Rooted in Community: The Civic Museum Ecosystem

Thank you for joining us for today’s webinar with Rachael Cristine Woody. My name is Bradley, and I will be your moderator for this webinar titled Rooted in Community, the Civic Museum Ecosystem.

Before we start, I would like to provide some information about our company and introduce today’s presenter. Lucidea is a software developing company specialized in museum and archival collections management solutions as well as knowledge management and library automation systems. Our brands include ArchivEra, Argus, Presto, and SydneyDigital.

Now I would like to take a moment to introduce today’s presenter, Rachael Christine Woody. Rachael is the owner of Relicura and provides services to museums, libraries, and archives. She specializes in museum collections management systems, digitization technology, digital project management, and digital usership. During the course of her career, she has successfully launched multiple digital projects that include advanced digitization technology, collaborative portals, and the migration of collection information into collections management systems. She is also a popular guest author for Lucidea’s Think Clearly blog and has provided us with many great webinars that are listed on our website. So please feel free to check those out after today’s session. Take it away, Rachael.

Speaker 2 [Rachael]

Great. Thank you so much, Bradley, and thank you to Lucidea for hosting us today. And, of course, thank you for joining.

We’re gonna get into partnership models today all with a civic lens and really building on the concept of what a supportive community ecosystem can look like for museums.

So we’ll go through, the different partnership models. The four big ones for today is government partnerships, so, very local municipality, city county type partnerships, local businesses, thinking, usually more small regional local businesses versus some of the corporate partnership potentials we’ve covered in previous webinars.

And the, affinity groups. So in this case, groups that are either formal or informal but have an entity and community that exists outside of the museum separately, but is often… Has a lot of overlap in shared mission and goals with the museum.

And then local supporters. So these are individuals typically that otherwise would not necessarily gather to form a particular community or group and yet can serve as great advocates and supporters of the museum and, with the museum, form some very nice collaborative partnerships. So we’ll go through some examples for each of these. We’ll talk about the benefits that all groups can gain from these types of partnerships. So museum, whoever the entity type is, and the community. And we’ll also make sure that we cover, like, things to look out for or challenges to be aware of in these partnerships because, of course, the moment we partner with any sort of outside person or organization, there are logistics, regulations, other things to be aware of as we form these partnerships so that everybody can navigate through them successfully and have good feeling partnerships in the end.

First step, the government partnership model. There are a few different models in this particular, area of partnership. First one is public asset repurposing. So this most often looks like areas that are, owned by the city, for example, different plazas or, even streets owned and maintained by the city that are then, granted permission to the museum or local artists to, provide murals, paint the sidewalks, and the different street areas, and essentially designate a dual purpose for those particular buildings or public works owned by a city or county. And basically made beautiful in most cases, with museum artworks or, artistry. Next one is regulatory and zoning flex or flexibility and this one is most often seen and executed with the city loosening up or giving special permission to the museum and the spaces around it to encourage greater, access and, participation in the museum and its activities.

So this can look like, for parking along the street. Perhaps it’s suspended paid parking for parking spots that are in and around near the museum. Perhaps it is, flexibility in zoning, so there can be food carts designated near the museum spaces to help encourage that foot traffic and staying within the the little museum sphere. So having the city loosen and support things that can help draw people to the museum and make it easier for them to attend.

The next one is shared infrastructure and administrative services.

This one looks like the museum exists as its own entity and it has its own staff, but there may be departments or areas for the museum where that staff is shared with the city. So for example, IT infrastructure and staff support is often a very common area that usually is housed within the city, but is then also linked to supporting the IT needs of the museum.

There can be other, departments and aspects that lend themselves to supporting the museum, like marketing, and perhaps even office administration. So nonspecialized staff roles but are, roles that exist most commonly and are already staffed, within a city or county, near the museum. So this can be very beneficial, especially as they help to release the pressure on financial requirements and that need for staffing to support the day to day museum operations.

Next partnership model, the civic service integration. So the city or county or even at at state level, if there are, initiatives or mandates, like, wanting to invest in overall public wellness is a common one. Having the museum connect with those missions or mandates and developing programming or spaces to help support, very directly whatever that, initiative is. So offering the museum as a space, sometimes even museum as programming to support the Civic Service, components of that city, county, or state.

