Museum Administration: An Introduction by Genoways and Ireland

Whether you are running a museum or another kind of nonprofit, this book lays out the issues you need to know if you are the director. From budgeting, staffing, board and donor relations, this is an overview of the concepts. Then, given a scenario taken from the museum context, you are challenged to predict a workable plan that will address the issues. Since the book limits itself to one kind of organization, it actually adapts to the needs of many organizations quite well serving as a good introduction for the untested director.

Hugh H. Genoways & Lynne M. Ireland, Museum Administration: An Introduction. 2003. Alta Mira Press.

Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Mark Hatfield

The pages have yellowed and whole sections of the book have detached from the paperback binding since the first time I read it in 1976. Then, the former governor and senator from Oregon, Senator Mark Hatfield was attempting to reconcile his anti-Vietnam War convictions with the expectations that his fellow evangelical Christians imposed as a litmus test for his faith. I picked it up again in the days just prior to the election of Senator Barack Obama to become the 44th president of the United States. The issues and agony that Hatfield's faith provoked are eerily relevant today. His decision to serve the people of Oregon in the senate as an expression of his authentic commitment to Jesus Christ but without necessarily subscribing to the agenda of what we now call the religious right caused a lot of soul searching. He describes the research, counsel, prayer, reflection that grew to a rejection of a utilitarian civic religion. Here is an authentic wrestling to come up with a faith-filled political position with which I wish more believers would find the courage it takes to struggle.

Hatfield, Mark. Between A Rock And A Hard Place. Word Books. Waco, Texas. c. 1976.

Everything You've Heard Is Wrong by Tony Compolo

Tony Compolo teaches about the power of biblical love when it is applied to business and sales. He rejects the idea that when sales people manipulate buyers with psychological techniques that don't respect the person's values and choices as unloving and ultimately unsuccessful and unfulfilling. This book is a compelling case for a process of reflection and meditation about who you are before determining what you do and then making your life mission match.

Tony Compolo, Everything You've Heard is Wrong. c. 1992. Word Publishing. Dallas, TX.