The following article addresses issues found at many historic sites (as well as other nonprofits) related to staffing and accomplishing the workload, often as the result of budgetary constraints. While the issues are are very real, the solutions often require additional thought and understanding of the nature of some jobs.
Some time ago I attended a meeting of staff members from a variety of historic sites. During the introductions one of the attendees introduced themselves as the new Catered Rentals Manager at _________ . Believing this site had excellent potential to expand their earned income through a thoughtfully crafted rentals program, I thought “Hallelujah! An organization that has figured out that a rentals program requires a dedicated position to function properly!” But then the new hire went on… “And I’m also the new Communications Manager,” and my heart sank. When they continued on to say they were part-time I nearly began banging my head on the table.
Whether by a real lack of awareness, selective blindness, or an understandable desire to accomplish work within budgetary constraints, staff and board members of historic sites tend to minimize the expertise and time required to implement a successful Rentals program and/or manage an effective Communications effort . In addition to the all-to-frequent and unfortunate fact that there is rarely enough money to create a full-time position in either of these areas, I believe the down-playing of the time and knowledge required for both Rentals and Communications is due to a variety of additional reasons.
Board members of historic house museums/sites often appear to not be aware of the significant time and effort that must be put into a realistic Rentals program or a well-managed Communications effort in order for these areas to be truly successful. “Rentals Manager? Why do we need a rentals manager? The caterer/s will take care everything;” “The site manager can proctor the events;” and “We can hire one of the guides to proctor at $8/hour;” are all opinions I’ve heard over the course of my work with historic house museums. The board members’ eyes are on a tantalizing earned income stream and minimizing the costs against it.
But corollary questions arise… Is the Site Manager going to be compensated for proctoring rental events or is it just to be included part of his/her duties? What if he/she gets sick or has a conflict? Who will substitute? Will the substitute be paid, and if so, how? If “the guides” are doing the proctoring, who is going to schedule and hire the guides? For that matter, who is going to train the guides to serve as event proctors? The crowd management skills required to give tours to people who have specifically come to see the historic site are different from those required to proctor a rental event at which someone who has had too much to drink tries to stand on a fragile antique chair to give a toast.
And it may be the expectation that the caterers will show the site to prospective clients,
but will the caterers be on hand when the bride shows up unannounced with her mother? her father? fiancé? maid of honor? wedding planner? floral designer? Will the caterers really be there when the flowers arrive and the booze is delivered at 7:00PM the day before, and the tent company arrives at 7:00AM the day off? Or will a staff member will have to be there to unlock the gate, answer the door, and direct all these people? The option to tell the various vendors “I’m sorry. You need to make arrangements with the caterers and come back another time” is not realistic. Managing rental events requires time, lots and lots of time.
A well-managed Communications effort also takes time, as well as the specific knowledge of how to develop really good media lists; prepare and send releases (a process now becoming increasingly time consuming due to having to enter information to many different media websites individually); make follow-up phone calls; post to event websites; and create social media posts “across all platforms”, even when using a social media management tool.
In addition, there is frequently not enough recognition of the need for quality graphic design. At many historic sites staff members with expertise in areas such as Museum Education and Collections Management are expected to manage communications and create “engaging graphics” for print and online media despite not having any background in graphic design (with the exception of “good taste”). To their credit they are surprisingly successful – ads and posts look “OK”, people show up for events, visitation generally holds steady, and occasional pieces appear in local and regional media. Too frequently, however, there is a sense of “if only we could have gotten more coverage…better coverage …” Every now and then sites get lucky, but in general, a truly successful media campaign requires the knowledge and connections of a specialist.
By necessity, employees at most historic sites must wear multiple hats and accomplish tasks in areas for which they may not have background, expertise, or sometimes, even aptitude. Thus, when a new staff person is hired to take on some of the workload, the new person is expected to do at least two jobs at once as well. Unfortunately, some combinations are not as successful as others.
For some reason Rentals and Communications often get lumped together in the historic site world. I believe this has to do with the fact that while these areas are recognized as beneficial to an organization, they require skills that are not specifically history or museum related. Thus, they are considered as being in service of the “real” work of interpreting the site. (Note: Most historic site employees would be dismayed to think they may be guilty of this unintentional and unconscious bias, but I believe it does exist). There is also the fact that until a Rentals &/or Communications position is created, quite frequently an employee with little or no experience in either area has somehow managed to take care of these areas in addition to their other responsibilities! Once the new hire is in place however, sight seems to be lost of the fact that the reason the new position was created is that was the work load was too great to accomplish as part of another position.
There are jobs that can be done in tandem. Rentals Manager and Communications Manager are not two of them. A person can’t be talking on the phone with a reporter about an upcoming event while simultaneously taking care of deliveries for a 200-guest wedding. Nor are the skills required for these jobs the same as those of collections manager, registrar, education director, guide manager, volunteer coordinator, or program director…
Sometime after the meeting I mentioned at the beginning of this article, the Rentals program at that site was discontinued and with it the position of Rentals & Communications Manager. While a variety of factors played into this decision, from my perspective, the primary reason was the employee had been unable to sustain doing two distinct jobs simultaneously. The rentals program had not grown as envisioned, so when other issues became a temporary priority, it was deemed dispensable. Nor had the communications efforts increased public recognition or attendance to the hoped-for degree, so communications went onto the plate of another employee whose expertise was in another area.
But the tale does not have to end this way. Not long ago I had the opportunity to talk with an employee at another historic site. About a year earlier they had hired, guess what? A “Part-time Rentals & Communications Manager!” After three months however, this individual realized they could not do both jobs simultaneously . They approached the Executive Director and the decision was made (no doubt with some nail biting), to divide the position into two separate part-time jobs with the current employee remaining as part-time Rentals Manager and a new part-time hire stepping into the role of Communications Manager. With this decision the rentals program took off and became a major income generator for the site, leading to the Rentals Manager becoming full-time! And because the Communications Manager could also concentrate on their job, visitation, event attendance, website and social media engagement skyrocketed and the Communications Manager also became full-time!
From my perspective, a combined “Rentals AND Communication Manager” position may be an initial approach to getting going with a much needed income stream and boosting awareness of your organization, but this “two-in-one” job is not sustainable. Once the initial activity is established, both jobs will benefit by being divided into two distinct positions jobs as soon as possible. From there, the part-time Rentals Manager and the part-time Communications Manager can each grow into full-time. And after the initial nail biting, the Executive Director can treat themselves to a year’s worth of manicures.
Brandi Levine Consulting 