 Good morning or hello everyone. It's not morning for everyone. I want to welcome you and I'm going to go through these quickly. And as Mike said, the recording will be posted probably well certainly within the next 48 hours. I want to remind you that on our community website there are a lot of resources for you that are free. There's the discussion which you need to be registered for but you can ask questions, get answers. You can also check it out the questions and answers without being registered. There are links to more than a thousand curated resources about caring for collections and all the past webinars from connecting to collections and collecting to collections care are available in the archives. And so please make sure you use those resources. We also are on Facebook, we're on Twitter and there is an announcement list which went crazy last August 2nd but it's it's corrected. If you're not on the list which is really just a send out announcements it's not a discussion list. You can go to the website here at the bottom of the page and sign up. Thank you and you can contact me anytime that this is my email address and if you have an emergency I see we have some people in Louisiana we're thinking of you. You can call the 24-hour hotline which used to be called CERT but it's now National Heritage Responders and there's a mobile app for emergency things and I see there's a question the PowerPoint slides will be posted and the handouts with the recording and coming up next week we're doing something different it's lunch with Nima it's going to be at noon Eastern time on the 31st and it's going to be about seasonal closures for museums so tune in for that and if it's too early for you you can always tune in to the recording and then coming up we're going to have a course called management getting a group on collections management. There will be four webinars with it and those will get posted probably in the next few days so you can begin registering but you can either get a credley badge by watching the four webinars contemporaneously as they're being done or you can sign in for one two three and so we hope that you join us for that and now I'm going to send this over to Brent Powell our speaker and here he is. Brent take it away. Okay thank you Susan, Michael. Hello everyone it's quite exciting seeing all your names appear and from where you're from a few of you I actually know and thanks for everybody who's attending so I'll go ahead and get started here and kind of give you a quick review of who I am and what I'm about. My past is I've been in the business ever since I got out of graduate school in 84 and I've been working at several different museums and commercial firms around the country and overseas. I mean I initially got and started with working in a company in Kansas City, Missouri called Smith Cramer Fine Arts Services and we've made traveling exhibitions and turned them all to the country and I was fortunate enough to work at Nelson Ackins Museum in Kansas City over 12 years and that's pretty much where I've learned my basis and my foundations but as I traveled I then went overseas and worked in Australia in a private company and then also at the National Guard of Victoria and I was hired to come back to the U.S. and worked at Asian Museum in San Francisco and since then I've had a couple private jobs being a project matter for relocation to the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington and also currently I'm working at Crozier Fine Arts here in New York as a training advisor so you can read through this list of things that I've done but besides being fortunate enough to move around and having a lot of networking capabilities and such travel overseas I was also very fortunate to get involved with the Museum Association in American Association Museums back in the 90s which became a member and chair of PAK and which is PAKing Art Ham and Creating Information Network which still exists today and is very active and good communicating network group spelling out offering information regarding collection care but so over the years again I've been very fortunate been asked to do conferences and have organized a lot of regional conferences national conferences and such as well as being asked to co-author on some books and most recently the book that I've just put out myself this last year called collection care and illustrated handbook for care and handling of cultural objects which is probably since last November is doing quite well and that thus this part of this is the reason why I'm doing this webinar now but you get the flyer there you'll see the flyer if you're interested it goes into a lot of details it's 400 some pages I was very fortunate my wife was appreciative enough and kind enough to let me have a year off so I could write the book but anyway it's quite interesting and it's a good solid reference book about collection care and the other things I've done is pretty much all been around collection care over the years and working with museums and stuff I've always enjoyed teaching at places where small museums have came to and wanting to know information because it's really interesting to see what people are about what they're like and what their collections are so I'd like to just start this off with this quote that I really love and it goes like this if you want to build a ship don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them task and work but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea now the importance of that is you need to be thinking in the big picture all the time and getting people to getting people involved so I always thought this quote was an excellent quote just about what we are in the museums and the collection care but kind of give a quick overview of what we're about within collection care it's the who we are what and why and what we do and how we do it so management knowledge management knowledge involves the people who are in charge of managing the collection care they need to continue to promote best practices in the profession and of the staff that they hire professional purpose train and develop staff and best practices moving and handling the artwork safely staff with a professional attitude promote the care and understanding of collections so again it's always pushing this idea and there'll be several times I'll repeat things especially about management because I've been a manager over the years I know how important it is to make my staff working together and get them to work together and as a team overall within the different groups in the museum so very important thing but anything I repeat the reason I have it in there more than once or twice or whatever it's because it needs to be worth repeating so anyway I hope I won't bore you with some things but some things just need to be repeated so institution mission and mission so when we're all in the museum's mission is to house and take care of these objects for future generations I mean I've always found out I know a good friend of mine in Chicago and I always spoke about what a great thing we've been able to do in our lifetime is working in the museum and how to promote and care for these objects and give them to the next generation of people and look back and see how people have done it before and hopefully how people will do in the future and that goes into the next subject to the changing industry techniques material equipment training are constantly changing so that's the labor needs within a museum and stuff need to be kept abreast of this so all aboard this is lovely title that Susan put to this webinar which I think is great but it's all about getting everybody aboard and working together so question care staff it's paramount creating an effective efficient and