 Hello, everyone. I want to welcome you all and thank you for joining us today. This is Tiffany Amig from the CAP program and I'm happy to be joined by Connie Boettner today and she's here to present Implementing your CAP recommendations how museums for America can help We're going to get started in just a moment But I wanted to just familiarize you with the the webinar format I noticed that many of you have found the chat box over to the left Feel free throughout the webinar to continue to introduce yourselves and as additional Participants join us. You'll see them introducing themselves there But also if you have questions along the way We expect Connie to just go through her presentation and then take time for questions and answers at the end but if you have questions along the way feel free to pose them in that chat box and We'll go through them at the end of the webinar So you don't have to wait to the end to ask a question You'll also see down at the bottom of your screen some web links for those of you who haven't used the Adobe Connects webinar system before in order to visit those web links. You can highlight a A Title just by clicking on it and then you'll click the browse to button that appears at the bottom of the box and that'll open a new window in your browser so Those all pertain to Different items that Connie will be referring to throughout her presentation So we'll get to that eventually, but I wanted to let you know how to use them because it's a little bit tricky So without further ado, I want to introduce Connie and thank her so much for joining us today We're really excited to hear about the Museums for America program and learn in particular how To bridge a cap assessment with a Museums for America grant proposal All right, well, thank you Tiffany and I want to add my thanks to Tiffany's for your joining us today, and I also want to congratulate you on completing your cap work or being very close to it Also to thank Tiffany and Liz Kurt for shepherding through this first cohort of the new cap Here at IMLS we respect the tremendous amount of effort that goes into administering and participating in this program And our sincerest hope is that you found it worthwhile as an important foundation for building capacity and collections care At your institution. I'm a former capper myself, and it was one of the most rewarding experiences that I ever engaged in What we want to do today is encourage you to think about IMLS's Museums for America grant program as a resource for Implementing your cap recommendations We want to take some of the mystery out of the application in the review process and share some really tremendous stories of institutions that have successfully done this As Tiffany said we'll have plenty of time for your questions And we hope that by the end of this you're inspired to start drafting in an application to MFA This is a general plan. We'll look at museums for America or MFA for short and how it's different from cap We'll look at what makes a successful MFA project the eligibility criteria We'll touch on funding levels and what you can and can't Include in your project cost then we'll look at about very briefly at about a half dozen examples of Organizations that have completed cap and then applied successfully to MFA in order to carry out those recommendations We'll follow that with a few tips to keep in mind and a list of contacts and resources that we hope you'll find helpful And then we'll open it up to questions and and I'll do my best to answer them and Promising of course to get back to you after the presentation on anything that that we need to research So the formal description of MFA is that it is a competitive peer-reviewed grant program designed to support projects that strengthen the ability of an individual museum to serve its public and I think that it is worth unpacking that a bit by looking at these individual words and concepts Competitive means that your application has to be better than just most others Okay, and as a indicator of that these are the results of the 2017 grant cycle And in the first column are the numbers of applications that we received in each project category with a total at the bottom In the second are numbers of awards that we made in each category The third list the total funds requested by all the applications and in the final column are the dollars that we awarded So the one you want to pay attention to is collection stewardship because that's the category that you would most likely apply through and as you can see we were able to fund about 24% of the applications that we received by numbers and About 18% of the request by dollar amount and we did a little better than that That that overall average in collection stewardship with 28% funded by number and 23% dollar amount We would dearly love to be able to fund every request that we receive But the funding is limited and it runs out before the requests do now should this scare you absolutely not It's only met as a heads up that it's a more rigorous process and that you'll be competing for these dollars along with a lot of other organizations So how do we decide which applications get funded and which ones don't well key is the fact that MFA is peer reviewed museum professionals with deep experience in collections care and conservation will read and score your application and they'll compare it against the Criteria that we at IMLS have identified and to which you'll be preparing your application We think this is the best way to make sure that your application is evaluated by those most knowledgeable about current trends and best practices in collections care and MFA is a grant program Technically cap is not very appropriately cap has provided technical assistance and advice through the assessors that visited your institution and That is different in the federal world from a grant program in a grant program You request funding to support a project that you design and defend within the parameters of the notice of funding Opportunity or the guidelines if you're funded then you're expected to carry out that project and all the while of course following federal rules and Regulations as you do it, but without further input from the agency that funds you So that in a nutshell is