Zabrina Shkurti, Living Museum President ’22-23
Tracy Sidesinger, Living Museum Residency Coordinator ’21-23
MOM Seeks Volunteers: Living Museum Board Members and Community Directors –Annually
Living Museum Board: MOM aspires to be organized and activated by students, scholars, artists, and community members invested in its mission and wellbeing. MOM’s ongoing mission is to be free to the public, open to evolving interdisciplinary perspectives, of womyn, families, and those exploring reproductive identities on an ongoing basis in perpetuity. The “living museum” status means that new directions, goals, and implementation of projects will be collaboratively planned and executed by a rotating group of individuals who agree to invest in MOM’s ongoing success.
All board positions can be performed remotely. This initiative will benefit all parties in the following ways:
- Offer the potential of increased interaction and collaboration between members and their skillsets, leading to a dynamic research environment.
- Open a new curatorial aspect to experiential mothering research.
- Responsibilities (as a longer time frame) provide an opportunity for a scholar/artists/student to develop their research interest in-depth.
- The ‘living space’ has the potential to increase outreach and activism.
- Increases the visibility of MOM through the member’s responsibilities to share and document interdisciplinary, multi-cultural projects.
- The stipend for some positions recognizes the participant’s contribution and should therefore ensure commitment to MOM and encourage a good ‘work ethic’.
Annual Board Members: Each year, the museum seeks new board members on a volunteer basis. During each meeting, lasting no more than 60 minutes, discussions, planning for ongoing Residencies, Conferences, and the Journal of Mother Studies should take place. Ideally, the board should be composed of a minimum of 3-4 members at any given time. President, Residency Director, and JourMS Editor at a minimum, with job specifics spelled out below. Board members should agree to one year of service and can be extended if volunteers are willing. Board members must be willing to meet 5xs per 12-month period via conference call. Meeting times are the first week of February, May, July, September, November.
BOARD PRESIDENT: Duties include overseeing meeting reminders, website updates with forward-thinking planning initiatives and general management of MoM. This includes social media postings (one per week), and calendar commitments including notifying Community Directors (see below) of their responsibilities and assisting with the fulfillment of their activities while strategizing about MoM’s direction in the community and beyond. Board presidents can expect to learn WordPress website skills, have access to social media sites, and practice organizational and leadership skills with an agreement to spend the final weeks of their directorship mentoring the next Board President about their duties.
JourMS (Journal of Mother Studies) EDITOR: Assist with the creation of annual CFP as well as the circulation of CFP. March is the annual MOM Conference. The editor will help collate, communicate with, and organize the editing team of volunteers from inception to completion of publication, working closely with the previous editor and/or Museum Director. Publication date online is Sept. 1 annually. The rest of the JourMS guidelines are online at the JourMS website. CFP for the next conference and JourMS should go out for general circulation beginning in October with a follow-up in November).
INTERNSHIP/RESIDENCY DIRECTOR: The Internship/Residency Director manages communication between interns and residency applicants, projects, the community calendar, and organization of use of the facility. Other tasks include interfacing with the museum director and participants, seeing to the distribution of expectations, contracts, and issues as they arise with follow-up post-activity. This position includes the opportunity to take advantage of one onsite residency per year.
SOCIAL MEDIA, MARKETING COORDINATOR AND PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT, as well as EXECUTIVE FUNDRAISING BOARD & COMMUNITY ALLIES & PARTNERS NEEDED: MOM is currently seeking new board members and community partners in order to activate strategic plans for a new expanded physical structure in St. Pete. More information can be found on our website as well as the day-to-day management of MoM.
CONTACT US: INFO@MOMmuseum.org to get involved in one or more of these ongoing activities.
Thanks to past Living Board Members, Lexy Valdez (President) and Colleen Clements (JourMS Editor) 2020-2021.