sufficient for successful operation it's a yearly sort of thing with management we have to deal with and it's and it needs to be supported by employee benefits and and budgeted for now a lot of you are sitting there going oh yeah I wish I could say that to my my managers and stuff but it is very important my best staff that I've had over the years have been ones that you know have helped mentor up and they've been very supportive and I've helped come back and budget and support them as well as promote their professional development so you know it's a payback it's a win-win as a manager and it's a win-win as an employee but management needs to be be involved with the benefits outweigh the time expensive potential risk to the collection because if you don't do something the risk to the collection then you're breaking your mission so the benefits of all this of getting organized and such is very important this webinar presents several types of successful training opportunities for both internal offering offerings and external programs so museum sculptures so individual and individual organization is similar to uniqueness and diversity of the collection so each one of you as I read your where you're from and if I've got the name of the museum on there it's some you know I wonder how did you come about and what type of museum is it and what's its unique and diversity situation diversity cannot be compared directly to another organization so in that statement is targeted mainly the fact that all museums are not alike even though we have collections and we all deal with different objects so on and so forth but we have all of our unique situation this even includes the building structure what I termed in my book building envelope is you're dealing with different situations of what that building does you might have dealt with might be dealing with a historic house and such compared to a brand new museum with all the clits and glamour control sort of environment but it's unique to your situation to actual building even in itself so since the collection care is relatively new the development and implementation of training programs is essential so you keep seeing more and more things happen around the world and around especially here in the states with the collection care and it needs to be supported and needs being pushed so training for smaller museums what determines this all size museum this again it can't just be collection I've seen a lot of small museums that had hundreds thousand of objects but they might be samples of uh blood samples or something from a medical museum things they might be insects or something that they've had or coins you know so what determines a small museum is actually I kind of look at the number of collection staff they have or the number of staff they have and what is the collection's focus what is the collection's focus is what are you doing now whatever you have in your collection where do you where are you heading forward into the future and of course where did it evolve from I mean it's always so interesting to see where museums started up from I'm currently working with MC Collin Museum in Sheboygan Wisconsin and to know what their history are in sort of an industrial environment dealing with industrial ceramics and such and then where they've came from so their collection is quite unique and things but every museum has its reasons of why it evolved was the museum's continual mission museum missions sometimes change mainly because of financial support or philanthropy that is comes and goes but it needs to be dealt with and you need to see what its continual mission is and how is this museum supported financially it always comes down to money when we're starting to talk about the who what when where and why of the world we live in and the collection carrier museums it's always interesting to see a lot of it comes back to budget and money but we all have to deal with it no matter what size you just need to be aware of it know how to work with it okay hi Brent this is Mike Morna from learning times I apologize for jumping in here and interrupting we're going to do a quick change to the audio if you could please dial the phone number that I've provided for you we're having issues with your microphone dropping in and out and so for our audience I apologize for this impromptu break we're going to back on believe for your patience the last slide I'm backing up here I was talking about museum structures and collection carrier divisions what I was talking about is you know every institution is is a unique diversity of it is based on the diversity and uniqueness of the collection also diversities of the collections cannot be compared directly to another organization you know one museum might be of a similar size to another museum but they'll have a different totally different collections and different reasons even within the building itself like the building envelope which I call the whole environment within the building and such the deal you know whether it's a historical house to a brand new building being built with all the bells and whistles of quality hvac and so on and so forth so as we're dealing with this our training for smaller museum I've always enjoyed in my career when I'm teaching and such when people from small museums come to to through the session or to the program training program it's because they've always had unique situations and they're wanting to get things cleared up and it's always interesting because what what really makes a small-sized museum a lot of times it's based on the number of staff and the number of actual objects but a museum could have a collection of say coins it's very small they got a huge number of collections or they could be having farm machinery implements stuff that you know several pieces can take up a lot and my favorite are especially like the railroad museums and car museums because it's just one of my interests but also here they deal with these large huge objects and all the many pieces that are made up of an automobile or a train. The main thing is what is the collection's focus what is the main focus that they're trying to do where did the institution evolve from what evolved in the situation could have been its past and why it was made you know I'm currently working with MC Cole Museum in Chicago, Wisconsin and they're based on an industrial ceramics background with the coal industry and so on so forth but they do a lot of unique situations and a lot of unique items that you know some are related to industrial ceramics some are not but still where they came from what is the museum's continual mission the mission is continuing on with the museum and how it evolves how it moves forward and how the museum is supported financially so many things deal with the financial institution and we'll be talking about this a lot with training but if it's budget supported and supported then it'll help out so a few of the key responsibilities of the small museums are institutional needs and institutional needs focused by number of staff and of course finance collection staff or even mixed staff where many hats and I think that gives or my opinion in working at a small museum one time and working with a lot of museums over the years small museums is the fact that the many hats give people a broad understanding of the museum's collections a broad understanding of the mission of the museum so on so forth to build it and and watch it grow so they have a good understanding of the large picture where's a lot of large museums people get so specialized they're not they're not familiar with the overall mission so commitment of course is always essential the staff the broader museum mission any and then the smaller museums you'd be directors to volunteers