the difference between a technical assistance program and a grant MFA supports projects and that might sound Incredibly obvious, but there's of course a backstory to that too you can think of a project as a set of related Activities that you put together to achieve one or more particular outcomes or goals and taken together This set of activities has a beginning and a middle and an end There are certain people who will carry out these activities and they'll use very specific techniques and equipment and supplies and other resources to do it and these activities will be accomplished for a certain amount of money which relates to your grant and Some of that might come from IMLS only or it might come partly from IMLS and partly from you Project support is very different from operating support, which is money that's provided to offset the expenses of your normal business And that's an important distinction So what makes a successful MFA project and this is content that we extracted from our notice of funding opportunity But we think it's important when we look at which projects have been really successful in achieving their goals We were able to identify for Characteristics and as you think about how to structure your project you you might want to keep these characteristics in mind First institutional impact Your project will address a key goal identified in in your institution strategic plan Helping you live into your strategic plan is a central element of the museums for America grant program at IMLS It's the only one that has that as a central element, but but it's important Second here is in-depth knowledge The project design in a good project in this regard reflects a very thorough understanding of current practice and knowledge about the subject matter and It whether that is in collections management or conservation or storage or any other aspect of collections work This is where your CAP report will come in useful You've got excellent information about current practice and subject matter knowledge at your fingertips in that document And so this is a great a great resource as you parlay that into funding from us third project-based designed and we've already talked about the fact that a Work plan and should consist of a set of logical interrelated activities that are tied Directly to addressing the key need or challenge that you've identified for your project Every element of your work plan should be within the box That you've designed to attack the problem that you want to solve and nothing should be out there on the outside Fourth demonstrable results the project generates measurable results that tie directly to the need or the challenge that it was designed to address So in short you should be able to measure your success in solving your problem in MFA is distinguished from other IMLS funding programs by its focus on an individual museum and By extension that museum's particular community or public and that museum's collection What you ask us to support might be exactly the same as what a museum across town or in a neighboring state asked for and that is Totally, okay with us You might collaborate with another museum if that makes sense for your project, but you're not required to do it in this program and If we fund the same kind of project in 15 different locations in a grant cycle, we're happy with that It's all about local impact and last but not least MFA like all IMLS grant programs focuses on service to the public and As a recent cap participant, this is likely to be by improving one or more aspects of preserving and caring for the collections That you hold in trust for your public You're already aware that your tax exempt status is tied to public service And this is just further confirmation that the privilege of using taxpayer dollars should be tied to improving something on behalf of the people that you serve So who is eligible to apply for an MFA grant? Well in large part the eligibility criteria to apply for MFA funding is the same as it was for CAP You need to be a unit of state or local government or a private nonprofit organization with tax exempt status You have to be located in one of the 50 states or one of the territories and you must qualify either as a museum or As a nonprofit agency responsible for the operation of a museum So what types of institutions are included in the in our definition of museum? Well to answer that we provide this list This is from the legislation that allows us access to Public money and gives us the the authority to distribute it, but it's not exhaustive So even if your organization's name does not include the word museum You might still be eligible as one if you meet the requirements that are set out in in our notice of funding opportunity I want to make sure you see here that museums in this definition might be standalone Independent organizations or they might be located within another one like a college or a university or an Indian tribe and that is all okay, too Some of these other requirements in addition to these governance and geographic requirements to qualify as a museum You must also use a professional staff of at least one staff member or FTE full-time equivalent That person can be paid or unpaid If you're using a combination of people they can also be in a combination of paid or unpaid, but that Single person or the FTE has to be primarily engaged in the acquisition care or exhibition of collections to the public You need to be organized on a permanent basis for essentially educational or aesthetic purposes You need to own or use Equally good tangible objects either animate or inanimate which is why we can fund zoos and aquaria and Botanical gardens and Arboretta You have to care for those objects and you have to exhibit the objects to the general public on a regular basis through Facilities that you own or operate for at least 120 days a year and there's the difference from cap. I believe the cap limit is 90 days But to qualify for this funding you have to be open 120 days We don't define what a day is We just say that you have to be open for 120 of them and the implication there is lots of museums are open on Sunday Afternoons, but not Sunday mornings. That's okay. That still counts as a day We mentioned that you could also qualify