Next partnership model, co managed public private partnerships. This is a similar study museum partnership where they are two different entities, but perhaps, most commonly, the city or county, for example, owns the collection, but they contract out with a local nonprofit that is the one actually tasked with and paid to steward that collection. So managing it, producing exhibitions from it. So, very much where nonprofit, develops its own funding for that, but is also financially supported by the city to do things with the city or county collection.

And then the last one, workforce and economic incubators. These have come about in popularity, especially over the last couple of years. And this is where museum space or even staff and programming are used to help support the local workforce or even the local economy and innovation and hosting things like those incubators, hosting spaces, hosting lectures, using, again, museum space and staff to help support the the civic mindedness and overall improvement and increase of economics in their own locality.

An example for this particular type of, government partnership, the revitalized Potter Potter County initiative is a initiative currently going. They released it, I think it was last year when they launched, And this is a countywide initiative that has made a point to partner with dozens of local businesses, local heritage organizations, and really building with those partners to achieve some pretty specific goals. So, with this initiative, they’ve created a countywide master plan where they hope it… They hope to strengthen the community and the economy. So specifically with community, they’re noticing, the population is decreasing. More people are moving out, especially younger demographics, which for a smaller town or city, is not the direction you wanna go for a healthy and thriving, environment and neighborhood.

So they want to strengthen that community aspect, sort of shore up their population. And, of course, with that, there needs to be a healthy economy. In order for people to stay and be, gainfully employed and have a thriving community, there needs to also be a healthy economy.

With that, they are leaning into regional identity and storytelling, and this is where the partnership and incorporation of local heritage organizations is really critical. So one of the main partners in this particular collaboration is the Pennsylvania Lumber Museum and using the lumber museum and, of course, that lumber industry and that history of the region to help share that heritage identity and help the county communicate those sorts of stories, which all leads to and supports what is essentially a destination tourism initiative. As part of strengthening their community and their local economy, Tourism, they have realized, is one of the main drivers that can help support them, especially economically.

And having that, heritage that they can pull from, having those stories to help communicate who they are, what their values are, what cool things people can check out when they are visiting. All of that is reliant on these heritage organizations. So it’s a very, interesting and, I think, very forward thinking plan for a county that is thinking about both its community and economy and really leveraging its partnerships to help increase that draw and increase that overall community health.

So for the benefits, we’ve got a table for each of these examples. Left hand column is how the museum benefits. Middle column is how in this case the county, the civic partner benefits.

And the right hand column is how the community benefits because, of course, when we partner, the overall goal is usually always to be in support of our community, both for whether, in this case, the municipality or the museum, the number one mission is usually always the people.

So for the museum, our benefits are that the, Pennsylvania Lumber Museum gets to benefit from co marketing. So as the county has created this, tourism initiative and has created marketing In relation to that, the museum is included in that marketing.

It helps to increase attendance and sales, of course, to the museum because it’s being used as part of the draw for this destination tourism, which, of course, and hopefully then fulfills those people going and attending the museum. It helps with development grants. So as the county is doing this initiative and helping to make its local community more healthier, there are grants that are available to municipalities to do this type of work, and the museum can help partner and get access to that type of funding.

And it then… In this partnership, it recognizes them as a cultural asset, which may not have direct dollars assigned to it, but it is a very important awareness and recognition on, in this case, the county’s part of just how important and critical the heritage organizations are, and in this case, the Pennsylvania Lumber Museum.

For the county, they get access to all of this great heritage and storytelling to help with that tourism draw, which is the one of the core initiatives and goals for their healthier community. It helps give them a clear sense of heritage and identity to work with. So who are we as a community? What has our history been? Where are we going from here?

And then with the draw of additional people in the healthier economy, the increase in tax revenue is the the next step to that. Right? So helping shore up that economy piece that helps to keep the community where it is and at… In a healthy, population.

