12:40 PM
    I'm not the one and only but I am one of two!  It's tough having such a small staff for sure!  But it does give us great justification for collaborating with other institutions on programs and projects!

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    Ray Smith PhD
    Corita Art Center
    Los Angeles CA
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  • 6.  RE: Are you the one and only staff member?

    Posted 10-10-2014 07:30 AM
    Dear Rachel, We are a small university art gallery and have always been a staff of two. I run the gallery, teach 2 classes a semester, and when I have grants such as the Pew grants that funded the first Yvonne Rainer retrospective with her choreography and films and Seductive Subversion: Women and Pop Art 1958 - 1968 (which probably should have included Corita Kent) it becomes a third job and it almost kills me. I totally understand more than you know. Best, Sid Sachs Director of Exhibitions The University of the Arts 320 South Broad Street Philadelphia, PA 19102
    Original Message


  • 7.  RE: Are you the one and only staff member?

    Posted 10-10-2014 09:22 AM
    Let me expand this question a bit, if I may.

    If you were given the go-ahead to hire another staffer tomorrow, what position would you advertise and fill? It seems like in every small institution I've worked with, either as a volunteer or in my previous incarnation as a contract registrar, there's one section of operations that takes a disproportionate amount of time and attention or is generally a huge time suck, and I'm curious to see what those of you who are knee deep in it would see as the biggest lifeline? 

    Cheers,
    Tracey 

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    Tracey Berg-Fulton
    Collections Database Associate
    Carnegie Museum of Art
    Pittsburgh PA
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  • 8.  RE: Are you the one and only staff member?

    Posted 10-10-2014 10:03 AM
    I was actually just hired as the second staff person at a small museum in WV. My title ("Program Assistant") is very vague, but what I've been doing mostly is an inventory of the collection (which probably hasn't been done in at least a decade).

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    Eliza Newland
    Program Assistant
    The Royce J and Caroline B. Watts Museum
    Morgantown WV
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    Original Message


  • 9.  RE: Are you the one and only staff member?

    Posted 10-13-2014 01:20 PM
    Hi Erin- We are out here and Janice Klein made some great recommendations on how to connect in - assuming you can find the time! I think you can ask any questions here, we are tuning in. And small museum folks know that our problems are just as big as the other guys and sometimes bigger! Little farther down on the discussion someone asked which staff you might hire if you could - that is a tough one. I think the answer is different depending on your collection and personal skill set. For instance, my background is in collections management so it would make most sense to give up the curatorial and exhibit duties to someone with more skills in those areas. However, I also run an archive and that is such a headache...Or perhaps a website person, don't get me started on the joys of being the web master (bleh). -Jenny Sole employee, 38,000 objects, including artifacts, library and archive (oy vey) ------------------------------------------- Jenny Benjamin Director Museum of Vision San Francisco CA -------------------------------------------
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  • 10.  RE: Are you the one and only staff member?

    Posted 10-27-2014 05:20 PM
    Erin,
    I am not the only paid staff person, but I am the only one that works full-time, I have an assistant director/archivist that works 21 hours per week and a program coordinator (education) that works 10 hours per week. So feel free to question, commiserate, celebrate, what ever you need, we are all in this together!

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    Christine Cross
    Executive Director
    New London Public Museum
    New London WI
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