as if you're a nonprofit agency responsible for the operation of a museum For more on that I urge you to consult the MFA notice of funding opportunity and then to call us with any questions that you might have about your particular Situation that can get complex, but it is Resolvable, so let's talk offline about that So how much can you request and how many applications are you allowed to submit within a single grant cycle? These are very important questions. It turns out that you've got two options in terms of how much money you can request option one five to twenty five thousand dollars with no cost share permitted and That's important to notice It's it's different from saying that no cost share is required in our in this program at this funding level You may not provide a cost share and if you do we won't be able to review your proposal And the reason for that is that we're looking for projects that can be completed for between five and twenty five thousand So this is not twenty five thousand dollars of federal investment for a project that cost a lot more and we hope that this favors Or levels the playing field a little bit anyway for the small and medium-sized Organizations or perhaps somebody that hasn't had deep experience in federal Grant management Option two is you can apply for some amount between twenty five thousand and one in the maximum of 250,000 which is a new maximum this year in that case a one-to-one cost share is required and That can be in the form of cash. It can be staff or volunteer time and that's important to keep in mind Or a third-party contributions. The only thing it can't be is funds from another federal source The second question how many applications can you file if you choose option one and request between five and twenty five thousand with no Cost share then you are limited to one MFA application in this grant cycle if you choose option two and ask for between twenty five thousand and one and 250,000 with a one-to-one cost share then there's no limit on the number of applications your museum can submit this round to MFA and If you are have questions about that, maybe we can address them in the in the Q&A. There's a strategy there But for now, we'll leave it at this option one Only one application. That's all you can apply for option two. You can put in as many applications as you wish And now let's turn to what kinds of cost you can include in your project This is a partial list of the most common examples of allowable costs that we see in MFA projects And as you can see here, it's everything from personnel salaries and wages and benefits travel expenses materials supplies Software and equipment that's directly related to what you're going to do Equipment to improve collection storage and exhibit environments third-party costs that would be Consultants and in some cases sub-awardees Publication design and printing staff and volunteer training internships fellowships and indirect or overhead costs in terms of unallowable costs These are a few and what's important to internalize here is that in these kinds of Unallowable costs can't appear anywhere in your project. It's not the kind of thing where it's okay If as long as you're not asking I am a less to support it, but quite differently. This can't appear anywhere So and I think one of the ones that's likely to be of interest to you all is the construction or renovation of facilities You can't have a project that involves construction and just Not ask us to support that it it can't appear as part of the project We will point you to additional resources that will help you determine what's allowable and what isn't in the MFA guidelines But as I'll say many times over if you have questions about this when you're preparing an application Please call or email us and we'll be happy to discuss the finer points of this with you Okay, this is the really fun part We are thrilled of course to see cap participants be successful in implementing their recommendations of their assessments But it's exceptionally nice to see instances in which MFA gets to be a part of that So I've selected six examples here to share with you and as a group they show I think a really remarkable range of institution type and size as well as diversity in project activities The first two here were part of the 2012 cap cohort, which probably means they actually did their caps a year later And in each case they applied for and received MFA funding in the 2016 Applic grant competition. Sorry the Seminole tribe of Florida put in high density movable shelving in their museum's main building vault and By doing this they were able to improve and expand capacity for their museum quality storage The Roosevelt wildlife collections, which are at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse Got a grant to assess the condition of 4,000 At-risk bird and bat specimens which they had identified as part of their cap work and then they database them they Implemented an integrated pest management system designed Especially for them and they re-housed them to improve collections management and care The Hanford Mills Museum in East Meredith, New York participated in cap in 2014 and has since received two MFA awards in 2015 they got funding to organize their storage areas To conduct the first-ever full collections inventory To verify and document key data and to implement routine housing housekeeping activities all very common cap recommendations and in that project they identified 9,000 found in collections objects and they've just this last month received another MFA grant to process and reconcile those 9,000 objects so they're they're building a very very nice track record there And going at it in a processional way to improve their collections care Santa Fe Botanical Garden in New Mexico Use their MFA grant to purchase and implement a comprehensive database and software system and by doing that They're improving the management care and the accessibility of their botanical collections The Celia Thaxter Museum in Vaughan Cottage in Portsmouth, New Hampshire Applied and applied for and received one of the five to twenty five thousand dollar grants That did not allow a match and they're improving the basic environment of their collections by and they're also