Paul, you make a number of excellent points in your November 13 and 30 blog posts. I want to address the statement in your November 30 post, "In my view, setting & promoting standards that are undifferentiated according to size of staff & extent of other available resources for "all" magnitudes of institutions is ostrich-like 'head in the sand' behaviour."
When AASLH set out to create the StEPs program in 2005 (with grant funding from IMLS) we were tasked with creating a standards program for small- to mid-sized museums, historical societies, historic sites, etc. Volunteers from across the country and from organization of all sizes went to work on several project committees.
Very soon it became clear to us that a plan to create standards for small organizations – or as some people called it – "accreditation lite" was the wrong path. How could we rewrite what I believe is the most important of all collections care and management standards: "The institution legally, ethically, and effectively manages, documents, cares for, and uses the collections"? Should we have removed the obligation about legally and ethically caring for collections? Should we have allowed small organizations to only partially meet those obligations? Neither option was possible. It was then that we realized a different set of standards for small organizations was not the answer. So we set out, instead, to hammer out a program that offered small organizations an incremental path to addressing standards instead of the "all or nothing" accreditation approach.
We created Basic, Good, and Better performance indicators that guide small organizations through the StEPs program (StEPs uses the same national standards as AAM). We created a program that recognizes and celebrates small organizations' efforts to meet standards beginning at the Basic level. We created a program that allows small organizations as much time as they need, for a one-time affordable participation fee of $175, to work on meeting standards. We made the program as flexible as we could to accommodate the challenges small organizations face.
Because our field really didn't discuss standards until about ten years ago (until then they were known as "characteristics of an accreditable museum"), there are still misconceptions about what is and what is not a standard. I've had people tell me "It's impossible for my museum to meet the standard about term limits for boards of directors." In fact, there is no standard that requires term limits; and there are no performance indicators in the StEPs workbook that even recommend that. I've had people tell me their site cannot meet temperature and relative humidity standards. In fact, there isn't a standard that stipulates temperature and humidity levels.
I believe using standards to guide an organization's work and planning is helpful even for the smallest of small museums. Over and over, I'm told by organizations using StEPs that their board of directors has a much better understanding of how a museum should operate. That's a step in the right direction for an organization of any size!
I've talked with museum staff who are over the moon that their institution now has a strategic plan that is based on something other than a few board members' wants and whims or a plan that is copied from another museum. I recall hearing from a board member whose all-volunteer very small historical society doubled its membership in one year because of renewed enthusiasm in the community as the society blossomed as a member of the StEPs-CT group. I loved hearing from the historical society with one part-time staff member that, "We have a much better understanding of the structure and procedures necessary to run a historical society in today's world and we have, or know where to find, the tools to achieve that success." Feedback like that tells me small museums can use national museum standards as a structure for achieving wonderful things.
Cherie Cook
Sr. Program Manager
AASLH
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Cherie Cook
Senior Program Manager
American Association for State and Local History
Jefferson City MO
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Original Message:
Sent: 12-05-2019 10:09 AM
From: Daniel Bartlett
Subject: Inflated Expectations for Small Museums?
**clapping**
BTW, has the connection between accreditation and increased funding ever been firmly established? Especially for small museums of, say, 0-5 staff? (and Paul's right, if you have 15 staff people you're not a small museum...)
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Daniel Bartlett
Curator of Exhibits
Elmhurst History Museum
Elmhurst IL
Original Message:
Sent: 12-04-2019 10:43 AM
From: Paul Thistle
Subject: Inflated Expectations for Small Museums?
Dear Colleagues: [indulgence coveted for cross-posting]
Late last year, did anyone else think that the content of the American Alliance of Museums' yellow balloon special issue of Museum perhaps expected too much from small museums? Introducing the issue(s), President & CEO Laura Lott stated, "Small museums have to do everything that large museums do" [emphasis added].
For some critical analysis of the ideas associated with professional museum standards & the encouragement for small museums to pursue AAM accreditation, see the most recent 30 November post on the Solving Task Saturation for Museum Workers blog titled 'Ballooning Expectations: The Human Costs of Aspirations for Small Museum "Soaring"' at https://solvetasksaturation.wordpress.com/2019/11/30/ballooning-expectations-the-human-costs-of-aspirations-for-small-museum-soaring/ .
The previous blog post on 13 November 2019 provides an overview of the early 1980s through 2006 background of the related issues for small museums. Unrealistic expectations, therefore, are not a new problem for small museums.
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Some of the sections in this in-depth piece are:
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- Recent Acknowledgement of Overload, Stress, & Burnout in Museum Work
- Soaring Expectations for Small Museums
- Symbolic Hazards of Aspirations for Small Museums "Soaring"
- Museum Yellow Balloon Accreditation Articles Analysis:
- Resources to Run Small Museums
- Human Costs of Accreditation Standards Preparations
- Human Costs of Standards in Operation
- AAM~ Accreditation Standards Redux
- Standards Dilemma Solutions Summary
To sum up these 2 blog posts in one sentence, Make sure that the protection of your human resources (from task saturation, stress, & burnout) is a top priority following the AAM Code of Ethics (2000: 1; cf. International Council of Museums 2017: 6).
Thanks for thinking about this.
Respectfully yours
Paul C. Thistle