will be handling the collection everybody has to pitch in and we have a few staff compared to a large museum where you have specialized staff just handling objects but communication and training of a key components in any size museum especially in small museums so just listing out some staffing positions of course director curator if you have a dedicated curator registration preparation and consolation staff a lot of small museums don't have a conservation staff but you'll be relying on the art handlers and the registration people in the museum have that knowledge and or you hire out and have to deal with private consultants security of course maintenance facilities volunteers part-time outside labor temporary and then consultants but a lot of institutions and maintenance and facilities become art handlers and that's fine volunteers are art handlers that's fine but again how do you get these people trained and how all on the same page for protection care so professional wellness you've been ongoing part of this again the staff benefits should be approaches investment in the staff and they to promote professional work environment so again it goes back to dealing with management and getting management to support support your staff and the programs involved key training opportunities as you're looking at the different training opportunities commitments in time and finance the sport both the nonprofit and commercial organizations the same sort of thing goes on with even in the commercial institutions and organizations such like around currently working with them we have to support it to support our staff and be a professional attitude to a commercial group but we're being paid to help care for people's optics or their museum or our museum private clients on so forth and again the investment will outlast the initial financial outlay of support now how this looks is investing in people and any business no matter what type of business is not just museum or collection care business but investment is important that people understand it can build from their situation and you get people who quality and you keep those people quality so your consistency runs through the whole organization so again this will reflect back on the quality overall mission they'll collect some care of the objects and their preservation as you're working with but again the key point is management must be an active participant throughout the process and I said earlier if you know there's a lot of times situations I've been approached like how do I approach my manager battery home you know I need to get stuff more money or I need more money and I want things to grow I want to do professional love but well it's not always easy but you need to keep working on it and improve why you need to go to the session why you need to promote this professional care within a museum so we're going now to dealing with the different types of training that are available and how you can deal with them internal or in-house training is the most common because day in day out it doesn't cost a thing and but there's several attitudes and people situations you you are working with so whether you have volunteers or whether you've got full-time staff members you still can make these as various approaches you need to be looking at until you find them we'll be viewing them more here in a minute some museums are already have extensive pro programs which are supported I mean you look around and see and even companies will have extensive programs but they've taken this on invested now if your museum like a lot of them don't have this or just developing programs seek out these other museums as such of a similar size or even larger smaller larger and see what they're doing and you know find out your interest so see what somebody else has done see being adapted again support is essential in creating the best professional knowledge for all staff so again on job training is pretty much as it says is common training on a daily basis now your staff and your managers as you're working you need to promote and set this tone of atmosphere you know in your daily activities I mean everything from retention to detail to cleanliness to here's how we improperly handle these objects in the situation but it's an attitude it's an overall tone and atmosphere within the working community community communication these activities must be clearly stated in the monitors they're undertaken so communication is a huge key as we all know and getting things done and giving things correctly working together things again I'm saying here again the clearly stated monitors they're undertaken coordination with all players or what I like to term the choreography then one department or several departments needs to be very accurate so you need to be talking about this and we'll talk about some ways of getting this communication done with meetings and so forth manuals here in a minute but communication and choreography will create an ongoing and dedicated effectiveness of policies and procedures that way everybody's on board and this could be a museum of five staff members or it could be a few staff members or it could be a few hundred staff members it's the same sort of thing about getting on board and getting at succinct communication situations on-the-job training deals with schedules schedules are how we operate and I'm a real big fan of schedules and trying to keep them and make them so I make sure everybody's on board but it's establishing daily meetings within the when the schedule is discussed so first one look at you know if you have with you staff before they go out and start to work here's what we're going to do today and when everybody on the be on board because it's happening at two o'clock this is happening at four o'clock whatever it takes but give people so we're all playing on the same game plan a scheduling calendar it's often depicted like even on just simply on a whiteboard or an updated computer-based calendar I mean many people there are a few software programs out there but to use but a lot of people just make them off basic excel power excel spreadsheets they can build up and make it unique for their situation than sharing it with others but even this simple whiteboard up there I mean every place I've ever worked I've always had a whiteboard and we all went up to stood in front of it and started talking about it or if I had to change something I could put a change on there so and so forth and people can note it but they always went back to the whiteboard as a reference so scheduling calendars use the reference during the workday as a schedule develops or as I just said more often changes scheduling calendars are essential and should correlate distinctly with the activity or tracking documents so a lot of situations a lot of museums will have movement just for collecting their movement documents it's leaving storage from this location moving to another place like up to for display that's recorded because we have to keep track of this for our own knowledge of inventory and location but let alone the liability handling and caring for that object so the old statement I had a new register in Sydney at the museum contemporary art had a big sign on our wall between the dream and reality there is documentation so all your registers out there I'm sure you're enjoying that comment take it down but it's for everybody it's really meant for this whole thing about keeping track of things paperwork essential detail it's where we move things so we deal with a lot with paperwork on a daily basis on basics from the scheduling to movement record inventory this sort of stuff but procedure and handling manuals I mean a lot of places don't have these but they have the different parts of pieces of them throughout