Open Forum

Hi everyone,

The Independent Museum Professionals Network is compiling a document to help museum workers (full/part-time staff) who may not be used to working remotely in preparation for what could happen re: COVID-19.

We're asking for your help with:

• - Advice on working remotely (if you've done it/are currently)
• - Questions you might have about working remotely (that perhaps we can answer)

Thanks -
Claudia
Chair, Independent Museum Professionals Network

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Claudia Ocello
President & CEO
Museum Partners Consulting, LLC
Maplewood NJ
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Hi, Claudia!

Our office is taking the following steps to prepare for any necessary closures/accommodations:

IT Support

• Laptops are being distributed to employees who have not already been issued one for their daily responsibilities. (This may not be a solution feasible permanently or at all for everyone--I know that some of our machines are on loan from the Training & HR department. Orgs without resources to acquire laptops may wish to explore options for remote desktop access.)
• All employees are training on additional software (i.e. VPN/secure login, Zoom videoconferencing)
• An office-wide "remote working test day" has been discussed, but not yet scheduled.

Team Management

• Our managers are developing mini work plans,  similar to the ones they write during our annual review process. They are identifying short-term goals and tasks that can be accomplished out of the office, and procedures for how our client-facing services can be adapted.
  
  • In our case, a lot of these concerns can be managed with videoconferencing software, but there are other teams who will not be able to access portions of the server and instead will be focusing on:
    • Training and tutorials related to specific projects in the queue
    • Research
    • Drafting Materials
• For me, this is a big one, because having a concrete set of things to work on both ensures accountability and reduces anxiety that time out of the office cannot be spent effectively (which may encourage people to report for work when they shouldn't).
  • I also find that developing a work plan in advance with my manager helps "bookmark" where we are on projects right now--by giving me specific tasks to engage with, my thought processes stay organized, the projects remain at top of mind, and I come back ready to hit the ground running when my absence is over.

Thanks for your work on the document! Sounds like a lot of us would benefit from a little peer guidance in these circumstances :)

Joanna

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Joanna Burke
Program Administrator / Facilitator / Insatiable Learner
seeking opportunities in museum education
Raleigh-Durham, NC
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Original Message:
Sent: 03-09-2020 03:04 PM
From: Claudia Ocello
Subject: Questions/Advice about working remotely

Hi everyone,

The Independent Museum Professionals Network is compiling a document to help museum workers (full/part-time staff) who may not be used to working remotely in preparation for what could happen re: COVID-19.

We're asking for your help with:

• - Advice on working remotely (if you've done it/are currently)
• - Questions you might have about working remotely (that perhaps we can answer)

Thanks -
Claudia
Chair, Independent Museum Professionals Network

------------------------------
Claudia Ocello
President & CEO
Museum Partners Consulting, LLC
Maplewood NJ
------------------------------

Has the question of pay equity come up at all in considering this issue of working remotely? For example, some staff may have work that can be conducted remotely, while others cannot. To a certain extent, this issue may be demarcated by full-time vs. part-time status (or sometimes jr. vs. sr. status?) but it is not always so neat. Let's say a full-time visitor-service associate is at home, collecting a paycheck without obvious projects to pursue for days on end, while a curator might be fully occupied with research and planning for an upcoming exhibit. I can easily imagine this controversy arising in various permutations.

Cleveland

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Cleveland Johnson PhD
Executive Director
Morris Museum
Morristown NJ
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 03-09-2020 03:04 PM
From: Claudia Ocello
Subject: Questions/Advice about working remotely

Hi everyone,

The Independent Museum Professionals Network is compiling a document to help museum workers (full/part-time staff) who may not be used to working remotely in preparation for what could happen re: COVID-19.

We're asking for your help with:

• - Advice on working remotely (if you've done it/are currently)
• - Questions you might have about working remotely (that perhaps we can answer)

Thanks -
Claudia
Chair, Independent Museum Professionals Network

------------------------------
Claudia Ocello
President & CEO
Museum Partners Consulting, LLC
Maplewood NJ
------------------------------