Keeping Staff Afloat

By James G. Leventhal

Rosalind Bedell

On Tuesday, I was lucky enough to be invited to be a part of a session entitled Sustainable Work Practices: Keeping the Staff Afloat at #wma09 organized by Rosalind Bedell, Human Resources and Volunteer Director, Nevada Museum of Art and Program Committee Co-chair for WMA, San Diego.

In difficult economic times how do you keep the staff sustained and on board? This session looks at alternative staffing models including part-time work, job sharing, working from home, as well as the problem of burn out. In addition, staff spends time texting, on the internet and cell phones. Should this multitasking be incorporated into the work day? When and how much is acceptable? Are these ways of working models for the future?

I started the session off talking about the new work model — weisure — 24/7, total interconnectedness and the impact of the use of social media as part of a plan for institutional enhancement and the impact of organizational horizontilization.

Increasingly, it’s not clear what constitutes work and what constitutes fun [be it]…in an office or at home or out in the street…all of these worlds that were once very distinct are now blurring together.

- Sociologist Dalton Conley, New York University

In the non-profit sphere we have all been doing the work of three people for a long time, and now with new technology we can do the work of five or more.  But this might not be good.

Regina A. Petty, Esq of Fisher & Phillips

I purposefully made an effort to “fill the room with joy,” to quote one of the other panelists and to help, in that way, to prepare for the presentations to follow by Valerie Nelson, Director, Human Resources, Autry National Center; and Regina A. Petty, Attorney, Fisher & Phillips LLP.

Valerie Nelson talked about how the Autry has navigated these difficult times and Regina Petty spoke about in a focused and detailed manner about the issues every organization is presently dealing with:

• Hiring freeze and pay freeze
• Compensation reductions and furloughs
• Voluntary programs
• Reductions in force

Petty’s presentation was incredibly helpful and really well received.  Her presentation can be viewed on SlideShare here.  She presented daunting facts like, “People furloughed or working part-time rose from 3.7 million in June 2008 to 6.5 million in June 2009.”

Valerie Nelson and Rosalind Bedell during Regina Petty's presentation

Petty also drew particular attention to the legal issues around furloughs, noting that employees are strictly prohibited from performing any work during the furlough period.  This includes checking work-related email and voice mail.  Regarding social networks, and their impact now, Petty cautioned that an employer’s Social Networking Policy:

• Prohibit unlawful harassment/ discrimination
• Prohibit use of Company’s Proprietary, Confidential Information without express authorization
• Confirm no expectation of privacy where Company-provided system or e-mail
• Prohibit use of employee work e-mail address for social networking account

Thanks, Rosalind.  It was a great session.

Were you there?  What was your take-away?  How do we continue that sense of dialogue — finding encouragement and constructive advice during the challenging financial time in the industry, indeed most every industry in the United States?  Share your thoughts, please.

Touring the World, Virtually

View of the Suleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey from the vantage of the minaret, a piece of a spherical panorama. Photo © Gross Brothers Media LLC

As part of TechLab at #wma09, the Gross brothers of Gross Brothers Media presented on their amazing virtual recreations of real-world spaces, places, objects and paintings.

Here’s what they have to say:

We are very excited to be here in San Diego with the Western Museum Association.  For the past few years we have been shifting our focus a bit from historic architecture to museum and gallery spaces.

We are participating in a very exciting project with the Samuel H. Kress Foundation to digitally bring the Kress Collection – about 3000 works distributed among almost 100 museums across the United States – together on the Kress website.  Visitors can view the Collection by repository or artist, and in a dozen museums that hold the largest sets of the Collection, visitors can view high-resolution spherical (360×180) panoramas with “hot-spots” that link to zoomable high-resolution scans of the artwork.  Sculpture is also viewable as “object files” that allow the viewer to rotate the pieces around as if they were on a virtual lazy susan.

One of the most intriguing features of the panoramic presentation is that it preserves the intent and logical sequence of the exhibition, and allows side-by-side comparisons.  The intellectual and aesthetic intent of the curator is preserved, which is especially useful for scholars and students.

Please visit our website for links to some of our latest projects, and feel free to contact us with any questions you may have or if you are interested in creating a virtual museum of your own.  Also, we wanted to thank our colleague Forrest Wittenmeier at Sweet and Baker Insurance Brokers in San Francisco for introducing us to the WMA community.

To view the Gross Brothers walking tour of Al-Haram Al-Sharif click here.  The Gross Brothers also worked on a Best Practices Guide to Digital Panoramic Photography — [pdf] for the Institute of Advanced Technology in the Arts and Humanities (IATH), University of Virginia, Charlottesville Society of Architectural Historians (SAH)

The Gross brothers have served as Co-Directors of the Williams College Virtual Architecture Project since its inception in 2002, under the direction of Professor Eugene J. Johnson, Amos Lawrence Professor of Art. The result of this project is a unique collection of over 1400 high-resolution spherical panoramas that represent many of the greatest monuments of Western and Islamic architecture.

