Last winter I taught skiing at Heavenly Ski Area in Tahoe.   Over and over I thought “museums need to learn they are in the hospitality business, not the education business”.  I think I learned more about museum customer service as a ski instructor than I ever learned as a staff member at a museum. My priorities in order of importance:

1. Safety - Make sure no one gets hurt, and the kids are safely returned to their care giver

2. Fun – That the kids have a good experience and want to come back and ski again

3. Learning – Learn skills related to skiing

You could use the exact same priorities for any museum, Safety, Fun and Learning in that order.  Most museums feel they are in the “education business”, some museums feel they are in the business of protecting the objects of their collection (“everything would be great if it wasn’t for those pesty visitors”).   I believe museums are in the hospitality business.  Visitors first and for most need to have a good time. As an employee of a ski area, it was drilled into me that the customer comes first, we are helping the visitor “have an experience of a life time”.  This is not a typical museum staff attitude, more often staff of museums are focused inwards (thinking about the collection, the museum politics and the visitor last).  It is often lost on museum staff that the visitor, made plans to visit the museum, got dressed for the occasion, drove to the museum, paid admission all before coming through the front door.  Welcome them, thank them, it is the staff’s job to make their day special.

1. The power of the uniform – As a member of the museum staff you are in a privileged position of responsibility, people look up to you and value your opinion .  That is a big responsibility, take it seriously.  If you don’t know the answer to a question, go find out and get back to the visitor.  Museums don’t like paying for uniforms.  Museum staff don’t like wearing uniforms.  You are there as an expert, look the part and be easily identified as an expert.

2. Training – As a first year ski instructor I went through three days of customer service training in a classroom (paid minimum wage), a week of “on the snow” training and a three days of testing.  I was often shadowed by more experienced instructors and given feedback and advice.  If I wanted to advance, there are opportunities for additional training at my own expense but tied to tiers of pay increases.  I received more training as a part time ski instructor than I ever received as a staff member at a museum.

3. Be selective of staff – Heavenly Ski area is one of the best ski areas in the world.  I was lucky to work there and that is the attitude of the management, they only want the very best.  Often the best ski instructors are not great skiers but great teachers.  Only hire the very best.

4. Tiers of certification – From my first day of training I knew how much I would be making (I also knew how much everybody else was making).  If I wanted to make more money, I could gain additional training with pay raises tied to the training (the training is at my own expense).

5. National organizational participation – As a first year instructor I was encouraged to join the national organization and participate at my own expense.   Most museum staff only participate in American Association of Museums if the museum pays.  I find it inexcusable that indivuals can not join the Association of Science Technology Centers.  How do you expect to advance the field if you can’t join the national organization?

6. Standardization and testing - All ski instructors are judged by the same criteria and tested on their abilities to present the information.

7. Value diversity – I taught kids from all over the world.  I needed to meet the kids where they were, some are athletic, some are overweight, some English is not their first language.  As an instructor I needed to lead the group, to help each other and learn from those who are different.

8. Systems, Boots and reservations – Christmas week we taught hundreds of kids a day.  There were well established systems for equipment and reservations.  Most museums are good with school group lunchs and getting kids on and off buses.  Museums are less good at programs and floor staff interaction with visitors.

9. Build on individuality – I often taught shy skiers.  Most first priority would be to learn about them, what are their interets?  Once trust was established, we could start to ski, without trust you can’t teach.

10. Clear expectations – I knew what was expected of me; kids to understand their equipment, be comfortable with their equipment, learn basic skills and practice their skills.  My first day working at a Science Center I was sent out on the exhibit floor with no expectations.  I was there to answer questions.  I was not equipped to answer questions about a “cloud chamber“, but there I was trying to explain a cloud chamber, that is unfair to the vistor.

11. Share the passion – I am passionate about museums and skiing, I enjoy sharing those passions with others.  Only hire staff who are passionate, Art, Science, History, Zoology, find people who are passionate and have them share their passion with the visitor.

12. Full circle - Train, evaluate and feedback.  I knew I was to be given training, would be evaluated on my ability to present the information and would be given feedback.

13. Independent Contractor Attitude - I was encouraged to create my own systems and plans for teaching.  I was given guidelines, but then given the freedom to create my own lesson plans, my own teaching props and my own way of interacting with students.

