Labor

The Unionization of Museums: What Management and Staff Need to Know

By American Alliance of Museums

Learn the basics of the collective bargaining process, the advantages and disadvantages of unionization, and strategies to manage the various possible outcomes of the voti…
The Top Ten Alliance Blog Posts of 2021

By Joseph O'Neill

Though 2021 was a slightly more normal year than 2020, with mostly open museums gradually regaining visitors, the pandemic still loomed large and colored most conversations. On the Alliance Blog, the discussion shifted from absorbing the …
An Investment in Our Collective Future: Building for Staff Advancement from the Inside Out

By Margaret Koch

With the worst of pandemic disruptions behind us (we hope) some museums are using this as an opportunity to rethink their operations, rather than simply rebounding to the previous norm. COVID amplified the inequities between stable and …
Digital Migrants and Digital Nomads: Reshaping Museum Communities

By Elizabeth Merritt

Hello, this is Elizabeth. I’m trying to recover from my pandemic writing rut by drafting a short post each week, commenting on the news. (Kind of like the old CFM series “Monday Musing,” but who can tell which day is Monday anymore?) You …
Ethical Contracting: Is Your Museum Doing It?

By MJ Hagan & Avi Decter

The way we work is changing. The growth of the “gig” economy is accelerating in a post-COVID world, as the desirability of freelance work increases for employees seeking flexible schedules and greater autonomy, or who were forced into a …
Pandemic Disruption as an Opportunity for Change: Intuit

By Elizabeth Merritt

A year ago, I wrote about how Venice is using their pandemic induced pause to rethink how they can create a better future of sustainable tourism rather than rebounding to the status quo of day-tripping hordes. Many museums are using the …
Same Storm, Different Boats

By Elizabeth Merritt

Sometimes, in the wake of disruptive events. the world acts like a rubber band, snapping back to its original shape. Other times, disruptions have a lasting impact—resetting our boundaries, reshaping our practice. It will take several …
Hindsight is 2020: What We Learned About Leadership in a Crisis

By Preeti Gupta, Daniel Zeiger, Sara Pelleteri, Alie LeBeau, Lindzy Bivings, and Kristin Evans

At the height of the pandemic, as so many aspects of our professional and personal lives hung in the balance and emotions fluctuated between despair and hope, effective leadership surfaced as essential. Facing public health restrictions …
Rethinking Our Human Resources Practices to Build a More Equitable Museum

By Micah D. Parzen, Ph.D., J.D.

Less than three weeks after COVID forced museums around the globe to close their doors last year, an article by Arundhati Roy in The Financial Times titled “The Pandemic is a Portal” stopped me in my tracks. In the midst of an …
Strengthening Our Core: How Defining Shared Values Can Revitalize Teams

By Beth Redmond-Jones

All aquariums, zoos, and museums have core values—beliefs, philosophies, and principles that drive the organization. These values support the organization’s vision, shape its culture, and ensure that all employees are working towards the …