Here's a theory: All non-profits, including museums, want to show as little of their budget going to admninistration as possible. It's important when persuing grants and public support that we produce balance sheets that show most of our budget going to "programs," not "administration." IT is considered "administration," unless it's shown as part of a program department's budget, like curatorial, education, or even marketing. So, I suspect the typical lack of a comprehensive technology plan has less to do with the complex nature of museum tech, and more to do with avoiding a managment style that will complicate the issue of reporting the admin vs program budget ratio. - i _____________________ Ilana Trager Information Systems Manager Bellevue Art Museum
office 425.519.0766 fax 425.637.1799 -----Original Message----- From: Guy Hermann [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Friday, May 24, 2002 8:52 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re:Web or IT Plans as Part of Museum Planning This comes up periodically on this list and I have yet to see any meaningful integration of a technology plan with any museum's strategic plan. More typically, a museum will include programs that depend on technology to their plan and then look at the ramifications of that separately. I am beginning to think that this is because of the exceptionally complex nature of the museum technology environment--there are just too many needs to serve. Creating a fully integrated plan that addresses collections, the web, education, ticketing, fund raising, group scheduling, membership, facility management, accounting, etc. is simply too much, especially since all of these are still moving targets. I have done a few technology assessments recently--the precursor to planning. The results have been a better sense of priorities and of what is possible, but even in these committed organizations, a fully integrated plan is too ambitious. What do others think? Why don't more museums have formal technology plans? ----------------------------------------------------- Guy Hermann 8 1/2 Godfrey Street Mystic, CT 06355 home: 860-536-2994 cell: 860-857-7363 --- You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: [email protected] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [email protected] --- You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: [email protected] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [email protected]
