Minutes of the 101st meeting of the Museum Council – allocation meeting 2011
March 3, 2011, 12:15 – 5:00 PM, National Museum of Iceland
Present: Margrét Hallgrímsdóttir, chairman, Halldór Björn Runólfsson, Helgi Torfason, Jenný Lind Egilsdóttir and Rakel Halldórsdóttir and Ágústa Kristófersdóttir, executive directors of the Museum Council. Guðný Dóra Gestsdóttir was not present due to her seat on the Kópavogur municipal council, but the municipality runs museums that apply for the museum fund.
1. Applications for the 2011 museum fund were discussed. A proposal for the 2011 allocation was approved.
Allocation from the museum fund 2011 – allocation criteria:
The general criteria for allocation from the museum fund in 2011 were discussed and approved:
Operating grants – prerequisites:
The Museum Council's method for calculating operating grants based on a museum's salary costs has been developed with the aim of ensuring that a museum meets the legal and professional requirements for operating grants (director in at least a 50% position and a secured financial basis) and with the provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act, transparency, equality, consistency in grant awards, and effective monitoring of the use of funds as a guideline. In accordance with the emphases announced in the advertisement for applications for the museum fund and the published Information Booklet for Museums for Applications for the Museum Fund 2011, it was agreed to allocate operating grants based on the following assumptions from the museums' annual accounts for 2009
It was agreed, in accordance with previously announced priorities, to provide museums with an increase in operating funding of ISK 100 thousand for each valid service agreement between the museum and another museum/center/exhibition/institution and other activities in the field of museum work. A service agreement is based on the institution that the museum in question serves benefiting from the museum's professional knowledge of museum work.
It was agreed, in accordance with the previously announced premise in the 2011 grant announcement, to cancel operating grants for museums that receive operating grants from the state budget. It was agreed that the adjustment period for the new allocation system was over and that museums that do not reach the minimum wage cost due to operating grants would therefore not be granted operating grants – this concerns four museums. It was agreed, in accordance with previously announced emphases, that consideration would be given to contract work and unpaid work (volunteer work) at those museums that do not reach the minimum wage cost. It was agreed that, with regard to the provision of Article 10 of the Museums Act that a museum should have a secured financial basis in order to be eligible for operating grants from the museum fund, it would not be possible to take into account volunteer work/contract work other than 30% of the minimum wage cost at a museum. One of the four museums that did not meet the minimum wage cost received an operating grant, taking into account volunteer/contract work that amounted to less than 30% of the wage cost benchmark.
Project grants – criteria:
It was agreed to seek to support eligible museum projects that apply for project funding from the Museum Fund in 2011.
Discussion on applications:
A proposal for allocations from the museum fund for 2011 was approved. Jenný Lind left the meeting while the application from Borgarfjörður Museum was being discussed.
One applicant, the Icelandic Medical Archives, withdrew its application for an operating grant.
2. Next meeting and other matters. No further business was discussed and the meeting adjourned at 5:00 PM/RH.