Museum Consultant, Part 2 . . .

Well, I have caught up in my career review to when I first started this blog in 2010, just after I finished my work at the University of Victoria. It was a prolific time for my writing, and I hesitate now to write over or revise those posts of how I worked during the year-and-a-bit I was focussed solely on being a consultant and a writer. I also want to make the experience of this post more than 'check out this link!' . . . it's a fine balance. I am hopeful though that through this post (and the entire blog, really) I am able to showcase that every step is one that pushes me a little bit more, to my next level. And so when I come to reviewing the work I did as a consultant in the early 2010s, it makes me proud to know that:

1. I was the volunteer coordinator for the 2010 BC Museums Association conference in Nanaimo. Collaborating with an amazing committee, I conceptualized the theme, initiated a call for session proposals, evaluated the submissions, set up the conference schedule, secured keynote speakers, finalized agreements, and then worked to make sure everything went swimmingly on-site. It was quite the undertaking but the results were immensely rewarding.

Ya, I even organized OWLS to come to the conference!

2. I won a contract to be the the tour coordinator for a 2-year travelling exhibition for the Royal BC Museum. I promoted the exhibition Aliens Among Us, which was about invasive species in the province. I set up a tour route, helped facilitate the contracts and ensured the shipping, installation and promotion was coordinated in a manner that worked both for the host venue and the RBCM. I organized curatorial visits to these areas as well. I was able to attend the first opening and saw just how cool it was to have the provincial museum represented in a community outside of the capital of Victoria.

Parksville Museum as host of Aliens

3. I worked with a small museum up-Island in Mill Bay to set up all their inventory and collections management policies and procedures. I lead five workshops that instructed volunteers how to inventory their collection, document it on a simple spreadsheet, organize their paperwork and photograph each object. I also created their collections management policy booklet and template forms. I was able to do this all a shoe-string budget, bringing foundational concepts forward to achieve organizational excellence, which in turn would help them build to their next level. (This project was the inspiration of my most popular blog post, An Inventory Project in a Small Museum - nearly 4,000 reads!)

An identification photo of an object in the
Mill Bay Historical Society collection

4. In working with a colleague who was the primary contractor, I contributed to the creation of updated policy manuals for a museum in North Vancouver. Specifically, my role was to review and update collections management documents and all their forms as well as their collections policy.

So I had a busy calendar! As I review my notebooks and see just how many projects and deadlines I had on the go, I am impressed with my multi-tasking capacities. It was an exciting time professionally, for sure, even if it was not super-lucrative for me at the time (uh-huh, I need to be honest in this career adventure story!). But the wealth of experience and people I met along the way proved invaluable. Learning to balance all the demands of multiple clients and all that goes with it - insurance, contracts, billing and of course delivering everything on time and (more than) what was expected - was formative experience that significantly contributed to my development as a museum professional. And would I do it again? Without a doubt . . . it could well be essential to my continued engagement within today's museum and collections sector. So yes, I remain open to work, eager to contribute - please drop me LinkedIn message or an email to BCMuseumRegistrar@gmail.com if you want to connect!

Making Connections

Visiting UBC Library retrieving during an archives event

Okay, all vulnerable here: this was a hard post to write regarding my career journey. 

I really enjoyed my time at Government House. I was there for over four years, and it was good, the longest I had ever worked anywhere. Great, even, with the experience I received and the work I imagined I could do there to bring heritage alive. I thought it was more of a forever thing; but honestly, and you know this, no job is. I was sad when it ended, and a little worried for the future.

My pain was confirmed in my journals - I was certain that I would struggle to ever work again. It feels painfully familiar now, which sorta sucks. It was also not true, which is inspiring! The Universe is not miserly, it just has its own pace of doing things and providing lessons.

So what happened after the Government House job ended? I continued networking. I went to conferences for archives and for heritage. I also considered (again) what work aligns with making history, heritage, collections, stories more accessible to everyone. With this energy in me, I looked all around. I saw that there was a one-year position as on-site Program Coordinator in the Cultural Resource Management Program at the University of Victoria. Hmmmm . . . sounds interesting. And so I applied . . . and then got it!

Shoot, what a good hair day I had that day!! At least for the 2010s-ish and me! :)

I spent the year working with museum and heritage planning professionals to organize and deliver their on campus courses, with all their advance material and syllabus support. I organized their field trips and prepared the classroom. I also worked with students to find out what courses would work best with their professional goals and timeline. And, personally, I learned a huge amount of information on heritage planning, and how the work of preserving buildings and neighbourhoods is so important in where we live.

At a Heritage Planning workshop

I also remember really connecting with people. There was one student who honestly did not see herself worthy of being in the group, and although this was her final class, that she didn't deserve to graduate. This broke my heart. It also made me brave, and I counselled her that she WAS important, and that her group needed her, and she WAS worthy. She was so willing to walk away . . . until she understood that she made a difference, that her part of the presentation mattered, and she had a voice, a perspective. And ya, so that she could graduate. She eventually went into the classroom and joined her group and delivered her piece. If this was the only true connection that I made in that year, it was all worth it. 

This was not a full time position, which meant I could continue to work on other projects that I had lined up. I was excited to start the planning for a conference of the BC Museums Association (as a volunteer, which I blogged about here) and I knew I could make the space to do this outside of the responsibilities of the work, which was really important to me. It also helped me align my thoughts about my career, and where I wanted to go next, including the birth of this blog and work as a contractor. 

Change is hard, and making all the connections that these tough challenges bring helps me grow and makes me stronger, ready for the next adventure. Stay tuned!