Minutes of the 16th meeting of the museum board, at Lyngás 7, 210 Garðabær,
February 27, 2003, at 12:00.
Present were: Margrét Hallgrímsdóttir, Ólafur Kvaran, Gísli Sverrir Árnason, Ragnheiður H. Þórarinsdóttir, Álfheiður Ingadóttir, Sigrún Ásta Jónsdóttir, Rakel Halldórsdóttir, Auður Sigurðardóttir.
1. Employee hired
RH, the museum board's staff member, was welcomed to the team. The museum board hires staff and enters into an agreement with the National Museum for formal employment regarding payroll, then the museum fund reimburses the museum at the end of the year. A service agreement will be made with the National Museum for the lease of premises and other matters. There will be some start-up costs associated with hiring the staff member. A representative from the ministry will discuss these matters with the finance director.
2. Approval of the minutes of the 15th meeting.
AI submitted Jón Gunnar Ottósson's comments on items 2 and 4 of the minutes. The minutes will be amended accordingly.
3. Draft information about the contents of the founding document.
RH presented the draft. There has been some talk of museums requesting this information. The balance of the terms "founding document," "charter," and "organizational document" was discussed, noting that they include, among other things, mission, objectives, and strategy. It was decided to split the draft into two parts and include information on the contents of the collection and exhibition policy in a separate document.
4. Meeting dates.
A proposal was put forward for the meeting dates for the rest of the year. No meetings will be held in June and July, but two-day trips will be made through specific regions. No meetings will be held in December. The staff member will send out the final meeting schedule.
5. Report to the Board of Trustees and staff report.
- Presentation from the Westfjords Museum about a founding grant for the museum's development. It was approved to recommend the grant.
- Notice from the European Museum of the Year Award 2004 requesting a nomination of an Icelandic museum. It was agreed to nominate the Herring Museum in Siglufjörður.
- A proposal from the French Minister of Culture for one free museum day per year. RH sent a message to the museum mailing list and introduced the idea. SÁJ will consider this with FÍSOS.
- A message from the Húsavík Whale Museum for your information. The museum is converting from a limited liability company into a non-profit organization.
- A communication from the Herring Museum for information. The government grant to the museum is a founding grant for building construction.
- A letter from the Akureyri Museum for information about storage facility construction.
- A message from Steingrímur's online Photo Archive with information about the use of a grant from 2002.
- An employee reported on discussions with the Tradesmen's Association, where the association presented ideas for establishing an industrial history museum in Reykjavik.
RHÞ, a representative of the ministry, left the meeting while the matters were being discussed.
6. Grants from the Museum Fund 2003.
OK reported its idea that the equal distribution of operating grants would be reviewed. An analysis would be conducted of the museums, their operations, and their financial capacity. AI proposed the idea of increasing operating grants to museums that operate under a joint operating unit. The idea was that these museums would not be "punished" for having this operational efficiency.
GSÁ and SÁJ left the meeting while grants to organizations under their supervision were being discussed.
A proposal for grants for the year 2003 was approved, subject to the ministry's confirmation of the museum fund's allocation rules and the granting of a subsidy to the Reykjavík Botanical Garden.
There was no further discussion and the meeting adjourned at 2:00 PM/RH.