And then, of course, for the community, it helps to improve the economic conditions of where they live and work, which is very important to help people be able to stay in the homes that they wanna stay in. It helps to revitalize the downtown scene, especially if tourism is coming in, local shops and restaurants are seeing increase in patronage, then a more thriving downtown scene is going to develop, which will again be of benefit to the community and also draw for folks to stay there, which is the next point. Any sort of improvements both in quality of life as well as economic conditions helps to improve resident retention. And in this case for Potter County, helping to retain those younger demographics, which are critical for, any sort of city or municipality to continue their population in a steady, non declining way.

Alright. One thing to keep in mind for government partnerships, there are some challenges and hurdles that could come up pretty commonly in these, and they are things to account for.

First step, political lifespans and leadership turnover. This is something that will naturally happen. We need to be aware that the entities that we form partnerships with, we will be forming partnerships with other humans on the other side. They will not always be there. Additionally, any sort of leaders or decision makers, initiatives that may be very important to them currently may not survive or be as important with whomever the next leader or decision maker is. So having partnerships formalized in things like, memorandums of understanding, MOUs, can help, make the partnership survivable regardless of who is, your representative or who is in that leadership position, and making sure that we are providing programs and services and in partnership in a way that makes sense and sort of transcends any one person or any one, any political, leadership initiative, making sure that what we are providing is… Survives the transitions of that.

Another way to help with that is alignment with direct civic mandates. So mandates that tend to span, five to ten years, if we think of tapping into, like, strategic plans, if your city or county has developed those, Those tend to survive regardless of who is in leadership position or who’s in staff positions. So if the museum is aligning itself and providing services or partnership support in those ways, that is a more sustainable route to go than perhaps more, quote, unquote, pet project type things.

A third challenge to be aware of is the red tape and differing operational speeds. Red tape, of course, it’s a municipality. There’s going to be, rules and regulations that govern how and when they do things, who makes decisions, how those things get communicated, what the process is, and, of course, that can slow things down. So if you’re a museum that can move more nimbly, which is usually the case when we are, smaller or more local type museums, it can sometimes be frustrating when things move seemingly very slowly. So for whatever partnership or initiative you are hoping to work with the municipality on, just keep in mind that the timeline can span perhaps multiple years, not multiple months.

And then finally, centering the community. So, again, the reason why we do what we do as a mission and similarly for the city, county, or state you may be partnering with, it’s the people in the community that is the main priority here. So centering our partnership and whatever programming that may result on benefiting the community as a primary focus is always going to make… Be of benefit to everyone and help to ensure the success and long term longevity of that program partnership.

Alright. Next one up is the business partnership models. And, again, we’re thinking, more smaller local businesses versus, like, large corporate structures.

So the models for this particular one is cross promotional hospitality packs. So hospitality, we’re thinking hotels, restaurants.

The wine and food scenes are usually the most popular, but it could also be, like, event spaces or entertainment venues.

Next partnership model, commercial storefront takeovers. This one’s a little less common, but museums using artifacts or duplicates or props or reproductions of things in their collection or things, that may have been on exhibit, having those take place in the storefronts as well and combined with the retail merchandise.

Again, this one you… Is not as common because you want to make sure you’re not using, primary irreplaceable artifacts in this case, both for security and preservation reasons, but can help be another sort of marketing tool to help draw folks to the museum.

Merchandise… Or excuse me. Merchant association event anchors. So thinking about local town events. For example, one of my favorite ones is a local, food and wine walk in our local downtown city.

And the local museum serves as the starting point where people go into the lobby of the museum to receive their little food and wine map. And, in this case, there are two, city and museum branded wine glasses that you get to then go into your food and wine walk. So a great potential there in terms of getting folks into the museum, and also aware of the museum and incorporating it as part of the community.

And then the last one, cobranded heritage merchandising.

Some of my favorite examples for this one is, museums working with, like, local tea or coffee vendors, which in the Pacific Northwest, we have… Benefit from having quite a few of those locally And having, a partnership where the local museum will help create or curate essentially, a local branded coffee or tea blend that has the museum, present on the label and having that partnership branded and demonstrated on that label is pretty fun.

Local example here. So, again, keeping it for me in the Pacific Northwest, we have a local chain, the McMinnemans chain, and it’s a series of, at this point, hotels, brew pubs, restaurants, of course, and entertainment venues. Like, they they pretty much do the whole gamut of the hospitality spectrum.

