Have you ever come across a great idea only to wonder how you can make it work for your museum? Scaling or adapting best practices and innovative ideas to fit your organization is critical to your success. This presentation provides examples of scaling projects and ideas in collections, fundraising & administrative practices, and digital projects while testing your hand at workshopping scaling ideas for your museum.

1. SCALING BEST
PRACTICES & PROJECTS
TO FIT YOUR MUSEUM
A HANDS-ON SESSION
WMA 2019: Boise, ID

2. WHAT WE'LL COVER IN THIS SESSION
Scaling down from a big idea, project or best practice to
meet the needs of your own organization and your audience,
no matter your size.
• The theory of scaling for your organization.
• The process of scaling.
• Tips for scaling collections care best practices, programs, marketing, and
fundraising.

3. THEORY OF SCALABILITY
• Scaling is adapting successful policies, programs, and projects from different
places in a way that works for you or your organization that lets the big idea
reach a greater number of people.
Adapted from Anandajayasekeram, Ponniah. 2016. Scaling Up and Scalability: Concepts, Frameworks, and
Assessment. Vuna Research Report. Pretoria: Vuna. Online: http://www.vuna-africa.com.

4. THEORY OF SCALABILITY – IS SOMETHING
SCALABLE?
• From a reputable organization that has
a history of doing good things
• Has happened or is proven to have
good results
• Meets a need
• Implements best practices
• Simple, easy to implement
• Relevant to your mission
• Testable, can be reversed or walked
back if needed
Adapted from Anandajayasekeram, Ponniah. 2016. Scaling Up and Scalability: Concepts, Frameworks, and
Assessment. Vuna Research Report. Pretoria: Vuna. Online: http://www.vuna-africa.com.

5. THE PROCESS OF SCALING
1. Identify what it is that you want to scale.
2. Establish why you want to scale it for your organization.
1. What purpose does it serve?
2. What is its outcome/impact?
3. What will it do for your organization and audience?
3. Break down the best practice recommendation or project into its pieces and
parts.
1. What are the important details?
2. How was it made/created/developed?
3. How does it function?

6. THE PROCESS OF SCALING
4. Determine what parts you can use and adapt.
1. What will work best for your organization and your audience?
2. Is there anything you can improve upon?
3. Consider your resources and your audience.
5. Think about the parts you don't need.
6. Lay out a plan for what you will do to make
it happen
1. What are the next steps?
2. What resources do you need?
3. Refine the idea/project to fit your budget, size, space, staffing, etc.

7. EXAMPLES
Scaling of Best Practice Recommendations

8. COLLECTIONS
JENNIFER ORTIZ, UTAH DIVISION OF ARTS & MUSEUMS

9. BEST PRACTICE: HAVE AN EMERGENCY
PREPAREDNESS PLAN
• Includes preparedness and response
plans for all relevant emergencies and
threats
• Addresses the needs of staff, visitors,
structures, and collections
• Specifies how to protect, evacuate, and
recover collections in the event of a
disaster
• Includes evacuation routes and assembly
areas for people
• Assigns individual responsibilities for
implementation during emergencies
• Lists contact information for relevant
emergency and recovery services
• Includes floorplans
• Bears date of last revision

10. SCALING DOWN
• Start with a Pocket Response Plan
(PReP)
• Participate in free local events hosted
through your OEM (Office of Emergecy
Management)
• Purchase ready-made supply kits like
REACT PAKs

11. NEXT STEP
• Hold annual all staff, all day training
• Participate in local cooperative disaster
networks

12. HUMAN RESOURCES
KENI STURGEON, WENATCHEE VALLEY MUSEUM & CULTURAL CENTER

13. IMPLEMENTING A STRONG ONBOARDING PROCESS
(HR)
What: The process of integrating new employees into an organization. Onboarding
continues for months after hire.