their their offices most of them are usually in some of these file doors they know I made this policy procedure and stuck this in the door so that's where it is but in a good working situation and developed a few of these museums that work with and even done it on a consulting basis for a few people is creating a procedure or I like to term also handling manual they're usually titled this procedure is sometimes called a handling manual but it's not so be the ongoing training component if there's something you can take if there's a sheet out or some changes you can read put it back in this manual but it's a reference manual people can go to on a couple large relocation jobs we actually had to have a manual setting there different procedures and policies and stuff even safety and concerns and that manual setting there as a legal document for staff to go to if needed but it should be developed on a collaborative effort of the various individuals involved should include collection care policy documents as a reference so you might have your movement forms you might have your you know even insurance forms and they're just so people can refer to when needed but it needs to be also be used like it is used by a variety of levels of collection staff and it should be written in that manner so if you have documents that are very private especially history or the curement of the object or its value that's the stuff those you can you can make a judgment call I'm not having them in there but you need to have the manuals be developed so information is shared and people can go to it to need it when they need it and they can understand it also it's a nice reference and resource resource for people wanting to review some things before it ever happened so it needs to be in need manually to divide procedures as well as technical information so many times in technical situations and institutions we're talking about I know in my sense of dealing with preparation and installing and packing situations you do these things repeatedly and you need to have this information there to somebody go well how did we move this or how did we install this you need to have it documented and put in this manual so people then can reference it this is basically it's just pictures of a manual but manuals can also have other things in care and how your museum and institution operates of course the emergency response recovery plan not every museum has this and it needs to be developed so on so forth and the greater percentage on this is a separate plan it's made for the whole museum not just Clarkson care section the name for the whole institution and and it's kept by the facilities or the maintenance group so that's our security but that's fine but parts of that can go into this manual or the whole thing being on the manual but it needs to be made available more likely you're going to see in additional sections of the manual is the special exhibition procedures I could talk to then we go to the procedures and how they're involved with the special exhibition maybe your situations are quite they are different when you're coming in with special exhibition and what you do up into the galleries has handled security issues so so forth but you also have specific details to how objects are handled so on so forth within a special site locations you know you can deal with the different situations like outdoor sculpture display gardens and government houses related to historical houses or silly and of course off-site storage facility when I worked with the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne we had we had to service the regional galleries within the state of Victoria so we had policies and paperwork just for each of those areas because again being small museums and being unique we had to deal with these sort of situations so my crew could go back to the registrars and go back to that situation create what was happening at that institution to be prepared before we went everything is just simple appendices institutional documents such as object movement form job description training agendas and environmental requirements just basic things is a good reference source we would have especially like these is going around and measuring the doorways measuring the clearance measuring the hallways and coming up with a subsequent form that I can cover places we're going to be dealing with in the institution so when somebody comes to ask the question from the outside and go wow we can't get that obviously you got four two flights of stairs and a door that's only this big this sort of stuff so you're prepared before it ever happened but you go back and refer to this and that way people could discuss it staff trainers and departmental training team now and we're especially small museums are going to say well this is everybody in the building well that's true but you need to have somebody can be dedicated staff trainers somebody takes on that responsibility somebody that can coordinate with other departmental supervisors and representatives of training program activities so as you're looking at dealing with these departments and groups and trying to come up with these training programs you need to have somebody that can manage it so especially the manual somebody to keep having the manuals put them together to keep people on it because again it's it's like an extracurricular activity then unless it's really supported by your management stuff it's always hard to keep going but it's essential to get it done also meetings are established for review and updating content you also need to involve the human resource department to be involved because a lot of it you're dealing with compliance requirements whether it's employee hiring or hiring within that state or within that city so on and so forth equal opportunities so the situations as well as occupational health and safety issues security department and facilities department mostly are made where with Clarkson care policy and they might have different issues within themselves the need to be pointed out can be a part of because we all are part of this overall picture it's working as a team this is a great image here with a friend of mine who works for our techs line arts in Washington and Orlando Bell and but a picture of his team moving a large frame and it basically compiles down to working together as a team so as we're dealing with people when we're training new employees we need to look at you know how we go about hiring them and so on and so forth so the hiring process at any level it's good to seek out the individual's previous experience it's a very key factor now i've hired a lot of people that you know i when i get to all their resumes in and such their application letters and stuff i'm reading through them of course this is one of my key factors i want to see a lot of times i don't see it so i have to look at other attributes that might be key in relationship to say previous variants especially in like to the art handling side of things i like people with craftsmanship you know they got a good craft background i mean artists and they had experience you know and even down to you know see where they worked at jobs or whatever manager had a lot of attention to detail this sort of stuff training should be always be conducted as part of the induction of it so when somebody starts you need to get them inducted into the whole system and look at it as a training situation a new employee should be designated a member of the staff to be a mentor so you need to have somebody working with this working with the younger new staff just kind of give them a heads up of course you're going to walk them around and show them the institution give them a familiarize and introduce some other people but they kind