conducting a full inventory upgrading their storage methods and Recording their new storage locations all in the name of improving both collections management and care Verdi Valley Archeology Center has also gotten to MFA grants since they finished their cap of 2014 This in the first year they prepared themselves to improve collection storage environment and care by purchasing sets of conservation supplies and tools that were recommended by their cap assessor and Then this year they received another five to twenty five thousand dollar grant but this time it's in the learning experiences category and This project focuses on updating their exhibition on the Yavapaya patchy nation in collaboration with the nation's cultural directors And I just want to draw your attention to this because it's not unusual for organizations that are successful in managing Collection stewardship grants because of their cap participation to move on to another category and be successful yet again All right now we're going to move to some very brief tips These are gleaned from our collective experience and working with Applications of all kinds submitted to MFA in there, but they're really crucial and important For anybody undertaking this first on the list is to be please be aware that you have to be registered in three places in order to apply for an IMLS grant and this is pretty true for All federal grants these days you have to have a Duns number You have to have an active Sam gov registration and you have to be Registered with grants gov and if you're just starting out, it's important to know that you have to do these things in this order Get the Duns number first or at a minimum find out where it is you probably already have one Because you'll need that to apply for Sam and then you'll need your approved and activated Sam registration to apply for grants gov Important to remember that your Sam registration expires every year and that you have to renew it You can check your status at any time by going to the website www.sam.gov And see how you are so maybe you weren't the person who registered last year But you've got that responsibility this year. That's that's how you get to the important information and in addition your grants gov password expires every 60 days and If an account is left inactive for a year or more They they have the right and do remove all account roles and that can take a long time to detangle So make sure you know who your grants gov Authorized organizational representative is and be sure that you know the username and the password and that those those are in place Both of those websites by the way have very robust help features and FAQs And if you call grants gov, there's an actual human being that answers the phone and helps you out so Good for them Very helpful resources Okay tip number two mark your calendar MFA applications are due by 11 59 p.m. Eastern time on December 1 this year We are not allowed to take any applications that are filed after that So so be good to yourself and keep that in mind and try really hard not to push it to 11 59 Some other important dates awards will be announced in September of 2018 we we are usually allowed to do that by the middle of September and this will be for projects that start on October 1 November 1 or December 1 of 2018 and start date is your choice Oftentimes people will say they need a little breathing space between the date they find out They get the funding from us, which is mid September And so they might opt for a November 1 or a December 1 start date But there are other folks who are very confident that they can gear up in a few days And so then they choose an October 1 start date okay, and third tip is check out our website and Sooner rather than later is probably a good idea there, too But here you'll be able to explore eligibility criteria that we've that we've touched on today But you'll be able to do that in greater depth. You can download sample applications You can access the museums of for America notice of funding opportunities, which provides all the instructions for preparing an application You will be able to access all the required application forms and you can search a database of previously awarded grants Which is sometimes very helpful to see how other folks have put their projects together It might give you some good ideas about about how you might approach yours and I promise some resources and here they are and as I understand it the these links are inherent in the web links at the Bottom of the screen here But we decided to put two batches of content into pre-recorded webinars this year Which you can access at your leisure and you can access them in one or two ways You can either click on a link and listen to it and watch Slides in the same format that we're doing today or you can download a PDF which has a script of What we said along with the the PowerPoint slides So the first one is choosing a funding opportunity and I just recommend that everybody check that out It covers some of the things that we did today, but it gives you good hints and suggestions for Applying for an IMLS grant no matter which program you choose and then we created a new this year webinar on Just the forms with detailed tips on completing the forms that are required for all our grant programs and then We'll be doing a webinar for museums for America applicants tomorrow at 1 p.m And if you are want to check that out, we've got a link there to the instructions And the links to the actual webinar. You don't need to register in advance You just log in and you need a telephone if your if your computer doesn't have Audio capability But you might want to check out the system in advance I didn't know my own computer always asked for a Java update whenever I do this So yours might as well and it would save you some time But we hope you can join us for that if you're interested We'll also record that and have the transcript posted on our website as well All right in terms of contacts Mark Fidel and I serve as the points of contact for the collection stewardship category of museums for America And this is our direct information So please know that we'll be very happy to hear from you if you'd like to call us with questions about anything You've heard today or