Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | November 23, 2020 | Worcester Business Journal 23 10) Black Families Together convenes hundreds of Black people in Worcester, to address racism and the inequities existing for Black people. Priorities include business ownership and access to capital. 9) Diverse Professionals Roundtable, from the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce, con- nects inspired, motivated, dedicated professionals of color with meaningful spheres of influence. These racially and ethnically diverse leaders serve as a resource for the business, educational, and civic community of Central Massachusetts. 8) Entrepreneurship for All has launched in Worcester! EforAll was founded a decade ago in Lowell and works in low-income communities by giving entrepreneurs the tools to launch businesses. 7) Game Changers. This year, the Worcester chamber's three-day annual business conference "Changing the Game in Worcester: Not Business as Usual" explored how the business community can provide opportunities for people of color. 6) The Latino Education Institute of Worcester State engages more than 2,500 Latino families and youth in initiatives aimed at career preparation. 5) The Mechanics Hall Board of Trustees voted to add William Brown & Frederick Douglass to the Great Hall Gallery, becoming the first people of color to have portraits hung in the 154-year-old gallery. 4) Trinity Financial, the developer of Courthouse Lofts, the former Worcester County Courthouse, has diversity as a core value, as it is 50% minori- ty-owned and employs a staff of 59% women and/ or people of color, including Trinity's founder Patrick Lee, who is African American. 3) Worcester Interfaith is a broad-based com- munity organization, comprised of 25 dues-paying institutions reflecting the religious, racial, ethnic and geographic diversity of the city. Worcester Interfaith draws attention to the disproportionate ways in policies impact low-income and minority populations. 2) Worcester State University faculty, staff, and students work with its Campus Climate Committee; The Bias Incident Response Team; The Advisory Committee for Equal Opportunity, Diversity, and Affir- mative Action; and the LGBTQ+ Advisory Group. 1) Worcester Together Coalition is comprised of more than 100 individuals and organizations, who signed a petition committing to acknowledge the reality of white supremacism in our history and its insidious presence in our institutions, public school system, and police department, and will facilitate courageous conversations of the issues. K N O W H O W Museums can sell their collections? Lease them instead 10 1: S uccessful leaders have a honed sense of focus on their company's projects and what should take priority. ey are also skilled at juggling talent, resources and individual department needs with the company's needs to make it all happen. Here are some tips to keep only the truly important things on your priority list. Check in with your core motivations and direction. Ethan Brooks of entrepreneurial newsletter e Hustle offers this checklist of sorts for your current priority list: Is this task still important, or has the situation changed? Am I really the only person who can do this? (In other words, are there certain tasks you can delegate?) Is this the most important thing right now, or am I using it to avoid doing something else? And, if this was the only thing I completed today, would I be satisfied with my day's work? Let projects and priorities cascade from your company's strategic vision. Project-management expert Antonia Nieto-Rodriguez subscribes to a Hierarchy of Purpose framework, where work is prioritized in accordance with its adherence to the company's overall purpose and strategic vision. Once priorities are formed from those concepts for the coming two to five years' time, executives should ask, "Which projects are the most strategic and should be resourced to the hilt? Which projects align with the purpose, vision and priorities, and which should be stopped or scrapped?" he tells Harvard Business Review. Know it's OK to let low-impact, high- effort projects fall by the wayside. Simon Smith – a member of the Forbes Technology Council – recommends establishing a workplace culture when it comes to projects, weighing impact for effort. In other words, when it comes to projects, "Pursue only easy wins (high impact, low effort) and big bets (high/high). Kill maybes (low/low) and losers (low/high)," he writes. 1 0 T H I NG S I know about... ...Building community amid racial unrest BY ALAN OSMOLOWSKI Special to the Worcester Business Journal O n April 15, the American Association of Museum Directors board announced it passed two resolutions amending its ethical standards. ese resolutions are a policy reversal on their prior position on meeting institutional operating costs both by accessing restricted endowments and by using the proceeds of selling items in the museum's collection. is is in stark contrast to the position the AAMD took in 2017 when the Berkshire Museum proposed the sale of artwork with the proceeds going towards capital needs and operating costs. en the AAMD position was: "Selling from the collection for purposes such as capital projects or operating funds not only diminishes the core of works available to the public, it erodes the future fundraising ability of museums nationwide." In 2017 I felt the AAMD position was unreasonable. e Berkshire Museum was created by the philanthropy of the Crane family to bring art to Western Massachusetts at a time when there was no other cultural institution in the area. Since then, the world has changed, as has the cost of maintaining a cultural institution and the nature of philanthropy. No longer can, or should, a museum relies on one or a few large donors to maintain its operational existence. e reversal of the AAMD reveals its prior position for what it is, a position a cultural institution must close its doors and gi all of its assets to other institutions rather than sell art or other assets and keep its doors open. In other words, giing art to a museum is a suicide pack. At that time, I pointed out Dr. Erica Coslor, in her article "Art Investment Collections: A New Model for Museum Finance?" has a brilliant suggestion – that museums create an investment collection to be used to generate funds to meet operating and capital needs. ere are issues, such as governance, accountability and conflicts of interests, but it is a realistic solution to the current financial crisis impacting museums across the country. is also does not have to be restricted to sale of assets, but could be extended to leasing of assets in the investment collection as well. e use of leasing as an option has a number of advantages. First, for those institutions with objects in storage in need of repair or restoration, one condition of the lease is that the lessee pay for the restoration and upkeep of the item. e second is the lease could require the lessee to cover the annual operating costs, including insurance, otherwise the institution would have to cover. Finally, by leasing rather than selling, the item does not go out of the public realm forever, indeed it could be said that for some items (such as a sailboat) having it out and used has it more in the public view than in storage. For individuals who are leasing the item, the advantage is both they do not have to pay the acquisition costs of the item, and the restoration could be structured as a charitable donation. Indeed, in the era of the sharing economy, I can see younger individuals who do not want to own art or other items outright being willing to participate in clubs to allow them to use or display the item for a time as part of their membership. is investment collection, and the leasing solution, is the viable alternative to both the complete ban on the sale of artwork and other items in museum collections and opening the entire collection for sale. It is something that museums, and the AAMD, should embrace. Matthew Erskine is managing partner for Worcester law firm Erskine & Erskine. Reach him at (508) 753-7100. BY SUSAN SHALHOUB Special to the Worcester Business Journal By Stacey Luster Luster is the general counsel and assistant to the president for employment and equal opportunity at Worcester State University. Reach her at sluster@worcester.edu. P R I O R I T I Z I N G W W W

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