of need to have somebody right there handy to work with them exclusively. The other thing is mid-level experience is it was hired senior staff within the department should work with that new person because you're getting somebody that has a lot of experience they need to come on and jump right in with somebody or senior level to keep them moving on and getting them prepared to be within the group. This picture I included is one of the Asian Army's in San Francisco this is my temporary staff that I had to hire but the two mutinies monks were there and they worked with us handling the objects of course it was quite entertaining to see two monks who were just as qualified and loved to handle the objects as much as we were but again we were hiring and getting people trained in this situation so part-time and temporary or casual staff many have institutions reply who rely on this because that's all they have they can't afford to have full-time staff so they're dealing with hiring temporary and so on and so forth. When you hire to fill these they need to be staffing needs to be a specific or term project and seeking a visual preview experience is not common but again is a key factor so a lot of situations that I've had back you know 25 or 30 different people on a relocation project that were temporary part-time people for the project I always try to hire them with people of some experience and a good lead so we can work them together and fit them together and it's a challenge but it's very accurate now a very small situation you're looking to say your volunteers or people who are coming on board for a period of time you're dealing with that same sort of structure looking at people to get them on board you're having to look at them and say okay I need somebody with some experience or I need somebody that's good at craftsmanship so maybe a carpenter or somebody's a cabinet maker you know compared to you know just hiring somebody off the street that you know can drive a truck well you know but I'd rather have a carpenter than a truck driver this sort of stuff now the human resources department needs to be involved in all hiring and training programs distinctly because of different employee regulations my hiring of temporary people and casual staff has always had a huge regulations on it whether I was working for within the state institution city institution or private institution so you need to understand that because it's labor laws or labor laws and if you're not sure you can always look up online and find some of the things out but within your human research department work with them to help make sure you're doing things correctly again training conduct as far as the induction so these new people come on get them right in involved in and give them a situation dedicated and created dedicated meeting prior to work commencing helps give in reasonable overview of the project and also gives them a chance to introduce to these steep people that will be working for instead of just bringing them online and having them start to work on the other gamut is refresher training for existing staff now this is a big issue a lot of people don't think it's that important but it is with training of existing staff there's always changes within advancement of research within the profession so materials different situations and different techniques also with documenting and you know especially with the computerized software programs so there's always changes so we need to as we keep improving and changing things we need to keep our staff informed time should be allocated for its dissimulation to the staff so we'll be talking about it in a minute a couple different ways of doing that but a lot of times people just say well I posted this out into an email or a bull's or stuck on a bullet board because that's not approach to guarantees and accountability you need to be talking to your staff and at meetings to get them involved the other thing is no one is too old to learn again and again and again now what I mean by this is many times staff say oh I've heard this before I've been working over 25 years I know it's done but every time I've had them attend the refresher training or even doing it for new staff having them come in and be a part of there like always go oh I forgot that child that was done I'm glad I heard that again because again you don't do this have some of these objects especially with clock and carry you don't do them every day so you need to have people supported here's the different types of ways you can do this now again a very small museum of course you're going to be less people but you need to be looking at the situation for staff meetings you have a departmental meeting in the morning or one a week whatever just within your department look at my new internet postings and website links creating solutions to recent activity new procedural forms when chairs equipment or tools information deemed to be a greater interest to all departments then you're looking at when meetings are conducted on a regular basis you can make this as part of a forum to help everyone report and discuss this new information examples our current departmental project I mean you're talking about what you're doing on a weekly basis a daily basis but you might have some special within the department you're making somebody an outmaker might be making some special amounts to bring it up as like a topic to desk attendance in a recent conference or a career travel or research into material techniques you know make it time to bring these things to the forum the open forum within your meetings then people can understand and talk about it it's promoted as an opportunity for all individuals that live in the collection career area now again a lot of times people say well this is in my interest so I'm self-worth but if you keep the persistence of doing this for every meeting it will pay off eventually the point where staff will appreciate the opportunities and I also want to become a part of it I've had this before and I put that in there because I think it's very important to get people involved and create that like bring up a conversation start discussing not where you're going to go to launch or where you're going to go have a drink after work talk about what you're doing within the profession division or multi-department meetings now these sort of meetings and you're looking at the overall collection department or in many situations including you know HR and of course security and facilities and because they need to sit down and go over this on a regular basis I know the Nelson Mackinac Museum in Kansas City we did a forum called the Friday meeting and every Friday everybody came from all these different departments which sit down for an hour an hour and a half and talk about the different activities are currently going on and any other newly acquired ideas or comments that want to be made to be presented but it became the Bible the minutes from those meetings we came the Bible it flowed around everybody said well that's what you said in the last Friday meeting so it's very important because the communication level across the whole museum or the whole multi-department became very essential again most of the meetings pertain to the current and upcoming workflow schedule of course and in that situation it's nice to know what security might be having something going on or I know with special events we're always like very enjoyed the fact somebody's going to be bringing food into these galleries or they're going to be taking up the main hall or we're going to be up there moving crates around this sort of way situations it was nice to know there's this warrant so you plan to work together and work around each other's needs second part managers can report