Disqus - Latest Comments for ninaksimon

Re: Relatability and Relinquishing Power: The Global Guides Program at the Penn Museum | ExhibiTricks: The Museum Exhibit Design Blog

Nina Simon — Thu, 16 Jan 2020 14:54:59 -0000

Thank you for sharing! What a great program.

Re: Time for our sector to draw a new fish!

Nina Simon — Mon, 13 Jan 2020 14:30:33 -0000

I'm super-curious about CTF and what y'all are doing/innovating around board structure. This is something I've really struggled with. As someone who transitioned from ED of an existing nonprofit to founding a new nonprofit, it's been fun (and daunting) working with my colleagues to draw new fish into our staff handbook. But the board structure fish has been harder to reimagine... I look forward to learning from you and swimming along!

Re: Let’s stop recognizing donors by donation levels

Nina Simon — Mon, 14 Oct 2019 14:51:05 -0000

Hi Vu - At the museum I used to run, we switched from acknowledging donors and volunteers separately and appreciated all of them as "partners." We put them all in the same database, communicated with them the same way with the same staff team, and gave them (lots of) love in the same way. Our perspective was that whether you give time, money, or creativity, you are a meaningful contributor and partner. We also found that many people crossed over from volunteer to donor and back again, and we were leaving impact on the table by NOT tracking and engaging with the diversity of ways they chose to contribute and participate. I don't care if you give $0 or $10,000. What I care about is that you give.

Re: Searching for Index Cards in Bulgaria | ExhibiTricks: The Museum Exhibit Design Blog

Nina Simon — Mon, 23 Sep 2019 09:34:02 -0000

Great post, Paul! Made me think about the different tools we use and how they shape our behavior. Did your Bulgarian colleagues have any "daily" tools that were new to you?

Re: What's Stopping us from Building More Inclusive Nonprofits?

Nina Simon — Fri, 22 Mar 2019 20:00:04 -0000

I think it's so challenging for any of us to spend time on documentation - let alone doing so transparently, publicly, and honestly. I think that's particularly true when speaking about institutional learning as opposed to personal learning. There's huge pressure to make it look professional, to be comprehensive, and that takes a lot more time and gloss than sharing personal reflections. I'd love to see more orgs spend more time on documenting and sharing progress (something we are trying to build into the OF/BY/FOR ALL change network), but I think it's a really tough thing for orgs to do unless there's a supportive environment where they can do so in less formal ways.

Re: ExhibiTricks: A Museum/Exhibit/Design Blog: Are Your Museum's Elevators An Underutilized Graphics/Messaging Resource?

Nina Simon — Mon, 18 Mar 2019 19:00:22 -0000

We LOVE using our elevator at the Santa Cruz MAH to shake things up and make people welcome. Our elevator always has two colorful chairs in it to invite people to sit. And a couple years ago, it became a living piece of Santa Cruz art and history with a wrap of the screaming hand (a worldwide skate icon started in our town). This photo of the interior of our elevator is our most liked Instagram post ever. https://www.instagram.com/p...

Re: Apply Now for the World's Best Museum Job: Mine.

Nina Simon — Wed, 19 Dec 2018 17:12:20 -0000

I completely agree, Linda, and it is a practice of the MAH to post jobs with salary ranges. This job description was developed in a different way than we typically do it. I'm not sure why a range was not included. I'll ask.

Re: Who are We Protecting?

Nina Simon — Thu, 02 Aug 2018 14:51:44 -0000

A wise nonprofit executive once taught me the phrase "bless and release."

When someone is so frustrated, so unhappy -- but so loyal -- you have to find a graceful way to let them go. I've done this a couple times with donors and volunteers. I've said to them point blank, "It's clear you are not happy about the direction the museum is taking. I respect that, and I respect you. I know you have so much to give. I sincerely hope you find another institution where you can feel valued and make a meaningful contribution."

It isn't easy, but it's ultimately good for everyone.

Re: Are Participant Demographics the Most Useful Single Measure of Community Impact?

Nina Simon — Fri, 23 Feb 2018 13:20:06 -0000

I absolutely agree that every organization can set its own targets and important demos to measure. If more organizations set audience goals more intentionally--and stuck to them even when reaching those goals required real change--I'd be thrilled.

I'm also intrigued by your comment re "the cultural life of an entire community serves people equitably." My sad suspicion, based on lots of observed evidence, is that access to cultural resources is deeply inequitable. So I guess my starting point is that if more organizations, of any kind, set goals to reach more marginalized community groups (whether by age, race, ability, income, geography, immigration status, sexual orientation, etc etc etc), it would help.

Re: Are Participant Demographics the Most Useful Single Measure of Community Impact?

Nina Simon — Wed, 21 Feb 2018 11:44:25 -0000

Great questions. We spent a lot of time - with expert help - figuring this out.
For visitor demographics, we try to get a truly representative sample of the people who participate onsite. That means:
--we created a methodology of what events/programs/times to survey at to represent the full scope of our activities
--we proactively approach visitors (rather than letting them come to us or opt in) based on a rule (like approaching every third person) to get a random sample
--we tell them we want to understand who is participating so we can serve our community better. We tell them we need THEM to get a representative sample.
--The whole survey is completely anonymous, takes under 3 min, and can be done in English or Spanish.
--we hand them an ipad to privately take the survey on their own.

Re: Introducing Community Participation Bootcamp at the MAH

Nina Simon — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 12:21:46 -0000

Hi Katie -
Feel free to send me an email about your circumstances. We typically don't open up scholarship spots until we find the sponsorship money to support them... working on it.

