By: Louise Yokoi

With the start of the WMA 2011 conference in a few days, I’m making a list of items I need for the trip to Hawai’i: beach towel, flip flops, sunscreen, and of course, my tool belt. Like me, you’ve probably put it on your packing list or in your suitcase already. Your tool belt contains all of the successful strategies, engaging ideas, and useful suggestions you have assembled over the last year since WMA 2010 in Portland.

Whether it’s from the insightful sessions, informative meetings, or casual conversations with colleagues that occur while walking down the hallways, WMA is the place where we can add new tools to our professional tool belts and museum tool boxes to foster innovative and growth within our field.

What’s in my tool belt? I’m looking forward to talking with conference attendees about the use of a performance dashboard for effective financial and organizational management in the session “The Performance Dashboard: A Tool for Financial Sustainability” that I’m moderating on Sunday at 3:45pm in room 307 A-B. I’ll discuss the benefits of staff and board members using a one-page Excel report, a dashboard, in order to make informed decisions and undertake actions to meet the financial and organizational goals of their museum or library.  James G. Leventhal will be sharing his experiences advocating for the use of dashboards in museums and his recent experience at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, as the CJM has started to implement an internal dashboard.

As you pack for Hawai’i, what are some ideas that you are putting in your tool belt? Have you discovered a new fundraising or membership strategy that has worked well? Found a helpful technology or marketing tool? Developed a successful educational or collections management program? Or heard about a fascinating idea or trend? It’s time to gather them up, put them in your tool belt, and bring it with you to Hawai’i!

Louise Yokoi
Development Associate, Individual Giving
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art