of current activities within the department so again they're getting managers consistent say well here we're doing this this is what we're actively doing here's something that you know we've created new so it gives everybody kind of personal time to you know fluff your feathers and slew out what you're doing and make it important basically all of all it's an extra opportunity to share with the entire group for this weekly staff meeting presentations to museum staff and the public now a lot of you think like well what am I going to do have time to do this so on so forth but the situation is there's a lot of times this will pop up and it's more of a win-win situation for promoting the specialism that we are in the collection camp so occasion an interesting topic for presentation other these members of the public so somebody's went somewhere they want to talk about some kind of new project to the museum it can be really interesting to bring it out to all the museum staff get your auditorium or your situation happy and write everybody to count and also then sometimes take it to the public the public loves just the patrons not just you know the different people involved with volunteers and stuff but it gives a lot of public interest in hearing what it's about I know we used to always complain about having to work with the public watching his work but I always liked the fact that public would be standing there watching us work and asking questions but we peaked their interest and we said well this is why we do this that's when people are cleaning objects and why are you cleaning as well dust goes up on the object dust can be harmful to the object you know or we don't want to create you know bug situation that sort of stuff gives them idea either summer grass being placed for calibrated stones still around the museum public is interested in as they like to see it plus it promotes like this is why we care for these objects and promotes the profession in a different way so spotlight on the collection care profession to a greater audience promoting professionalism with collection care knowledge mission responsibilities within the museum so some of the examples we've done over the years or worked with over years is conservation treatment conservation treatments usually are done in I'm saying the security painting I have or wherever but they're done with you know a real extensive private situation but it's very interesting to see how what type of work it takes so on so exhibition highlights any gambling installation or ringing projects or travel reports of the career research and conflicts highlights I've even said and given talks to docents and volunteers I know it's Asian armies in San Francisco they asked me to do a couple talks for them as a group because they would go out them and talk to the rest of staff say well this is why the installation department did this this is why they do this Republic outreaching the wins win for collection care on many fronts as we deal with things I'm going to go into also talking about mentoring now mentoring is a difficult subject to address because there's no one comparison that can be drawn you can't compare a different situation this will work for this person to be mentored into such another situation so mentoring is dependent on the commitment of supervisory staff and having effective leader so any doubt effective leader is interested in helping people because it's between relationship between the two people the mentor and the mentee but it creates a situation that over time allows the mentor to pass on valuable skills knowledge and insight to the mentee now this is your this is again going back to your on-the-job training situation a lot of times it's just basically what it is it's on-the-job training is a good form of mentoring but the situation is in any fact of life whether when you were in high school or grade school whatever you have a good teacher working around with you then they help support you and help you build on things so mentoring again passes on valuable skills and knowledge and insight to the to the person that's in that team it's easily between a senior staff member a younger or new staff member ongoing support system now it's just good to get that sort of attitude and think brought up and make it exciting make people be aware of it even into the fact when you do performance reviews and such having in there is like you're a team leader this is something of quality you can get and be involved with I know in the commercial setting I rewrote a lot of recently rewrote a lot of job descriptions and work with the tier levels of staffing we got putting in there as being a mentor or crew chief and or some sort of supervisory role even the training assistance the people assistance to help me out in our training giving these roles giving me sort of paddle the focus and it gives them responsibility to take on bills now internships there's another program which can be done but it takes a lot of commemoration it can be very difficult but it's a really great way for new people coming into the fashion into the fashion you know it's like building up people and getting them involved it's offered from the visual you know I got on the job training but they come on they can work for a particular department and by adding employee can help assist in that department a lot of times it's usually situations where it's project based you know it's scheduled you know now it's focused and factored into a budget specifically a lot of times both it's it's a good combination of success in both ways but a lot of times internships are not paid for people don't understand they're coming on I mean you see it a lot of times in conservation departments and stuff pretty young and so we was wanting to get experience more I'd say an object of conservation or specialized area of object conservation you want to come on without paying but if you can set an internship up with pay and set it on a project base like you know put your money into your project then that can be really good more involved and get given some payback non-collection staff training again a number of individuals are paid unpaid who are the who are the public uh of institutions that are critical uh crucial to the public viewing of the collection so they're the sort of the public eye the people in the face of the public they're dealing with so you can talk about volunteers you can talk about guards you can talk about educational staff they're all out there dealing with the public directly but you need to get them involved with this training so they understand and help communicate it well my favorites are the guards and then the museum because they're the ones you know everybody has someone the restrooms are they're asking where to exit or where to place to eat but they'll also be asking them and the guards love it usually love it tell them the story of what's this object about so on and so forth and so you get them there and you get them to be you know you're telling the guards not only to tell them not to touch that bronze but you know be there to tell them why you tell them not to touch that bronze and be careful but they're definitely the eye and the public so you need to get them involved the level of training uh principles of policy in the museum uh can be procedures well it's technical now that depends on what type of museum it is and what type you're trying to train these non-collection staff because a lot of times you're not training them to move the object but you're training why you move the object properly so and who to get in touch with if there's a problem or damage so on so forth but again the primary doses the education structures the security guard staff it's a symbiotic relationship that creates public awareness