Re: 12 Ways We Made our Santa Cruz Collect Exhibition Participatory

Nina Simon — Mon, 22 Jan 2018 17:39:49 -0000

Good question... it was six years ago, so my memory is a little hazy. At the time, we worked as a very collaborative group - staff and interns - to develop concepts. Everyone put ideas on the table. But staff took the lead on winnowing down to the key activities to pursue, and then supported interns in executing those activities. I hope this answers your question.

Re: Instead of Selling Objects, Build Public Trust

Nina Simon — Wed, 17 Jan 2018 17:45:19 -0000

Brian McAlonie just pointed me to this great recap of a discussion at the 2017 NEMA conference regarding the Berkshire Museum and related issues. Some interesting perspectives and potential solutions from museum professionals: https://nemanet.org/nemn/fa...

Re: What is the Turkey and the Bread (or the Sourdough Starter) of the MAH?

Nina Simon — Wed, 20 Dec 2017 17:08:52 -0000

Nice! I like it!
What would your answers be?

Re: Introducing #museumfitness, a Side Project where Art & Athletics Mix

Nina Simon — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 11:48:00 -0000

Thanks Andrew! I often think with fondness about those experiments - especially the paper-ripping one!

Re: Introducing #museumfitness, a Side Project where Art & Athletics Mix

Nina Simon — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 11:47:40 -0000

Awesome! We'd love for you to post sometime too - especially if you are ever running in and around museums. When I lived in DC one of my favorite things to do was run on the mall and weave through the monuments and sculptures... or the zoo. What a gift to have a free public zoo.

Re: A milestone and a sunset for Createquity

Nina Simon — Thu, 26 Oct 2017 17:33:30 -0000

Thank you all for working so hard to build this important resource. I appreciate you!

Re: Where Do You Learn Best? My Personal Learning Journey from Conferences to Trainings

Nina Simon — Fri, 06 Oct 2017 18:04:12 -0000

Thank you for sharing these thoughts, Megan. Online communities of learning have been and are important to me, too. But I haven't found community through online courses... what kind of courses are you taking? Have you found a source(s) for quality online learning that you could share?

Re: Are Cultural Organizations Built to Fail to Scale?

Nina Simon — Thu, 29 Jun 2017 11:54:07 -0000

Good points on these, Dani - thank you for sharing.

I'm not sure anyone wants to be the Wal-Mart of the museum world... but I hope someone might want to be the YMCA, Goodwill, CASA, Ashoka, or KIPP of the museum world! If we are serious about contributing to community growth and change, why aren't we thinking bigger than single sites about how we can have that impact?

Re: Are Cultural Organizations Built to Fail to Scale?

Nina Simon — Thu, 29 Jun 2017 11:52:08 -0000

Funny you bring Dialogue up - I was just spending time with Andreas and Orna - as well as the folks from Science Gallery International - and their excellent examples partly prompted this post. I think in both their cases, the initial strategy was an international one, which prompted them to move in that direction. I assume the same for Bodyworlds but I know less about it.

Re: Why We Moved the Abbott Square Opening - A Mistake, a Tough Call, & a Pivot: Introducing Abbott Square, Bonus Post

Nina Simon — Wed, 31 May 2017 19:23:43 -0000

Thanks for sharing this story, Niki.

Once things got iffy here, we also started thinking that way: "what do we need to make a successful opening week?" But for us, I'm not sure if that was productive or if it masked the ultimate decision we had to make. We kept changing the answer to the question, and that prolonged our decision-making. At first the answer was, "restaurants, bar, and plaza open with fun, diverse programming every night." Then it was "bar and plaza open, fun diverse programming, limited menus in restaurants." Then "bar and plaza open, fun diverse programming, tastes of the restaurants, with restaurants to open at week's end." We hit the wall when it became clear that the restaurants would not be ready to open by the end of opening week.

I think it's possible that all those equivocations distracted us from making the hard decision to postpone sooner. On the other hand, if we had slid one notch but not three, maybe it would have been just fine.

Re: Why We Moved the Abbott Square Opening - A Mistake, a Tough Call, & a Pivot: Introducing Abbott Square, Bonus Post

Nina Simon — Wed, 31 May 2017 11:43:25 -0000

Thank you Shari. I think you're right that maintaining an "out" might feel challenging - especially when my standard MO is to not let things slip, hold myself and others accountable to our commitments.

I recently learned the Marshall Ganz quote that leadership is "accepting responsibility for enabling others to achieve purpose under conditions of uncertainty." I look forward to learning more about that.

Re: Ask Me Anything about our Expansion... and Enjoy All the Posts in the Abbott Square Series

Nina Simon — Tue, 30 May 2017 18:46:52 -0000

Thank you for these kind words, Emma! Looking forward to more conversation in person soon.

Re: Ask Me Anything about our Expansion... and Enjoy All the Posts in the Abbott Square Series

Nina Simon — Thu, 18 May 2017 15:03:35 -0000

Disclaimer: I'm not a tax expert, but...
The MAH has leased out commercial space for a long time in a structure that, in the opinion of our auditors, is not subject to UBIT. The laws governing UBIT and nonprofits leasing space are complex (see http://nonprofit.belfint.co...

When we started the Abbott Square project, the MAH board debated what legal structure to use for the food market. Should the nonprofit MAH run the market directly? Partner with an outside developer in a new LLC? Or lease the space to a tenant market manager? We ultimately decided to structure the market as a tenant lease, like all our other commercial leases. We did this primarily to mitigate risk and stay focused on our core competencies. This decision also had the benefit of not changing the nature of our leases (and taxable income) on the property.

Re: Think Like a (Real Estate) Developer: Introducing Abbott Square, Part 9

Nina Simon — Wed, 03 May 2017 10:12:49 -0000

Very good point; very important downside. But still a frame worth trying on every once in a while... especially in the earliest stages before any conversations are had out loud.