Michael and Barry have been working with digital panoramic photography since the 1990’s. Their photography of art and architecture has been published or displayed at Williams College, Williams College Museum of Art, University of Virginia, University of California, Los Angeles, Saudi Aramco World Magazine, University of South Africa Johannesburg, University of Vienna, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Princeton School of Architecture, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, ARTstor, and others. They have presented their work at Texas A&M University (Fall 2005) and Williams College (Summer 2007).

In 2006, both Michael and Barry were Visiting Fellows at the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities at the University of Virginia under the direction of Professor Bernard Frischer, where they served as project coordinators and editors of the IATH Best Practices Guide to Spherical Panorama Photography – a guide to the creation of photographic virtual reality documentation of World Cultural Heritage Sites, commissioned by ARTstor and the Society of Architectural Historians. Gross Brothers Media LLC was founded by Michael and Barry Gross in July, 2006.

On-line Engagement and Metrics (#WMA09, Monday at 11:00 a.m.)

John Maccabee

One of the first sessions to kick of #WMA09 will be A1 Metrics Of Success: How to Measure & Account for On-line Social Engagement for Museums on Monday morning at eleven o’clock (right after the Keynote by Bob Welch).  The  panel will explore the intersection of sincere, social, on-line engagement and mission-driven value
assessment. The presenters are:

• Stephanie Almeida, Independent Museum Consultant
• Tim Hart, Head of Institutional Research, J. Paul Getty Trust
• John Maccabee, Founder & Principal, City Mystery: A Gaming Company
• Melissa Rosengard, Principal, Vision Dot Org

The conversation will be moderated by James G. Leventhal, Director of Development & Marketing, Judah L. Magnes Museum.

Tim Hart from the Getty will start.  Hart’s presentation will focus on mission-driven metrics.  And his presentation will be followed by John Maccabee.  John will take that concept one step further by presenting on his successful practice of developing Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) for museums.  These games bring together on-line communities and create a whole new level of engagement on the ground.

What are ARGs?

Below is a summary by Georgina Goodlander of the Smithsonian American Art Museum on John’s last project “Ghosts of a Chance:”

"...everybody play the game..."

In the fall of 2008, The Smithsonian American Art Museum  (SAAM) hosted an Alternate Reality Game (ARG) titled “Ghosts of a Chance.” This was the first ARG in the world to be hosted by a museum. The game offered both new and existing museum audiences a novel way of engaging with the collection in its Luce Foundation Center for American Art, a visible storage facility that displays more than 3,300 artworks in floor-to-ceiling glass cases.  ARGs are immersive gaming experiences that “deliberately blur the line between the game and the real world. Players investigate the world of the game using the same tools with which they interact with the real world such as websites, email, telephone conversations and even in-person discussions with actors playing game characters.” [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beast_(game), referenced 15 September 2008]. Ostensibly, “Ghosts of a Chance” (ghostsofachance.com) invited gamers to create objects and mail them to the museum for an ‘exhibition’ curated by two game characters posing as employees. But the ‘game within the game’ was also a challenge to uncover

clues to the narrative that binds those objects, and to investigate the way objects embody histories. The game culminated on October 25 with a series of six scavenger-hunt-like “quests” designed for players of all ages. Over 6,000 players participated online and 244 people came for the onsite event.

At this Monday’s session, John will start to give a peak at his next, multi-institutional venture Pheon.  Pheon.  Pass it on!

Will We Be Going Inworld?

Then after spending time rollicking on the green, playing games and moving in and out of the matrix, we are going to move headlong down the rabbit hole, and explore Second Life with Melissa Rosengard and Stephanie Almeida.

A Wide-View of the Landing Spot Area at the Frank Lloyd Wright Museum in Second Life

Starting from the basics and some intros, together Melissa and Stephanie will showcase just how far along the world of museums and education are in Second Life.  There’s a “museum” in Second Life dedicated to Frank LLoyd Wright, with FLLW sites fully recreated.

And this fall, Linden Lab, the Makers of Second Life and Second Life Work announced the first statewide rollout of a virtual learning environment in the world.  The Transforming Undergraduate Education Program, at the University of Texas System, recently awarded a grant to fund the initiation of a pioneering statewide virtual learning community of students, faculty, researchers and administrators in Second Life, that offers an innovative, low-cost approach to undergraduate instruction. (source: https://blogs.secondlife.com/community/learninginworld/blog/2009/09/15/the-first-statewide-rollout-of-a-virtual-world-learning-environment-the-university-of-texas-system-in-second-life.  To read more click here.)