And they’re based specifically just in Oregon and Washington, at least currently, but they are a brand and company that is very much tapped into the local identity and heritage of the area. So any sort of building they take over is usually a very, historical and nature building. They prioritize the preservation of that, actual structure as well as the stories behind it and have that become part of their identity as a company. So, they are already demonstrative of their proving a priority of that heritage, identity, and that has led to some really nice partnerships with local historical societies both in Oregon and Washington.

And they have created a local series where you, attend at one of the variety of locations. There is a a lecture that you receive, and that lecture is very local history based. So it can be any number of person, place, or event in the area, and you can order food, beverages, any sort of, hospitality things that you would like as you enjoy this lecture series. The local historical societies usually get to say who they are and what they do and invite people to come and visit. So it’s a very wonderful event where you can demonstrate the value of, in this case, both McMinnamons as well as the historical society organization that they’ve partnered with, and it becomes a great community event as well. So really does a great job centering the community and the benefits for all three.

So for an outline of those, looking at museum benefits first in this sort of partnership, it demonstrates value to the community of the museum or historical society. So front and center, it is, making sure that we are focused on the local heritage as provided by the museum. It benefits from comarketing. So as the lecture series is promoted both at the museum, but also within the McMinnemans in the local area, they get to benefit from the comarketing of that.

If there are, admission, ticket sales, for example, event proceeds or usually at least a percentage of it typically makes its way to the museum as a benefit of providing the programming.

It can help with new audience exposures. So folks that may attend a fun lecture series at a restaurant, gets exposed to the newness of the museum to them so the museum gains a new audience that they may not have otherwise encountered.

And in this case and for this partnership, there’s zero overhead for the event space. So part of what the, restaurant or McMinnamons in this case donates is the use of their event and entertainment spaces.

For the business, there’s also a good amount of benefits as well. It’s a really nice balanced partnership in that way. It helps to increase foot traffic, especially since these lecture events tend to happen on, a Wednesday evening, for example. It’s not necessarily gonna be, like, gangbusters on the weekend for the the restaurant, typically. So it helps to bring in foot traffic that may not have otherwise come into the restaurant that night. It helps to validate the business identity and especially in this case with McMinneman’s being founded on and that prioritizes heritage and that that local history as part of their brand, it helps just validate, that sort of representation of who they are.

It helps to increase for them their revenue. So for their business, they… The food and, beverage sales that they receive in addition to any door sales, helps to benefit them on an otherwise perhaps slow night.

It helps generate community trust and loyalties. So the community benefits and enjoys the lecture series. They see McMinneman’s partnership in this case with the local historical society. It all helps to generate goodwill on the public’s behalf.

And then, access to local scholar networks. So, McMinnemans may not have, as many, scholars or researchers or historians on their Rolodex, but the local historical societies and museums certainly do. So having that partnership and then access to that broader scholar network to help with that entertainment piece for the lecture series is, of course, a benefit for the business.

And then looking at community, they get affordable infotainment. So for the lecture series specifically, they’re getting information, but it is also entertainment, especially when it is in that food and beverage atmosphere.

They get the local history preserved and shared. So every effort, made and especially in this lecture series, preserving and sharing that story is the core component. So the community and their, own shared history in this local area is being preserved for them and also shared and enjoyed by them.

And it becomes a vital community space. So these lecture series as they go on, which I think is roughly monthly across several locations, the community has essentially a third space they can go to where they know that they can meet, new folks of their community, where they can enjoy learning about their local area, and, of course, enjoying the local food and beverages.

So thinking about business partnership preparation, a couple of things to be aware of, prioritizing immediate reciprocity over charity, especially in this case since we are partnering with a local business that’s usually on the smaller side. They need to make a profit in order to stay in business. And so keeping that in mind and balancing that partnership, we are… Where we are not asking too much of a sacrifice financially from our, business partner in this case is important to keep in mind.

Two, minimizing the business’s operational friction. So as we partner, making sure there’s not too much onus or we’re not asking too much of the business that would impact their own operations. Anytime the partnership starts to get a little too much or too burden on that side of the business means you might risk losing that partnership, which ultimately is not what we want.

