Webinar Best Practices for Board Service at Historic Sites April 2019

Wisconsin Historical Society Local History Webinar series

We present two free webedinars on April 10 and 24 at 1 p.m. Central Time, sponsored by the Wisconsin Historical Society Local History program to clear up the confusion about board and staff: who does what at historic house museums.

During the first of two webinars on this topic, we will discuss the legal responsibilities of all nonprofit board members according to state nonprofit law, and how these duties apply to nonprofit historic house museum boards.  We will discuss the three board responsibilities called the Duty of Care, Loyalty, and Obedience to the Law, and how your historic site can demonstrate your understanding of these duties, as well as the organizational policies and practices you can implement to ensure that you exceed these minimum requirements. We will share true but shocking stories along the way (no names please!) about good boards gone bad, so that your organization won’t make the same mistakes!

In Part 2 of our webinar on Best Practices for Board Service at Historic Sites, we will discuss what historic site board members do collectively and as individuals to support the organization with their “time, talent and treasure.”  During this webinar, we will talk about all volunteer historic sites, as well as those with staff to differentiate what the board versus the staff does in both types of organizations. We will highlight the leadership qualities needed in an excellent Board President (whether you have the staff or not), and how the Nominating and Executive Committees can shape the future of the organization.  Finally, we’ll discuss the core documents that all house museums need, in order to be effective stewards of their collections and historic property. 

This two-part training is derived from Ms. Harris’ chapter “The Essential Role of Boards in Reimagining Historic House Museums,” in Re-imaging the Historic House Museum: Catalysts for Change, edited by Kenneth Turino and Max Van Balgooy for Rowman and Littlefield, Publishers, available in 2019.

In September 2018, we presented a webinar for this group on  year end appeals. Unfortunately the organization no longer archives these presentations.

Updated 1-2022.