questions that you encounter as you're putting together an application Or if you just want to float some ideas for a project by us, we'd welcome the contact Right. I'm happy to hear questions All right. Thank you so much Connie. This has been a wonderful overview And we do have one question that came up while you were talking and that's from Alex Barker and he asks When you say that we can't include construction and renovation in the project Can we list the cap recommendations that in a later stage of the larger project construction renovation is needed? But it's not part of the current request Sure, you can you can mention that I would just say do it in a way that doesn't confuse reviewers Who might wonder if we're if you're asking for support for that, but no, I think that's a fine thing It's always good to for us to be able for us and reviewers to be able to understand how this particular effort Rolls into an organization's long-term collections care plan Just make it really clear what you're asking us to support and what Somebody else will have the privilege to support. That's a great question Okay, and then There's another question from Melissa asking if the grant can cover the conservation of collections or key pieces of collections Absolutely it can And in fact force of some of you all might remember the conservation project support grant program that IMLS used to have In that program we covered Surveys general surveys item by item surveys environmental surveys treatment and environmental improvements all of those functions have been rolled into museums for America and Actually, it's a good thing. You've got access to a bigger pool of money this way, but yes, we We are happy to help out with conservation of single objects or or larger collections Great, that's let's see. I'm waiting in case it looks like there may be a couple of other folks who are typing right now So I'm gonna go ahead and take a minute to see if additional questions roll in Good. I'd love to know if folks on the line have applied for MFA before I don't know if we can ask that question or if people just want to respond but We've you know I am a lot or IMLS has been involved with CAP for a long long time And we've always tried to figure out how we could capture How folks address the next stage of it, you know, who comes to us who might apply to NEH Who is able to take their CAP report and turn it into a request or a support for a request from a local foundation? So anybody wants to to share stories ah James Leining says not yet Yeah, but soon I hope yes Okay a question from Mary Beth Applegate in Connecticut. She asks Since you don't cover rehab of the museum building and this was well over half of their CAP recommendations can Can you point in the direction of grants for? building renovation I Would love to talk with you about the nature of the CAP recommendations because the rehab in the federal sense means sort of like Really large-scale building like new roofs new walls new foundations new Interior plumbing work the reason we can't support that kind of work is that our budget is just too small, but often times CAP recommendations will say you've got to do something about your HVAC or you've got to do something about Window coverings because there's too much light coming in Those are the kinds of things that actually we can help with and those are usually classified not as rehab But as environmental improvements So I hope that doesn't sound like Like smoke and mirrors, but I would say Connect up with us to talk about the specific recommendations and then we could help you either Connect into museums for America or take a look at some of the NEH programs, but don't be scared off by that Thank you, and and I'm gonna just reinforce that because I know you know we hear from folks that are hesitant to call us because they think that we're too busy or That we don't want to hear from individual museums And I would just encourage you all if you have questions about that It's so much better to have initial conversations with Connie or with Mark before you go through that whole effort Make sure you're you're doing it correctly. I'm sure that she's happy to To have those conversations with any of you, right? Absolutely Let's see one more clarification from Corey She asked they're looking to take an old storage space or a closet That's in in Disrepair and turn it into a storage facility for their fine art collection. Okay She's saying she she doesn't feel that the grant would cover repairs to the room, but would it cover storage equipment? Absolutely, we get lots and lots of requests every year for storage museum quality storage furniture Which can be a real substantial cost and we can certainly Help with that oftentimes what people will do in trying to Repair an old space as they look for other labor to do to do the things we can't pay for the the you know the the wallboard and the electrical work and Replacing windows or whatever else or closing in windows that kind of thing It works out very nicely to do that separately in a part never mention it in your Application to us other than as context if you feel that's important and then ask us to help you buy the furniture to put in it and if there needs to be some sort of climate control or data loggers or Other specialized equipment all of that we can help with That's great. It's great to hear specific examples like that Okay, I don't see additional questions rolling in I am going to assume that that's because everyone is jumping over to the Museums for America website and Researching and thinking about formulating Grant requests, but I want to take a minute to just say thank you Connie for being with us It's so helpful. I think this is just such an obvious progression for cap participants to apply for museums for America And I'm hopeful that This was very helpful to a lot of you who are participating today And that if you have additional questions, you will contact Connie Well Tiffany, I appreciate the invitation. You know, this is truly the first time we've ever done this and I'll be my fingers are crossed that that it is helpful to folks and And that they do give us calls and we will look for really fabulous applications coming in At least a day or two before December 1 Thank you all