14. BEST PRACTICES FOR A STRONG ONBOARDING
PROCESS
⮚ Starts before day 1
⮚ Backed by a strong communication plan
⮚ Is well prepared
⮚ Includes work space inventory and prep
⮚ Includes time for observing, talking, and
reflecting
⮚ Continues after the first week
⮚ Includes evaluation
⮚ Is fun and exciting

15. SCALING DOWN : KNOW WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN;
FOCUS ON CHUNKS OF TIME
Before Start:
• Create and share the plan
• Share the logistics for arrival/day 1
• Provide all paperwork
• Build excitement
The First Day:
• Greet and go over schedule
• Introductions
• Tour
• Work space
• Welcome from leadership
• Org. Overview
• Buddy & lunch
• Finish paperwork
• Check-in w/Supervisor
First Week:
• Meetings they need to attend
• Trainings/orientations they need (safety, etc.)
• Introductions to stakeholder
• Check-ins/feedback
• Time to shadow and observe
• Something fun and engaging
At/After 90 days:
• Training assessment and development plan/needs
• Onboarding debrief/evaluation
• Goal setting for year

16. NEXT STEPS: PREPARATION IS KEY
Create templates for:
• Email: welcome, paperwork, logistics, intro to team
• First day schedule
• Week 1 schedule
Check-lists, Tools, and Processes put in place:
• Onboarding check-list
• Organization overview presentation
• Onboarding evaluation tool
• Process for gathering new staff feedback
• Inventory list for cleaning and setting work spaces
• Process for setting up email/phone/business cards, etc.
Develop list of events and trainings all new employees must attend
Decide on how you approach ongoing check-ins, feedback, goal setting, and performance reviews
Make improvements based on staff feedback and evaluation

17. DIGITAL PROJECTS
KOVEN SMITH, KOVEN J. SMITH CONSULTING

18. DIGITAL PROJECTS! WHAT!
⮚ Calculate value
⮚ Assess risk
⮚ Understand your geography
⮚ Think about infrastructure

19. VALUE
⮚ VALUE = IMPACT / EFFORT
⮚ The atomic unit of work
⮚ The “essence” of the project

20. RISK
⮚ What happens if it doesn’t work?
⮚ What happens if it really works?

21. INFRASTRUCTURE
⮚ Exhaust or recharge?
⮚ Hardware/software
⮚ Methodologies and workflows

22. GEOGRAPHY
⮚ Interaction per square foot
⮚ Your wifi situation
⮚ What are your walls made of?

23. DIGITAL PROJECTS:
⮚ Calculate value
⮚ Assess risk
⮚ Understand your geography
⮚ Think about infrastructure

24. NOW IT’S YOUR TURN!

25. GROUP WORK
❖ BREAK OUT INTO GROUPS OF 5-7 PEOPLE
❖ IDENTIFY ONE OF THE GROUP’S MUSEUMS TO
PRACTICE SCALING PROJECTS
❖ GIVEN THE SPECIFICS OF THE FOLLOWING
EXAMPLES, SCALE TO YOUR IDENTIFIED
MUSEUMS
❖ SHARE OUT!

26. BEST PRACTICE: TEMPERATURE AND HUMIDITY
MUST BE CONTROLLED
Recommended
Goal
Temperature 59 - 77°F
Relative
Humidity
45 - 55%
In 2010, the American Institute for Conservation (AIC) Environmental Guidelines Working Group
established interim guidelines for environmental requirements for loans. The interim guidelines
are:
To meet these guidelines, institutions should:
• Install data-loggers to continuously monitor
conditions
• Have an employee dedicated to recording and
interpreting the data
• Have an employee dedicated to regularly servicing
HVAC systems and making adjustments where
necessary
• Have an HVAC system that is capable of meeting
these standards

27. EXAMPLE: THE MET GALA
• "Fashion's biggest night out"
• A fundraising benefit for the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
• The event welcomes celebrity stars, young creatives, and
industry paragons.
• Anna Wintour, Vogue editor-in-chief, serves as chair of the
event.
• The gala signifies the highly anticipated grand opening of the
Costume Institute’s annual fashion exhibition.
• The exhibit, and the gala, have a new theme each year. Guests
match their fashion to the theme.
• $30,000 per ticket, by invitation only.

28. EXAMPLE: PROMOTING AN EXHIBITION THROUGH
SOCIAL MEDIA
• Your institution is taking a travelling exhibition that has
had significant viral success through social media at
previous instutions. You want to build on that previous
success, but add your own “flavor” to the campaign.
• Aspects to consider:
• Platforms
• Audience
• Amount of effort
• Planning content

29. QUESTIONS AND CONTACT
JENNIFER ORTIZ
KENI STURGEON
KOVEN SMITH
Museum Services Manager, Utah Division of Arts & Museums, jenniferortiz@utah.gov
Consultant, Koven J. Smith Consulting, koven@kovenjsmith.com
Executive Director, Wenatchee Valley Museum & Cultural Center, XXX