Three, thinking about protecting intellectual property and revenue splits, making sure that is decided ahead of time. Intellectual property in this case probably won’t come up too too much unless you’re thinking of doing those collaborations with, like, the coffee tea example. But more often, the revenue splits for any sort of partnership you’re doing with the business, this will always come up, and make sure you decide that ahead of time.

And then just be respectful of small business, seasonality, especially for a lot of local businesses you will partner with. There’s going to be a a busier season and a quieter season. And partnerships in the quieter season or a quieter day of the week in the McMinnamons case is the best way to go to help make sure that that partnership is mutually beneficial and, again, not too burdensome.

Alright. Next step, the affinity group partnership models. So, again, affinity group and how that’s different from supporters that we’ll get to in a moment. This group exists whether formally or informally outside of the museum and regardless of the museum.

And so these groups tend to offer, great community partnerships. And so we see that in a few different ways. Community co led curation is a big one, especially in these last few years.

Working with community groups, especially if they are represented and have artifacts in our collection, having them, co-create with us and, in this case, co-curate exhibitions, is becoming a more, common and popular model.

There are specialized guild and trade demonstrations. This particular partnership model has been as old as museums, I feel like, especially in the last few decades, having, things like, people who share sheep as a demonstration next to a local mill that’s now a local heritage site, helping with trade demonstrations with specific tools from perhaps the nineteenth or twentieth centuries.

Having those be a part of the museum experience or part of museum events is a very common partnership model.

Therapeutic and sensory space integration. This one is on the newer side, and these look like museums partnering with affinity groups to help provide programming or even spaces that can help particular communities feel more at home or feel like they have the the space and the atmosphere for them to be successful in navigating the museum.

The next one, citizen science and environmental stewardship. These are more common for the science and industry type museums, and partnering with local affinity groups that may have, conservation missions. For example, If you’re a museum where that collection and research makes sense, those can be some pretty fun, especially programmatic partnerships.

Community advisory and governments compacts. This is taking our community partnerships to sort of a new level, and this can be especially important if our collections are… Have a good chunk or majority of artifacts that belong to a thriving community today. So making sure that we are making governments, partnerships with them where there’s perhaps more authority and decision making with the museum jointly can be a partnership model that is pursued. And then finally, the affinity venue and platform sharing, this is where the museum can offer its space or resources or expertise help support whatever the affinity group’s mission or programming is.

So an example for us to look at is a pretty unique one, and this one is also local to me here in Portland, Oregon.

It’s the King School Museum of Contemporary Art, and they have partnered with art collectives.

One thing to know about the museum, it’s housed in a pre k through eighth grade school here in Portland.

It has its own footprint, so it’s very much its sort of own museum. It just happens to also be inside the school. And then it additionally then partners with these, art collectives and affinity groups, one of which, is Elbow Room.

It’s a nonprofit that helps provide support and programming to neurodivergent adults and those that have, diagnosed intellectual disabilities. That particular nonprofit works with the art muse… Or, yes, the art museum in this case to start, creating art. They work with the museum staff to do like co curation, putting on their own shows, and so really doing, in this case, like an embedded residency model where these adults are creating art. They’re working with museum staff to put together the exhibitions of their art and any sort of programming or marketing that might go with it. So they really get to experience the whole, apparatus of a show as well as has access to and work with museum staff.

In addition to, individual art and shows, they also have put together workshops and co creation of other programs. So they have really sort of expanded, in a few different ways of what that partnership can look like.

The benefits here for the museum, first, it creates engaging programming, helps bring in other individuals and inspiration to give some diversity to that programming for the museum. It helps to expand their audience reach, of course, being connected to the different nonprofits and, of course, the folks in the community of the individuals in those nonprofits helps to broaden that reach. And then it helps to make them also a leader in inclusive art. So as they broaden and diversify their art collection and programming, working with these affinity groups can help ensure that they’re on the right track in this case for for broadening and creating that more inclusive art collection.

