I am launching a new feature on PRos in Training this week. What Would You Do? (or WWYD for short!) Take a look at the following news item and give me your best public relations advice.
Up this week – The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at the UofO was taken to task by the Pappas Group, a consulting group based in Connecticut.
From The Register Guard:
The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at the University of Oregon lacks a clear sense of mission and has suffered from a fragmented staff and inadequate oversight, a private consultant’s report says.
The Jan. 30 report by Alceste Pappas, president of Pappas Consulting Group of Connecticut, was released this week.
The university hired Pappas last year to evaluate the museum; she issued a similarly critical report about the Oregon Bach Festival last year.
The 43-page report on the Schnitzer paints a picture of an institution whose advisory board of directors has become increasingly frustrated with the staff’s lax management.
Among Pappas’ findings:
• “The board is uniform in its belief that the financial management and reporting practices of the museum are inadequate,” the report says.
• “The day-to-day operating environment at the museum may best be characterized as informal,”
• The museum lacks any clear sense of purpose, especially since its reopening in 2005 after a $14 million remodel, the report says. Not one of the two dozen museum and university people who Pappas interviewed knew the museum’s mission statement, and “few resonated with its current wording,” the report says.
So… What Would You Do?
