Small Museum Pro! is a professional certification program for workers in community museums. This program is a partnership between Museum Development Asspciates and Eastern New Mexico University: http://www.enmu.edu/academics/distance-ed/non-credit/certificate.shtml. Museum Administration: Running and Managing a Small Museum (October 13 – December 10, 2010) This course will cover a broad spectrum of topics related to museum administration or those things that need to happen in a museum in order for the collections to be cared for, tracked, exhibited and interpreted. Topics include the governance structure, the board’s roles & responsibilities, the relationship between the board and the staff, and legal and ethical guidelines and constraints. As part of the Small Museum Pro! Certification Program this course is geared toward fairly small museums and their staff, staff members who may or may not be paid or who in fact may be on the board and also serve as curator. However, even if you are in a paid position that gets to work mostly with the collections, you will benefit from an understanding of the administrative side of the museum if only to comprehend the actions of the director or the board at bit better. At the end of this course you will: • Understand the governance structure of most nonprofit museums. • Know about the history and unique requirements of the nonprofit sector. • Know how important the mission statement is to everything a museum undertakes • Know the major roles and responsibilities of the board • Have created a Board Member Handbook for board member training at your organization • Know about basic museum accountability, nonprofit corporate law and museum ethics • Know how to assess the board and work toward creating a more effective board through education and evaluation • Know which policies each museum should have in place • Know about museum standards and best practices • Have a handful of tools and samples to use to help your museum reach these standards and best practices Required texts: Thomas Wolf. Managing a Nonprofit Organization in the Twenty-First Century. New York: Fireside, Simon and Schuster Inc., 1999. (Paperback – ISBN-13: 978-0-684-84990-4). Cost about $14.50. Marie C. Malaro. Museum Governance: Mission, Ethics, Policy. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994. (Paperback – ISBN 1-56098-363-9). Cost about $18.00. Julie Baird served as Director of the Farmington Museum for ten years expanding the museum from one 10,000 sq. ft. facility with a staff of three and annual visitation of 14,000 to a museum system consisting of four facilities, totaling over 40,000 sq. ft. and five miles of interpretive trails, with a staff of thirteen, and annual visitation of 45,000. Baird served as Deputy Director of the Georgia Museum of Art for two years coordinating financial information for use by the director, curatorial staff and board members and managing daily operations. She has served on the New Mexico Association of Museums board as secretary and president. Her Master of Arts degree in Museum Studies was awarded by George Washington University. Contact Eastern New Mexico University’s department of Distance Education and Outreach, at 575.562.2165, to register or ask questions regarding Small Museum Pro! You cannot register online, but e-mail your Name, Address, Phone, and E-mail Address to Rebbecca Gossett rebbecca.gossett@enmu.edu, Special Projects Coordinator, Distance Education and Outreach Outreach (575-562-2165) to inform her of your intent to register. ENMU accepts cash, check and credit cards. For more details about registration, see the ENMU Continuing Education website: www.enmu.edu/academics/distance-ed/non-credit/index.shtml. For more on Small Museum Pro! see www.museumdevelopment.org What past students have said about Small Museum Pro! “The resources have been invaluable to my job! Wish I would have had these classes years ago.” “The quality of the references and additional course readings exceeded my expectations. I can definitely say I learned something helpful and new every week.” “This is the first time I have participated in an online class and I found it a very interesting process. I was impressed with how much interaction there was among students as that was something I did not expect to see.” “I’m so grateful to have this online course, trainings are hard to come by and expensive. We could go to a workshop, but you pay for registration, lodging and meals and then, it’s a crapshoot as to what you will actually learn by sitting in a hall all day.” “This seems to be just right for those of us in small museums!”