Resourcing Museum Professionals (RMP):

Museum Professionals in Service to the Field

What?

The Resourcing Museum Professionals (RMP) Professional Interest Network engages retired and senior-level professionals as informal volunteer resources to the museum field.

How?

Have you been in the museum field for decades and desire to share your knowledge and experience with your colleagues through coaching and mentoring?
Are you retired or nearing retirement and want to assist current museum professionals?
Willing to "coach" small museums on advocacy, governance, ethics, or collections care?
Are you looking for a mentor/coach/advocate?

Sign up to serve as a volunteer coach/mentor/advocate or to be paired with one:

Sign up form

Who?

The RMP PIN invites the involvement of senior-level museum professionals and retirees who are MPMA members residing in our ten state region. Mentoring, coaching, and advocacy services are provided to MPMA Individual and Institutional members.

Want to Get Further Involved with the RMP Professional Interest Network (PIN)?

There are opportunities for those who participate in this program to stay connected with their museum colleagues through special offerings at the Annual MPMA Conference. In addition, retirees and senior-level professionals can stay linked to the field via regular communications through MPMA’s newsletter and social media connections.

MPMA Members: Please sign in and go to your profile. You can edit your profile and choose this PIN and/or any of the other PINs that you wish to join from a checkbox list in your profile.

Non-Members: Please fill out the PIN Sign-up Form and you will be added to this MPMA PIN.

Resources

Code of Ethical Conduct

Interested in starting your own Resourcing Museum Pros program? See our Guidelines

For more information contact director@mpma.net

This program was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services Sparks! Ignition Grants for Museums Award (MG-45-16-0025-16). The focus of the program is on museum-related professional pursuits after retirement, not on financial planning or supplanting services of consultants. The grant period ends in July of 2017.

Resourcing Museum Pros (RMP) Program: Background and Advisory Group

In October, MPMA convened the "Think Tank" to brainstorm ideas for its IMLS grant-funded Retirement Program.

MPMA members leading the grant project are:

Henry Crawford, retired Curator, Museum of Texas Tech University

Elisa Phelps, Director of Collections/Library Division, History Colorado

Joseph Schenk, Director, Art Museum of South Texas

Michael Smith, retired Director, Nebraska State Historical Society

Rick Stryker, retired Director, Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History

Advisory group:

Steve Friesen, Director, Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave

Mark Janzen, Director of Museum Studies, University of Central Oklahoma

Jay S. Smith, State Museum Director, Museum of the South Dakota Historical Society

Rick Young, Museum Manager, Fort Caspar Museum

Project Background

MPMA recently surveyed museum professionals in the region regarding our work on the grant. We thank the 170 folks who thoughtfully responded to the survey. Their responses supported the premise of MPMA’s grant application to IMLS: that retired museum professionals do wish to remain involved in the museum field upon retirement.

Of those retired, 85% said they already are working/volunteering in the museum profession
80% of respondents, not retired, anticipate being engaged in some capacity (volunteer or part-time) in the museum field

The grant group is continuing to refine the projects it identified at the annual conference in Oklahoma City as forming the foundation for the “Retired Museum Professionals in Service to the Field” program. They are: