I find it interesting that over this Summer, 3 well established railway attractions have been searching for an executive director.

It seems to me, most people who are actually qualified for this type of job, will demand a higher salary than most Railroad museums can afford. (Notable exceptions such as California State...). That leaves you with hiring a director who will most likely use the organization as a stepping stone to get a higher paying position elsewhere, or a director who is not capable of the position who will not bring the desired results and will either be let go (the process will start over) or who will continue to lead the organization in a lateral, at best, move.

I personally think it’s best to hire a director from within, specifically someone who has been around the organization for many years (if not decades) and shows they are very committed to the organization and the community.

Obviously I’m expecting to hear others opinions on this.

Links to these listings? Color me curious.

Thanks

Chris

Generally, most professional museums do not hire from within. They perform a national search to obtain the person who is best qualified to manage the organization. The problem with hiring from within is that by doing that, you miss the opportunity to locate the best individual who can lead the organization to the next level.

It is a simple fact of life that highly qualified candidates will look for the opportunities that best fit their needs. A good director will make the decisions that are best for the organization. Preferably, the director/general manager should have prior experience in the rail museum/tourist operations but extensive knowledge of the specific museum isn't really that important during the search phase. They can learn that once hired.

They’ve all been posted right here on the board. Strasburg, Wilmington & Western, and Heart of Dixie. Oh yeah and add Colorado State Railroad museum to the list as well.

Strasburg was a very unusual and tragic situation, the others I’m not aware of the why’s.

Obviously looking for outside candidates doesn’t mean an organization won’t choose to hire from within, but are looking at all options.

My opinion -

Many Executive Directors / CEO’s that are hired from outside are mostly interested in short term success. This is so they get their bonus and can add to their resume and move on to repeat.

This applies to the Mainline railroads as well.

That happens throughout the museum community with our without a bonus. Particularly for recent graduates from higher education with a degree geared for the museum profession. Years ago at a state-wide museum association meeting the comment was that for small museums expect your hired staff to move on in a few years time.

It's résumé building and it goes on in other professions.

In one specific case (that may or may not have been mentioned in this forum), my understanding is that there was a harsh and uncalled-for difference of opinion between the executive/operations director (and his supporters) and the board of directors/trustees over matters completely unrelated to job performance, which caused the simultaneous departure of many volunteers that disagreed with the BOD on the specific issue, and might even cumulate in litigation. (Imagine, just to make up a stupid example, firing someone solely because he supported Donald Trump......)

As for the "stepping stone" issue, yes, it's true. There are people who have been on this very forum in the past "guilty" of exactly that, having moved up from a rail preservation job to a non-rail institution/job (or a major railroad) for better pay.

That sounds like quite the sticky situation! ha.

Obviously stepping stones can exist in any business. But I think it's important to choose someone who you hope will be in it for the long haul. Promoting from within also insures employees at a lower level stick around too... if all they see is people from the outside being brought in and making more money even though they don't know the industry... that can be quite bad for employee morale. (I'm speaking from experience on that one!).

Uhh. This is 2019. Every job is a stepping stone to the next one if you have any ambition. Who wants to stick around anywhere for a few years of COLA adjustments?

The trick is for an organization to understand that and get the best they can out of all of their employees while they have them while being prepared for the eventual turnover.

One could make an argument that the growth and learning opportunities in a position in a smaller organization that allows someone to progress in their career is one of the perks of working for a small organization. If you can't offer money to attract people, at least you can offer the opportunity to gain valuable experience.

I spent a career in the military where it was typical to only spend about three years in a job before moving on. I believe the continuing inflow of new ideas and the cross-pollination between different organizations was of considerable value. Civilian employees provided long-term corporate knowledge, also of value.

For some time now, a LOT of "museum director" positions in the non-profit field have been positions taken by people as kind of a retirement hobby. This was especially true in fields with some "social prestige" such as art museums and the like, and the people involved were "upper crust" stereotypes.

On the other hand, there have been instances where professional directors from other fields found their niche. How long did Courtney Wilson stay with the B&O Museum in Baltimore? Twenty years?

So, is the solution to not hire people with ambition?

Hire for the skill set you need to carry the organization past its current stage of evolution. Once that goal is achieved, and the next stage is defined, you may need to find another person with that skill set to push through the next hurdle. Nobody is good at everything for every stage - hiring somebody that will support stagnation is probably not the smartest or most sustainable move.

They’ve all been posted right here on the board. Strasburg, Wilmington & Western, and Heart of Dixie. Oh yeah and add Colorado State Railroad museum to the list as well.
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The Colorado Railroad Museum has had an AWOL Director for years. A measure of an organization is the ability to communicate with all members and supporters. The "Director" was too busy on vacation making beer and incapable of responding to the email after returning from vacation. I must congratulate him, he lost the support of a life member by his indifference to his life member.

Robby Peartree

Well someone was doing something right. Colorado Railroad Museum is one of the best out there, in my opinion. But that’s just my thoughts as a casual visitor, don’t know anything about the inside politics.

There has been several museums that have past through several different Executive Directors and they brought different skill sets.

At one Museum it was identified as 1) fund raising 2) display and interpretation installation and 3) continuing community knowledge and involvement.

Another Museum had 1) a long-time originating collector 2) long-time members as Ex. Director who helped change the focus to display, conservation and restoration 3) non-railroad not-for-profit manager who retires after 10+ years.

Elsewhere a Executive Director who was at one time a museum volunteer and working in non-profit fund raising and then was Ex. Director at a non-railroad museum and has more than 25 years been Ex. Director at a railway museum that he was never a volunteer at.