14. On the hook, invited back? – Keep your staff “on the hook”.  At the end of the season, I am not sure if I will be hired back, next season.  Do the same with your museum staff, you only want staff at their best.  Continue to test them and let them know if they are not performing at their best they will not be brought back.

15. Check your Equipment Daily – As a ski instructor we were required to have annual physicals, annual equipment checks and we were expected to check our own equipment at the start of every day.  Years ago I had a disagreement with an architect of a new museum.  The architect wanted a separate entrance for the museum staff, I wanted the museum staff to walk through the front door every day.  Make sure you can do everything you are asking your staff, some museums require that all staff work on the floor at least once a month, a great idea.  If you are not on the exhibition floor you can’t “check your equipment”.  Get in the habit of picking up trash in the museum.

Posted using ShareThis

By T.J. Greaney
From the Columbia Tribune

Link to Article

“A former executive director of the YouZeum, Gwen Robbins, is suing the interactive science center, claiming breach of contract and defamation. In a petition filed this month in Boone County Circuit Court, Robbins claims the former chairman of the YouZeum board of directors, Glenn McElroy, violated the terms of Robbins’ termination agreement by saying she was forced to step down in October 2008 because of an inability to raise adequate funds.

Part of Robbins’ severance agreement stipulated neither side would make public comments about the termination other than to say Robbins had met with the board of directors and both sides agreed “a change in direction” was needed because of “difficult economic times,” according to the lawsuit.”

In a Nov. 6, 2008, Tribune article, McElroy was quoted as saying the termination stemmed from Robbins’ inability to attract large-money private donors. McElroy repeated the assertion in a radio interview.

Robbins, now doing volunteer work at Children’s House Montessori school, has been unable to find employment since her termination in October 2008. She claims the statements about her success at raising funds for the YouZeum are false, although no specific fundraising figures are listed in her petition.

“It has hurt her reputation as a fundraiser,” said Michael Byrne, attorney for Robbins. “She has been a very successful fundraiser throughout her career, and it is our contention that the statements made have made it more difficult to get a new job.”

The suit also alleges the YouZeum has not compensated Robbins for 173 hours of vacation pay valued at more than $6,000. At the time of her departure, Robbins’ salary was $72,600 a year, including a $10,000 raise she received in July 2007, the lawsuit says.

McElroy did not reply to a phone call yesterday.

The YouZeum opened in May 2008 at 608 Cherry St. after years of false starts and delays. It has endured multiple setbacks during the past year. Dan Fowler, hired in April as director of development to restart the museum’s fundraising effort, stepped down sometime this summer for unknown reasons.

Fowler’s departure came after the resignation in June of Kathryn Ward, assistant executive director, who had run most of the day-to-day operations. At its opening, the YouZeum had five full-time employees; now it has only two and has significantly cut its hours of operation.

The $8.5 million museum is housed in a former federal building, which it occupies at virtually no cost. The YouZeum received $750,000 in federal funding, $250,000 in state tax credits and $350,000 in local public funds.

At its opening, the museum’s projected viability relied heavily on a steady stream of visitors passing through the turnstiles. Leaders projected 60,000 visitors a year would tour the center. But even in the first few months after the ribbon-cutting, the YouZeum was able to attract only 1,500 or so per month.

McElroy and the YouZeum Inc. are listed as defendants in the suit.

Byrne said Robbins, 42, regretted the public nature of the suit but felt she had no other option.

“She hoped that this could have been resolved without the filing of a suit through the YouZeum making an apology and correcting the record in regards to her fundraising, but that has not occurred,” he said. “We felt there was no other option but to file suit.””

1. We will see another significant correction in the American stock market in 2010.  The correction will continue to put financial strain on museums and we will see several large and small museums and science centers close.

2.  The closure and slow down of museums and science centers will cause the closure of several large and small design and fabrication firms, in 2010 and 2011.

3.   The changes will force many museums and science centers to rethink their business model.  With the changes there will be several new models tried, “museum clubs”- where you are a member of a museum club, “museum cells” – where the museum exists without walls, “small satellite museums” where the main museum has closed, but there are several small exhibitions scattered around a community,  “the combination of institutions museum/library, museum/ town hall”, “member only for profit museums”; the market will decide the best mix.  By 2012, many struggling museums will be greatly changed, with smaller staff and dark exhibit galleries.  The institutions that will survive will be those that can be flexible and change quickly.

