Every board and every museum has two distinct agendas: The Getting By agenda and the Getting Better agenda. Both are necessary and they are often in conflict with one another. Without clarity and focus on the Getting Better agenda the Getting By work always overwhelms it.

The Getting By agenda focuses on everything the board must address get through the next month or the next year. It includes deadline driven issues and the crises d'jour. The unending, on-going nature of this agenda plus the board's preference for action assures that every board meeting is full, often too full.

The Getting By agenda focuses on managing the museum, the Getting Better agenda focuses on leading it. Externally, Getting Better includes proactively identifying important opportunities and threats and insuring they are adequately addressed. Internally, it includes improving the board and the museum itself. For the board, this means learning how to better focus the mission, work together, and develop new board members.

With only a Getting By agenda the museum gets through the year. With a Getting Better agenda the board and museum get better at getting by. Getting Better implies change. Getting Better drives the present toward the future whereas Getting By drives the present from the past.

Ask your board what is our Getting Better agenda? Ask your museum what is the Getting Better agenda? If you don't have these agendas well articulated here's how to start.

Getting Better begins with awareness, builds on hope, and ends in improvement. Here are some readily available and easy to use ways to increase awareness and build the foundation for your Getting Better agenda.

1. Evaluate the board's work.
2. Evaluate the director's work.
3. Evaluate how well the museum meets its goals and objectives
4. Evaluate how much value the community places on the museum.

The Museum Trustee Association offers a mutual assessment tool for boards and CEOs. The American Association of Museums (AAM) has a tool for 3 and 4 above, called the New Visions Process.

Boards without a conscious agenda for Getting Better may be sewing the seeds of complacency into their work. Serious evaluation sharpen the focus and leads to insightful planning. The choice is yours!