and interest in the mission of a museum well these are just a couple pictures of external training opportunities on the one on the left is a packing conference uh where we do preparators conference people came from all over the world to listen to what we're talking about with the different topics that we presented one on the right is a picture of uh front of mind an Arctic staff as which Arctic actually does a training and then writes a lot of the regional museums to come around and watch them train and do the training session so it's kind of like a bonus the commercial company's helping out out of service to local museums so external training operations over the past 30 years has been developing an increase in external training opportunities for collection care staff it's been good but programs are easily limited limited by the number of attendees especially do again to money much higher cost for attendance and limited topics being presented has a need for professional level of growth this is one of these programs will continue to all be made available so as they develop and they grow and I'll go into more examples here in the minute as I continue through but we're looking at the different situations that come up this webinar is a perfect example it's free it's advertised out we've got people from overseas as well as here in the states listening that's great my handout that I've listed with free download has several references it kind of gives you a start to being lucky one other thing especially for small museums here it's very cost effective it's just living in other new institutions not the fact that we're less time-consuming than just you know staff set up the visits with the colleagues other institutions in the same city or region staff connect to their colleagues and other institution in your range of discussions so you start seeing your particular interest possibly in the change can be reciprocal I mean both institutions saving money but both are coming back and forth and then plus you're learning to meet somebody new and and building on the situation so it's mutually challenging for each person's schedule and it's a great reciprocal situation so again here benefits their employees are able to see each other institutional programs apart from this change in game value context for the future staff compare their achievements to discover possibilities for change but their their responsibility their own instincts many times I went to a museum of the other museum of the career or even visiting just visiting in the hallway I'll say like please look how they've done this look at how they've done these labels with these situations I take that back no I've never seen this so on so forth so it's a good way to put into it but you know build good relationships for the local community professional conferences I'll go through these real quick but sessions at conferences like a museum conference national or regional conference very good because they offer a lot of situations usually based on our theme diversity of topics gives an excellent opportunity for the 10D to better understand working overall museum community of course no one 10D can stand all the sessions but it'll give my overall view of what different topics there are and sometimes it might be a topic you have no idea about but you learn a lot by going to it workshops workshops are created by different groups so on so forth museum groups I know pack and we do a lot of workshops and target to a specific subject and they're created with a different museum organizations to concern interests that I do in here I mean they're a great excellent source for getting training for multiple 10Ds I mean it's just thrilling to look at the where all you're from and seeing the situation and how then I don't know how many people you've got sitting at the same computer missing but you know this is a great situation several staff members can benefit view the same presentation and one location cost saving there's no travel cost disruption schedules just 10 this session conducted by Desnay Gruber and this will include speaker moderator and technical assistance but it's quite amazing when they first started coming out with webinars which we started doing with AAM and through pack and it was quite interesting to think that you know we were always so hands-on especially from preparation and hard handling side of things collection care sizing but the amount of people we were communicating to in like our situation today is pretty astounding private consultants training within the institution we've got three formats listed here but I'll go through them rather basically but most situations it's real easy if people can come to your workshop or your studio to view as a consultant you know this demonstration five times we do this like say with forklift training a situation we'll go to an actual place to have the forklifts right so we can have them do them there because it's so hard to bring all that sort of stuff to and it's to a place so they equipment and things needed to do this training and assist in reducing preparation time format two is training provided to and it doesn't end up resulting so this allows like the trainer to come to the site this way the attendees are there but the person the trainer comes to that site sees a lot because I can say here's what I need do you have this and I'll come to the site to the training session and do it there because that way it reduces all the cost travel expenses of the attendees having to come to say my facility at my site but the thing is yeah to prepare and work and plan for it but it gives a lot of people a chance to come to it similar to the webinar situation it gives a lot of bigger opportunity for people to come third one is directly with an institution you're doing for programs I work with managers research and policy procedures even great manuals and stuff what they need in their place because again this is a curricular activity a lot of the training and such so sometimes it's easier and more cost-efficient a higher trainer come in and do this again I'm currently doing this at Boygan coming in and spending a few days working with them I've done this as well overseas when you get in there you give a lot of chance into a specific subject and it's geared so it's a value aid for creating a training room allows a program developed in a shoulder focused on without disrupting staff activities occupational health and safety training has this subject pertaining to the care of collections objects in the workplace while the health and safety of your staff members means they're going to be in better condition to enter the care for themselves and if you create the health and safety issues what the type of equipment is and follow the regulations stuff that it's easier and more protective for the object but it's something that's required by law and you need to work with OHS and getting most information comes through your facilities your maintenance department secure law but get those people in law so you know what you're doing you're doing it correctly a challenge is developed a challenge to develop a program specific target to benefit collection care staff and specialized as how to care for the objects that they care for so in both situations it's really hard to get a good there I mean there's no general good working you see me do a worst diverse sort of situation there's several good books and there's a good book listed second list that'll help you find more information the old saying is if you can help with the load is too heavy you know basic stuff I would be thinking toward the end but Alton takes his staff to care for collection every museum from a small county historical society I'm by volunteers to major metropolitan fine arts