by. Chuck Fagan
Imagine you’re on the board of an art museum. A priceless collection of the museum’s art is being loaned to a hotel in Las Vegas. As a director, what do you need to know and do in response?
This exercise, undertaken in much more detail by the CUES Board at its May meeting, showed that—for the most part—being a director of an art museum didn’t require knowledge of the art world. In fact, questions the museum’s directors should be asking and input they should be giving go beyond the day-to-day issues related to moving the art from one place to another. Their questions and input need to focus on the museum’s big-picture strategy and purpose.
Led by Michael Daigneault, CCD, principal of Quantum Governance, L3C, Vienna, Va., (pictured facilitating another board’s session) the museum exercise was part of the CUES Board’s commitment to walking the talk when it comes to striving for excellence. The board brought in Quantum Governance, CUES’ strategic provider for board assessment and consulting, to help ensure the CUES Board itself performs at the highest level possible.
The CUES Board also commissioned Quantum Governance to lead a board assessment. In doing so, the company’s staff members conducted personal interviews with each director and senior CUES staffer, and administered a brief written survey. While the questions weren’t “difficult” or overly time consuming, the results provided a great deal of useful feedback, which was shared first with me and our board chairman, Bob Ramirez, CCE, and then with the full board through a presentation during the May meeting.