4. To drive attendance museums and science centers will need to change exhibitions more often, with new exhibits every month.  The blockbuster exhibitions will be dead for all but the largest / richest museums.  Instead museums will need to have several smaller topical exhibitions several times a year.   The typical two year exhibit design and fabrication model will be dead at all but the largest museums.  Institutions will no longer be able to afford the two plus year exhibit development cycle and with it museum design and fabrication firms will become more service oriented.

5. By late 2011, we will see demand from the public for connectivity.  Museums and science centers will need to more closely collaborate with schools and universities to meet educational and science standards.  The public will demand transparency, ” how are these exhibits adhering to the science standards?”.  The public will demand a more easily understood set of educational standards that can be easily applied.  With the increased connectivity we will see a distance education model emerge, where the museum experience will be expended beyond the walls of the museum.

5. By 2012 we will start to see and increase in museum donations.  The surviving museums will be leaner and quick reacting.  The surviving museum design and fabrication firms will also be smaller and more service oriented.  We will see a new for “profit model” that is sustainable along side the non profit model.  The museum market in Asia will be greatly expanded and there will be more collaboration between Asian and American institutions.

If the above comes to pass, I think it will be good news.  I can foresee the museums and science centers of 2012 as more vibrant and visitor-centric.

In 2006, a set of plastinated bodies, designed by plastination inventor Gunther von Hagens, was featured in the James Bond film “Casino Royale”  The plasticized remains of three human beings were posed playing poker, all at the request of the film’s producers. (ABC News)

Island State Becomes First in the Union to Ban Controversial Exhibitions of Real Human Bodies from China

By ANNA SCHECTER, ABC News

July 13, 2009—

Link to story

Hawaii has become the first state to officially ban exhibitions of human bodies for profit, shutting down the popular “BODIES…the Exhibition” show that displays “unclaimed” bodies from China.

Lawmakers in the island state said the possibility of profiting off executed prisoners from China would not be tolerated in a state where many residents come from Asian backgrounds.

Premier Exhibitions, the publicly traded Atlanta-based company that puts on the show, has made millions of dollars from “BODIES” exhibits across the country, in Europe and in Asia.

State Rep. Marcus Oshiro, Chair of the House Committee on Finance, said he introduced his state’s legislation after watching the ABC News 20/20 probe into the origins of the bodies.

The 2008 report uncovered a thriving black market in human bodies in China and a self-admitted dealer in the bodies black market who described “body runs” to a location where bodies, including those of executed prisoners, were sold for $200 to $300.

“I never thought the show would come to Hawaii and when it did I decided Hawaiians would not tolerate the exhibition of these bodies for commercial profit. These people could be executed prisoners,” Oshiro said.

“Hawaii has a large population of people with an Asian background so that hits very close to home,” he added.

The new law also increases the financial penalty for misuse of a dead human body from $1,000 to $5,000.

Oshiro said that Hawaii’s main historical museum does exhibit the sacred bones of native Hawaiians, and there are provisions in the state bill that allow for that exhibition to continue.

Some critics of the bill say that there is no difference between the display of those ancient remains and the plastinated Chinese bodies.

“I visited the exhibit. I learned something,” wrote one blogger under the name “Publius808″ in support of the exhibition in Hawaii. “If the allegations are true that these bodies were used without permission, then that’s terrible. But this law is banal and sophomoric putting personal bias over science and art.”

Where Do the Human Bodies Come From?

Premier denies that any of the bodies on display are from executed prisoners, saying that all of the bodies came from a medical school in Dalian, China, and that their suppliers assured them that no evidence of trauma has been found of any of the bodies put on display.

But school officials told 20/20 it was “not true” that the school provides bodies for display in the U.S. Instead, the report found the bodies were provided by a private company run by a professor from the medical university which initially supplied the bodies but had pulled out because of bad publicity.

In the wake of the 20/20 report, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo launched a probe into the company’s practices. Premier settled with Cuomo’s office in May 2008, and the terms of the settlement required the company to prove that any new bodies on display were from consenting individuals.

