This morning, all departments from CMA took part in a staff “retreat” (in the café) to discuss our current strategic plan for the museum and some of the ways that we can further improve our day-to-day processes to help create compelling exhibitions and programs for the public.

The meeting included a brainstorm session where we worked in groups identifying things we feel we are doing well overall (“roses”), new projects or possible opportunities (“buds”), and things we need to improve upon (“thorns”). Of course you can’t have one without the other (two), and I won’t list all of our successes and/or shortcomings that came out of the meeting, but any time an organization gets its staff together to get their feedback and think about the future of the institution, it is a good thing! Everyone was very open about all of opportunities and challenges before us, and it is great to work with a large group of diverse thinkers who have the public interest in mind. Ultimately our goal is to keep improving our daily operations, so we can find new and better ways to engage with our visitors.

Thanks to the facilitators from ParenteBeard (formerly Dewey & Kaye) who helped organize our ideas and got us pointed in the right direction for our next steps!