Crossposting: It’s a Hi an’ a Ho, Green Ranger!

Elizabeth Ellen Merritt has blogged about the ecological cost of conferences at the Center for the Future of Museums blog.  Her latest post on one of the projects that she has inspired at #wma09 San Diego follows, “…speculating that in the future our consciences (not to mention our pocketbooks) will make us think three or four times before winging or wheeling our way across the country or the world for professional development. What are the unique, irreplaceable aspects of face-to-face training that webinars and other virtual training will never replace? When we do choose to travel, how can we reduce the environmental impact, while making the most of the unique benefits of such opportunities?

To explore this theme, Stephanie Almeida, an independent consultant specializing in establishing museums in virtual worlds, is preparing to don the cape and mask of the Green Ranger to attend the Western Museums Association meeting next week in San Diego.

Trailing her bag of recyclables behind her, Stephanie will explore questions such as: what’s the best way to reduce your energy use in a hotel room? How do you hustle a low-impact cup o’ Joe? How do you choose a restaurant that contributes to the “greenness” of your trip?

Elizabeth Ellen Merritt, Director, Center for the Future of Museums

I [Elizabeth Ellen Merritt, Director of the Center for the Future of Museums] will help chronicle the Green Ranger’s adventures—look for updates on this blog and on WestMuse. Join the conversation as we explore the pros/cons, myths and hype surrounding carbon offsets, “locavore” culture and green hotel practices.

If you are coming to the conference, you can join the experiment! Bring a coffee mug to personalize with a “Proud Greenie” sticker, and use it for the duration. (The sticker, and other Green Ranger products, are available at Café Press.) Estimate and share with us your own carbon cost for your trip. Whether or not you are coming, comment on this post for suggestions for Stephanie on what she should track or try—what are your tips for green travel? What do you think is the best use of her time in San Diego?

Originally posted by Center for the Future of Museums at 10:17 AM on Oct 22, 2009

Elida’s Choice: Director’s Favorites pt. I

Elida Zelaya, Executive Director

A recent contact called some of the planners at WMA “the Funky Bunch” LOL.  I love the name, it does fit, BUT we are still professionals designing a professional program for you. When asked what I am most looking forward to offering at this year’s conference in San Diego, I have to say the hands-on Resource Clinics first.

On Tuesday October 27 from 5:45 pm – 7:45 pm, the Resource Clinics offer delegates an opportunity for brainstorming, immersion learning, or direct advice from industry experts in one-on-one, small group, or hands-on formats.

In each of these amazing sessions, not only will you get to work with experts, but also to brainstorm with your peers and to learn form those around you.  It’s these kind of meet-up groups that can really make all the difference at the conference.

• H1 Resource Clinic: Career Planning & Resume Review, Facilitator: Rancy Breece, Transition Consultant, DBM
• H2 Resource Clinic: New Directors, Facilitator: Heather Ferrell,  Executive Director, Salt Lake Art Center
• H3 Resource Clinic: Evaluation, Facilitator: Wendy Meluch, Evaluation Consultant, Visitor Studies Services
• H4 Resource Clinic: Creative Education, Facilitator: Melanie Fales, Executive Director, Boise Art Museum
• H5 Resource Clinic: Grant Writing, Facilitator: Norma Gurba, AV Grantwriting and Consulting

I encourage you to sign up for one or more of these clinics (sign-up sheets will be at the registration desk). Looking forward to sharing a few more highlights as the dates for San Diego near…

