A WORD, OR TWO FROM AAM
Dear Colleagues:
At AAM, we are always looking for ways we can better provide leadership to the field. Perhaps our most significant recent accomplishment – for our members, for the field, and for AAM itself – is a little less visible than some of our programmatic initiatives, but undoubtedly of much greater importance in the long run. I am referring to AAM’s new strategic plan, internally dubbed “The Spark,” the first strategic plan in AAM’s recent history, created after many months of hard work and harder thinking, involving AAM’s staff and board, as well as our colleagues from the museum field. The complete text of the plan can be found here.
The four pillars of the plan—its four goals—are as follows:
Excellence, and all that it means for museum standards, ethics, the Museum Assessment Program and Accreditation, which we are currently working on streamlining.
Advocacy, which we all realize, I believe, is the key to winning future budget battles, as well as essential to our third goal, which is . . .
Sustainability, both for AAM and for museums everywhere.
And, finally, Alignment. That is, how can we best align our operational resources and programs to drive better collaboration with allied associations and interest groups, here and abroad, inside and outside our field.
Although we talk about “AAM’s new strategic plan,” in reality this is your plan. If, in the end, the plan is all about AAM, and about what we do day-to-day in our office here in Washington, then it will be a failure. This plan is AAM’s opportunity to unite a wonderfully diverse array of people and institutions dedicated to the betterment of our society.
This is your plan. Hold us accountable. All of us at AAM look forward to working with you.
Ford W. Bell
President
1575 Eye St N.W., Ste. 400
Washington, DC 20005
P. 202-289-1818 | F. 202-289-6578