museums holds a million dollar endowment has one thing in common a collection care that needs constant care this statement if you can read it later but it's a very excellent responsibility to focus on whether it's the person the maintenance person dusting you know sweeping the floors all the way up to the guards through everybody's throughout the museum that's required to be part of collection care so read this it's a very nice comment my statements on your resource list but again an ending again it's going back to statements that if you want to build a ship don't drive up people to collect wood and don't assign the task of work rather teach them how to long the endless immensity of the sea it's just basically down to get people involved and get them involved in the big picture closing remarks may seem daunting at times working in a small museum but there's always ways to outreach that's the questions need to be asked if you've got an idea and work on it look out outreach remember there are others that are thinking the same to ask the same questions just down the road or sitting next to the other conference a whole collection care resource with a network of knowledge which needs to be willing and needs to be shared so i'll end this here and then i'll let susan take it back over but uh susan and michael take it back over but if you have any questions about the webinar please feel free to contact me i mean i've been doing this for years 30 some years it's always been a network thing of sharing that's what i've learned and that's where i'd like you all to learn learn as well as we go through this so okay that for now susan i i'm going to cut in there we have a few more minutes and they're just a couple of questions um i also want to remind people to please do the evaluation they're very important and i pay attention to them um there were several people saying okay i work in a institution and i'm the only staff member so i completely understand wearing multiple hats but uh where can i find a a staff training manual for a small museum on a shoestring budget where all of our staff are volunteers that's one question okay well news okay go ahead i'm gonna give you all three of them because they're related um one is any advice on conducting a refresher course for non-collection staff who are older and may have been at the museum much longer than you i've found it to be a sensitive topic and then the last question is we have six people uh on the staff all part-time except for our executive director i invited everyone who wanted to participate in this webinar no-takers very hard to get the staff that thinks they have nothing to do with collections involved what do you do so those are those are the questions i think you could answer them all okay well they're three very good questions and again it depends on the size of the institution but going down for the fact of small museums because that's what we're targeting i needed to cover everything so you can see what a work and a work in a situation now for you at a single staff museum in a volunteer situation you're going to have to take it upon yourself to create these meetings and insist that people come now that's not always easy but as you promote it and you promote out the fact that this is what we're here to do in such it needs to be supported by any of the overseers or trustees here and promoted as a working effort to help everybody within the institution it's not easy none of this is never easy but there's ways to figure out and ways to do it now on the subject of volunteers and stuff within museums there's there's several documents you can go online and look for and always just you know address it like volunteers and education but looking within the museum education groups because a lot of museum educators rely solely on you can put in like you know on your search engine and stuff museum volunteers and educational volunteers and also read about other sources outside not just museums but other places because different institutions and stuff you know whether it's you know park or zoo or whatever you know I have a lot of rely on a lot of volunteers the second question when you're talking about dealing with a reflection course for an older group that's what I was making the comment to you about you have to be persistent because a lot of people are just like well I've been here or you know you young thing you've done with me I've been here for so many years well that's human nature okay you're doing other people so as a person managing or a person that's trying to lead or shape this you just have to be persistent I mean not bullish I'm talking about persistent present them with why they should come why you're trying to make this an effort and why you're trying to make this work effort within the institution you know whether it's historic house parkland and stuff I mean I can understand because it's hard on on a large-scale level hard on a small-scale level but you need to get people together I mean look at I mean this is going on jump big step but you know it's like PTA groups you know teachers and parents organizations within elementary secondary school you know trying to get things together and get people to volunteer and come together it's always hard no matter where you work but if you've got a goal and you got an idea and you want to put the people together and you can involve it around collection care because nobody can will admit that they're not there because they don't like the object or they don't think that you should take care of but you have to really be persistent and say I need to have everybody come put this together and yes there always be the resistance and always be the hem on hauling and that sort of stuff I guess from my standpoint I've done it so many years pushing people but I've always thought it's like okay I've got to make this work and we get people to come and I get them involved with before you know what they're standing on tease why haven't we done this before this sort of stuff and I know it's easier said than done but it's really important that way and then the last question was what again Susan can you refresh me on we have a small staff and I tried to get everyone to participate in this webinar but we had no takers oh yeah um what would you do and then we're gonna we've got about three more minutes oh again that's you know you've got to promote it you can say it's a requirement you can you know I mean it's not like offering you know say okay here's a free lunch if you're coming to this but there's a ways of you know just you have to be persistent with it and then and then discuss it so say if you have five people who should have attended maybe only two came next time we have a group get together meaning say we know the other day in this webinar we had this and we discussed this or say that this webinar was good and I want you to sit there and listen to it so I'm going to take the free copy I'm going to sit and redo it again you know I mean again it's persistent I mean not being bullish about it whatsoever but it's you know you got to get people so low or two being a part of it and they are a part of it that's that's the thing they are a part of it so anyway send me an email if you got any more questions on that I'd be glad to work with you on that right and um also remember that uh there are over a hundred webinars in the in the archives on the Connecting to Collections Care website so feel free to look at those all of our resources are free and we they're there really for small mid-fifth museums so they're curated to be appropriate so thank you all and I hope that we see and thank you Brent and I and Mike um and I hope that we will see you next week for lunch with Nima at noon eastern time so thanks bye bye thank you everybody bye