Review of Governance Practices - Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery Establishment of Working Group

The following information is on the Launceston City Councils website but there is no opportunity there to leave a comment, critique, observation, whatever. It is posted here to allow that and for easy access. The information for intending working group applicants is as follows:

"Proudly owned and operated by the Launceston City Council, the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery (QVMAG) is the largest regional museum in Australia and is the arts, cultural and creative heartbeat of Tasmania.

The Council is undertaking a review of the governance arrangements of the QVMAG. Following the review, the Council will establish an appropriate contemporary governance model which addresses QVMAG's obligations to the Council, State Government and community.

The Council wishes to form a working group of appropriately qualified people to research, evaluate and make recommendations to Council regarding the appropriate governance arrangements for the QVMAG.

The Working Group's considerations are anticipated to include, but not be limited to, the following:

1) Calling for public submissions on relevant matters;
2) Interviews with key stakeholders relating to the QVMAG, such as employees, and Friends and Foundation members;
3) An assessment of the current governance arrangements;
4) Discussion of alternative governance models, including the relationship with the City Council; and
5) A recommended governance model for QVMAG.

It is anticipated that the Working Group's recommendations will reflect both best practice in governance standard and the symbiotic relationship between the Launceston City Council and the QVMAG.

The newly formed governance arrangements, in conjunction with a new Director, will guide the vision and strategy of the QVMAG as it moves through an exciting multi-million dollar redevelopment at both its Inveresk and Royal Park sites. Further key aspects include ensuring that QVMAG's programs engage the community and are at the forefront of innovation and contemporary cultural practice while providing best value to Council and other stakeholders.

Objectives of the review
The Council has established the following objectives for the Working Group tasked to research, evaluate and make recommendations to Council upon the appropriate governance arrangements for the QVMAG.

Establish a governance framework at QVMAG which gives carriage to the Council's statutory responsibilities and community obligations, and which appropriately addresses the following key areas:

• Stewardship and security of collections
• Ethical and accountable management
• Development and delivery upon the QVMAG Strategic Plan
• Accountability reporting to stakeholders
• Contemporary practice in museum and art gallery processes and practices
• A method of practice that promotes engagement and consultative process
• The symbiotic relationship between the Launceston City Council and the QVMAG

Timelines for the review
It is anticipated that the Working Group will report to the Council with its recommendations by 1 March 2011. The Launceston City Council will through the General Manager provide such resources as necessary to facilitate the activities of the Working Group.

Call for nominations
Nominations for the QVMAG Governance Working Group are invited from appropriately qualified people. Applications should include details of experience and qualifications and further information which promotes the credentials of the applicant.

Applications marked QVMAG Governance Working Group should be received by close of business on Friday 8 October 2010 and addressed to:

General Manager
Launceston City Council
P.O Box 396
Launceston, Tasmania 7250

Further enquiries should be directed to the General Manager's Office on 03 6323 3104 or by email to kym.corfield@launceston.tas.gov.au

Robert Dobrzynski
General Manager"

The General Manager has also provided the following contextual information to help put the work of the "Working Group" in context:

"Whilst QVMAG is essentially a Department of the Launceston City Council and predominantly recurrent and capital funded from the City's annual budget (with funding support from the State Government), in practice, the specialised nature of activities at QVMAG have led to a gradual but continuing separation of activities of the City as a local government and QVMAG.

Whilst QVMAG has a Friends Group, this does not provide a governance function. So the current arrangement sees the Launceston City Council and below it the QVMAG. The intercession is the position of Director QVMAG.

The objective is to establish a governance structure that connects QVMAG and the City Council from a technical policy, due diligence in process and practice and performance accountability perspective, effected operationally through the Director.

The QVMAG governance model, whilst contemporary, should also bear relevance to the fact that QVMAG is not a creature of the State Government, and therefore the legislative and trustee models that various State and Territory Governments have established may not be appropriate as a direct translation to QVMAG. However, the many examples of good Museum and Art Gallery governance and policy practice that exist should provide a fertile ground of consideration to the working group, even if in an adapted form."

CLICK HERE TO CONFIRM THIS INFORMATION ON COUNCIL'S SITE

MUSEUM PROBLEMS

Too many specimens, not enough people at museum
Nicky Phillips September 2, 2010

"MORE than a decade after thousands of specimens were stolen from the Australian Museum the NSW Auditor-General has criticised the current management of its collection.

A performance review found much of the museum's 18 million-piece collection, valued at more than $750 million, was not catalogued and many items could not be located by anyone but the curator or museum staff. ''[This] weakens the museum's ability to provide information on its collection. It weakens its ability to exercise effective control over the objects in its care,'' the Auditor-General, Peter Achterstraat, said. ... While the Auditor-General's report, released yesterday, did not assess the museum's security, it found it did not conduct regular inventories of its collection to ensure items still existed ... Thousands of zoological specimens were stolen from the museum by a former employee ... An Independent Commission Against Corruption investigation into the thefts, which included animal skulls, birds and a stuffed lion, found the museum's inventory was incomplete and its security and collection management practices inadequate."

Well reading this in Launceston poses a few questions. The QVMAG's last Director was at the Australian Museum and presumably knew all about this kind of problem. The QVMAG's collection are apparently worth something like $250 Million, so what security is in place there. And in what state is the QVMAG's record keeping? We should not be expecting answers to questions like that anytime soon. The elephant in the room is probably what this SMH story might be telling us. Would an Auditor-General's report on the QVMAG tell us anything that we do not want to know?

POSITION VACANT ADVERTISEMENT: Museum Director QVMAG Launceston

Letters to the Editor – Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery

The two letters in today’s Examiner are an interesting breaking of the silence in regard to the issues surrounding the QVMAG, the ratepayers’ payout of the Director’s contract plus Council’s management and governance of the museum.

The Aldermen’s resolve, having read and considered the Sage Report, to keep its sensitive and its potentially harmful contents confidential is to be congratulated.

It’s a decision that should be supported by any reasonable thinking person.

The real question that needs to be asked is where to from here given that the QVMAG is one of Tasmania’s cultural treasures and that there is a great deal at stake.

Apart from making a well-meaning but relatively ambiguous commitment to set up a “working group” to ” research, evaluate and make recommendations regarding [QVMAG] governance” nothing more has been heard.

Like commitments have been made in the past and have sunk without trace.

Largely this is why the QVMAG is costing Launceston’s ratepayers so much in their rates, not to mention the lost and missed opportunities.

Ray Norman
Trevallyn