For the affinity group in this case, it helps provide professional space and visibility for the individuals that they’re supporting. It helps with direct interaction with the museum team. They have access to the the professionals as well as the resources, and it helps to also facilitate meaningful mentorship for, in this case, for these individual adults with the museum professionals.

And then for the community, it helps to create that inviting third space, so to speak. It’s nurturing a neighborhood hub, of course, with these, shows that go on for the the nonprofits and the individuals that put on their art shows and, of course, cultivates and contributes to the art lover community that is there. So some great, community cultivation and support, especially in appreciation of the arts.

Challenges to be aware of for this particular partnership, and, of course, we always, with community groups we work with, being aware of tokenism and transactional outreach. That is definitely something to be sensitive to and, something the museum, industry as a whole has made improvements on, and we still strive to do so.

Second, balancing the power dynamics and editorial control, especially as we work with these affinity groups who may have their own authority in this area, especially if it’s artwork they’ve created or it’s artifacts representative of their communities.

As we do this partnership together, we need to be really thoughtful about, where authority lies and when it makes sense to be equal authority or not.

We also want to recognize and compensate invisible labor, and this is something for museums to be cautious of, especially when partnering with nonprofits. There may be, individuals within that community or within that nonprofit that are volunteering. They’re not being compensated as part of their work. And so we need to be aware of that as museum staff who do get compensated typically for showing up and doing this work and finding ways to be able to help compensate them whether from museum budget, whether from going, for collaborative grants together, but doing it in a way where we can help, provide the the financial means for these individuals to contribute and doing our best to make sure that there is no barriers to their contribution.

We then want to make sure that we keep clear and flexible relationships, especially with groups that naturally will change over time. Similar with municipalities, there will be leadership changeover. There will be volunteer changeover. And so making sure that we’re flexible and meeting the needs of those changeovers whilst maintaining consistent and clear, understanding of responsibilities and the, regular shape of the partnership.

And then we need to, plan for volunteer burnout, leadership succession, which it kinda touched on in that flexible relationship piece, having some plans ahead of time for when those successions need to happen, making sure we’re being very thoughtful about the volunteers who do contribute into the programming, making sure we’re not overusing them, making sure that they are appreciated, that kind of thing. So, overall, making sure that the partnership is healthy on both sides.

Alright. For this last one, supporter partnership model, there are a few different methods this can look like. And, again, just to differentiate, the affinity group, that we just covered is a group that would exist regardless of the museum.

This supporter partnership model, these supporters exist and may even be a group, but they exist specifically because of the museum and in partnership with the museum.

So for us, that can look like educator co-development boards. So individual teachers, for example, that the museum works with and collects together into a consultative group, for example.

There’s crowdsourced member science and research networks. So, crowdsourcing, especially in the research area, has gotten pretty big, for museums and archives over the last ten to twenty years. So using that sort of partnership model is is quite popular.

We have targeted donor giving circles.

So again, this is the museum sort of creating its own, little affinity group, but specifically for its own supporters that may have a uniting interest in its collection.

There’s youth and teen advisory councils. So similar education ones, these are individuals that the museum has gathered to serve as a council in this case and sort of formalize to help provide advisory services. And then finally, collector in residence partnerships where, which is a little less common, but I love to see where collectors may have their own unique collections, working with the museum to help showcase things that may not be in the museum collection, but also help to showcase what the collector may have in their own collection.

So some, gap filling and cross promotion for both.

So an example for this one, and this is a very common, example across The United States and Canada, the Robertson Museum and Teacher Advisory Board.

In this case, this particular program has 30 plus teachers or education administrators. Typically, these are teachers that are, go through the process of being elected and application to the board. Typically, they help advise and co develop curriculum with the museum, and that has a lot of benefits to it. It helps to make sure that the materials and curriculum the museum is helping to create is in alignment with state requirements, which, of course, for the states varies across our states, and helps to ensure that, content is of interest, content is appropriate, especially for the different age groups and topics that the teachers will be covering.

It also means that in this partnership, the museums will typically have access to larger educational grants that would otherwise on their own, but not have access to. So it can lead to some really great collaborative grant partnerships and, in general, helps to increase advocacy and awareness because as the teachers and administrators work with the museum, the more aware they are, the the even bigger advocates they become of the museum, its curriculum, and its resources.