Sustain, Sustaining, Sustainable, Sustainability…Sustenance

by Rosalind Bedell, Program Co-Chair
Judging from recent comments it seems that while many of you may love social networking and find it useful (and who am I to disagree – I’m already excited about the eateries in San Diego), that nothing quite replaces the face to face experience of a conference. I’m sure you have taken a glimpse at the preliminary program for the WMA conference in October – see www.westmuse.org/san diego preliminary program.pdf – but I wanted to draw your attention to some aspects of the conference that the program committee hoped would make it a must-attend event.
This year the theme is sustainability, a word that appeared as a noun or adjective no fewer than 34 times in the session proposals the committee reviewed. But this is not just sustainable in terms of being green (although this is covered too) but in all other ways affecting museums in this difficult economic climate: sustaining exhibitions, sustaining programs, sustaining audiences, membership and staff. Benefits from the recession are hard to find but slim pickings and skinny budgets can stretch minds and produce creative ideas that do not surface in more abundant times. Exciting and innovative ideas can be found in sessions, such as the New and Notable session, in the sessions relating to collaboration between museums crossing the boundaries between their specialties or from the grantees of the Innovation Fund. Hear about the opportunities that a major capital campaign may bring or about a regional cooperative response to disasters, or the race in the Gulf to build the biggest and best museum in the world.
The conference planners hope, more than ever, to send you home with practical help and advice so that with reduced staff or hours you can still put solutions into effect: help with foundation funding, with negotiating small grants, with IMLS, with understanding your board, with the basics of evaluation or insurance claims, with your staff’s texting habit, with website creation and online tools, and some tried and true education programs and projects so that you are not reinventing the wheel.
New this year is the TechLab where you can find out how to blog better or FaceBook faster as well the answers to a host of other computer-related questions afflicting those of us who are less tech-savvy. Another new feature is the Resource Clinics, where experts will provide answers to questions on your resume, the challenge of being a new director, evaluation, creative education or grant writing.
Finally of course – where this article began – there is the face to face contact, the networking. Enjoy an affinity lunch with a fellow curator, educator, registrar or director, the free lunch in the exhibit hall on day one or the afternoon in Balboa Park seeing how the museums in this museum-rich city are coping with present stresses and strains.
The Program Committee spent many hours reading the proposals submitted for the conference, and met together for 3 ½ days over two meetings. Proposals were examined, sometimes tweaked and mostly approved for the conference. Ideas flew around the table as this dedicated and enthusiastic group worked to make the conference as accessible and relevant as possible, well aware that it would be difficult for many to attend this year. We hope we can entice you to come and to persuade your director or department head of the value of attending. WMA has always had a reputation for being a good conference. We hope by giving you tools to take back with you to use in lean times and some new ideas based on sustaining our museums and our profession that we can induce you to come. Think of all the hours you spend on the web or on a social network site, take a few of those hours, put them in a block to attend the conference, and meet some of the professionals you most admire for what they are doing and the faces behind the blogs. And come up with as many alternatives as you can for the word sustainable and let us know – on the blog or, better still, at the conference!

New and Notable

by Valerie Huaco

Back in November when the WMA program committee convened in San Diego to review session proposals, we took some time to discuss what ideas had been knocking around in our collective heads. What’s on the tip of our museological tongue, as it were. Many good sessions were born of that conversation, including On Board with Innovation, Weathering the Storm: Foundations Respond to the Financial Crisis, Strategic Plans: Friend or Foe, the Tech Lab, Leave No Child Inside, the Resource Clinics, and the general session on museums in Quatar.

Merritt Price, Design Manager at the J. Paul Getty Museum, brought forward the idea of a “New and Notable” session to capture some of that same energy, live, at the annual meeting.
Merritt’s idea was enthusiastically embraced by the program committee, as we were all searching for ways to take the buzzing human energy we were experiencing and bring it to the meeting.

Intern Lisa Chanoff, who most recently worked with the Contemporary Jewish Museum, has joined us to spread the word and solicit New and Notable submissions. We’ve had a stirring of interest, but there is room for more. I’m including the call for entries below. What’s going on in your microcosm of the museum world? Share!

CALL FOR ENTRIES

Let us know what’s “new and notable” at your institution and we will
present it at a new session at A Rising Tide: Sustainable Practices,
Green & Beyond, the upcoming annual meeting of the Western Museums
Association, October 24-30, 2009, in San Diego.

The New and Notable session will showcase the best of the west’s work
and feature newly built projects that are permanent in scope or programs

and projects that are unique. Projects submitted must have been
completed between September 2007 and September 2009. A What to Watch For

segment will feature up and coming projects scheduled for completion by
September 2010.

To submit an entry for the New and Notable session please send:

* A 75 word description of the project or program including the relevant dates of completion or in the case of a unique program, when it was instituted and what makes it unique. Include something you (or your institution) learned from it, and what you might change next time.
* Up to three 1 MB images
* Project contact person and contact information
* Send the above to wmanewandnotable@gmail.com

Submission deadline: July 31, 2009

We will also be highlighting work in development in a Poster Session in
which presenters can showcase ideas that are in the percolator on 19″ x
24″ posters, and be in attendance to discuss their ideas and solicit
input from the WMA community. The Poster Session is intended to showcase

the work of students and/or staff-led or institutional research
including the results of grant-funded projects and in-house initiatives.

Posters for chosen projects will include up to three images, a 250-word
description, timeline, and contacts.

To submit an entry for the Poster Session please send in:
* A 75 word description of the work in development
* Project contact person and contact information
* Send the above to wmapostersession@gmail.com

Submission deadline: July 31, 2009

For more information go to westmuse.org, call the WMA office, 510-665-0700, or email Lisa Chanoff .