Premier was forced to post a sign at its New York exhibit and state clearly on its website that it cannot disprove the allegations that bodies on display come from executed prisoners. The company is also required to refund tickets of customers who would not have seen the show if they had known what was going on behind the scenes. Cuomo also requires that the company be monitored by an independent entity for two years to ensure that the new business practices are enacted.

The company said it “must rely on the affirmations of its Chinese supplier” that the specimens do not come from the remains of executed prisoners.

The company’s CEO Arnie Geller told ABC News 20/20 in February 2008 that he was “appalled” at the allegations that some of the bodies from his Chinese suppliers might be those of executed prisoners. He said his own medical staff had seen no such evidence and that his suppliers have assured him that “these are all legitimate, unclaimed bodies that have gone through Dalian Medical University.”

“If these can actually be attributed to even the people that we’re doing business with, we would have to do something about that immediately,” Geller said.

Lawmakers in Some States Want Answers

Lawmakers in California and Pennsylvania last year introduced bills to require proof that the individuals on display had given their consent, but the governors in those states did not sign them into law. Florida has introduced a bill this year.

Even Congress introduced a bill that could have shut down the show following the 20/20 report. Rep. Todd Akin (R-Missouri) introduced the bill along with 21 co-sponsors to ban Chinese bodies from coming into the U.S., but it was never signed into law.

Brian Wainger, general counsel for Premier, declined to comment on this story.

Heritance Website

From Heritance website:

“Heritance promotes open museum practices that foster diversity and good governance.

Heritance promotes open museum practices through Open Museum (OMo), a free web site and global museum that allows museums to create dynamic exhibits that support (encourage!) visitor co-creation.

Open Museums matter.

Open museums encourage everyone to play an active role in preserving, protecting, and promoting their heritage.

Open museums promote tolerance by embracing the complexity and contradictions inherent in all history and culture.

Open museums encourage good governance by embodying the values of transparence and inclusion.

And finally, open museums are simply more interesting, engaging and rewarding to their visitors when they present a variety of contrasting perspectives and interpretations. Because any story worth telling always has more than one side.”

About Open Museum

WHAT:

Open Museum is a non-commercial exhibit space open to all. Any organization or individual can create dynamic online exhibits; any visitor can contribute content; and everyone can access the global museum. Open Museum is the collaborative project of Heritance and Zirgoflex L3C.

WHO:

Heritance is a cultural and educational nonprofit (501c3) organization whose mission is to promote open museum practices that foster diversity and good governance.

Zirgoflex is a registered Vermont L3C (designated low-profit) social venture specializing in the design, development, and deployment of web-based products supporting public sphere collaborative content production.

The Open Museum Team, Jeff Doyle, Lauri Berkenkamp and Maureen Ward Doyle, are participants in both Heritance and Zirgoflex and bring decades (if not a century!) of technology, communications and education experience to this project.

WHY:

We at Open Museum believe that culture is for everyone, and that museums can create vibrant and thriving real-world communities by making online connections with their visitors.

Museums are important cultural cornerstones: they are public spaces where people can explore the world’s art, culture, and heritage, and immerse themselves in the complex stories of our shared past. But while most museums focus long and hard on presenting information that they hope visitors will internalize and appreciate, very few museums really interact with their visitors, have conversations, or make the one-on-one connections that really create a community.

We created Open Museum because we think it is ideal for preserving and promoting art, culture and history in a way that static web sites don’t and can’t offer. For museums and organizations with no online presence, Open Museum provides a great initial web presence as well as a way to have a virtual catalog of the objects in that museum’s collections. For museums and organizations with existing websites, Open Museum provides a complementary presence that offers features found in the most cutting-edge online museums such as MOMA and Brooklyn Museum.

Open Museum is on the leading edge of rethinking and retooling the way people interact with arts, culture and history, and we believe that it is an opportunity that should be shared by all kinds of organizations, regardless of their finances, location, or technical skills.

We feel that the equation is simple: objects + people = museums. So with Open Museum, we are combining online exhibits of collections with social networking features, to make a website that allows people who like museums, art, and culture, to visit exhibits online and get to know other people who also like and visit museums.

HOW:

Open Museum is a not-for-profit project that is funded by donations from foundations and individuals. To keep it free for everyone, consider making a tax-deductible donation to Open Museum.

Help shape Open Museum by telling us what you think!”