So some great benefits for the museum, they get real world insight from professionals who are living and breathing, teaching every day.

They make sure that whatever they’re creating, their programming, the exhibitions they put on, that it is all aligned with the curriculum of the community they’re supporting, which helps to ensure its use and its, applicability.

We get access to grant funding sometimes, especially that broader educational funding for programming and development, and it increases that awareness and advocacy for the museum and its programming.

For the supporters in this case, they get to add to their professional, resume. They get their own experience with helping to work, in this case, partner with the museum and do co creation of curriculum.

They get regular access to materials that they may otherwise have to make individual appointment for and seek out. They get, more general knowledge and sometimes some deep dives into different collection areas as a part of this partnership.

Some museums are really great about offering a free membership or discounts or both for these teachers as to help compensate and show appreciation and gratitude for their contribution.

And sometimes there’s even a museum grant or district support to help. For example, if these, meetings or curriculum development is happening during the school day, making sure the teachers have access to funds and support from their district to get substitute teachers in while they’d make these contributions, for the museum partnership.

And for the community, they get lesson enrichment. So the children that receive this type of curriculum, their lessons are made all the more richer for the local heritage and history that is being brought in.

They get to participate in programs in the museum, more frequently and more easily, and it helps to improve their appreciation for that local history and heritage.

So to be aware and sort of prepare for any sort of challenges or hurdles for this particular partnership, to finding boundaries and preventing scope creep, especially for individuals, we wanna make sure we’re not asking too much of them and that we’re staying on task, so to speak. This is also helpful to protect museum staff time where educators may feel really enthusiastic and passionate about doing something, but it may be scope creep for, museum workers who also have, of course, other things that they need to do for their daily job.

Making sure that we move beyond the financial asymmetry. So, again, keeping in mind that these individuals aren’t necessarily being compensated, at least not by the museum, for their participation in this endeavour and making sure that the museum is doing everything it can to make sure they do get compensation, they do get district support to the best extent possible as part of reciprocity for that partnership.

We want to account for lifestyle schedules and capacity, especially for teachers. If we’re asking them to attend meetings and such during the day, that’s gonna impact their work. Similarly, if we ask them to attend and do stuff in the evenings and weekends, that impacts their family and private life. So we really need to make sure that we are being smart and thoughtful about when we ask the folks to do stuff.

Providing tangible proof of impact. So regardless of of who your partner or supporter may be, if they are contributing to a program or event or exhibit, you name it, at a museum, making sure that we are naming them, recognizing them in ways that are appropriate and as frequently as possible, I recommend to show our appreciation, but to also show proof of impact of that partnership.

And then finally, plan onboarding systems for high annual turnover, especially as these are individuals. They will come and go as they need to. There’s not a larger organization that’s formalized that we can connect with that sustains its own transition. We need to manage this transition since it is individuals. So just being aware of that and planning for it.

Alright. So we covered quite a bit. We covered the four different partnership models and the variety of ways those partnership models can be, demonstrated and enacted.

We went through an example for each of these partnership models and then covered the benefits for the museum, for the partner whom… Whether it’s government, business, group, or supporter, and then, of course, the community, which is the number one reason why we do much of what we do. So, with that, we cover government, businesses, affinity groups, and supporters, and all the ways that we can creatively partner with them in a way that is mutually beneficial.

Before I let you go, we have weaving a digital narrative. This is the most recent book that I’ve partnered with Lucidea on, and LucideaPress is offering a free courtesy e copy of the book. So if you’re interested in online storytelling with your collections, this is definitely the book for you.

And with that, I’ll turn it over to you, Bradley.
Speaker 1 [Bradley]

Thank you, Rachael, for the wonderful presentation. And to our audience, if you’d like to learn more about our museum collections management system called Argus, please feel free to visit our website or reach out to us at sales@lucidea.com, and we’d be happy to have a chat with you.

If you have any more questions on any of our software or our company, our contact details are listed on the screen, and please stay tuned for more webinars and content related to this series.

On behalf of the Lucidea team, I thank you all for attending today, and until next time. Thank you.