BY MRS. AMU ODION IDAEHO
Planning is an act of formulating a programme for a definite or specific course of action. It is the process of arrangement, conceptualization, management of human and material resources for optional utilization. The museum as a very strategic stake holder in the culture industry needs proper planning mechanism is being put in place for it to be able to fully archive its core mandate of researching, conserving and exhibiting our art and cultural materials with a view to educating and equipping the public with adequate information about our heritage.
Planning begins with conceptualization, (concept of idea) or vision. The vision has to be arranged according to needs and importance. Management has to do with orderly utilization of resources to achieve the desired goal. The museum as a cultural organization has its set goals and needs strategic planning mechanism to be able to achieve these goals first there should be a proper assessment of the museum environment. The internal and external. The internal environment includes inherent factors that strengthen or weaken cultural resources. A goal oriented museum is characterized by stakeholder’s engagement in matters concerning cultural resource management. The museum as a cultural data bank has to continue to undergo rapid transformation and this can only be achieved through strategic planning.
Despite formulation of cultural policies in Nigeria, cultural resources continue to experience problems of decay, degradation, and deterioration due to lack of strategic planning strategic planning is the philosophy of continuous improvement which can provide organization with a set of practical tools for meeting and exceeding present and future tourist needs, wants and expectations museum management plan deals with organizing, leading motivating controlling and determination of procedures, programmes and finance. The man focus of strategic planning is directed at the orderly aspects of the museum setting the management can be largely affected by the nature of the environment in which the museum is situated I.e. the context of existentiality. These are the social-cultural forces that shaped museum setting and these forces influence tourists taste and preferences, employee expectations and attitudes and the accepted roles of the museum in the society.
The changing circumstances within which the museum operates will require proper planning and management of important activities carried out within it strategic planning begins with the setting of the organization aims while defining the strategies and policies of achieving them by analyzing the environment for opportunities and threat while building on the strengths and correcting weaknesses within the organization. Strategic planning serves as a road map for implementing continuous change in cultural resources management thereby ensuring the future. It is an entire system that is geared towards detecting changes in the outside world, deciding how to deal with them and translating these needed changes into programmes that produced the desired results. It is in strategic planning that the action steps by which museum intends to achieve its desired goals are clearly defined it is also through strategic planning that museum goals are turned into practical realities within a specified period of time, through strategic planning, schedules are made to carry out plan and time frames for the completion of each identified factors in the plan. It is also strategic planning that constraints to management are identified so that attempts can be made to address them.
Strategies are useful only when they are implemented plan must be developed before implementation and it should detail the procedures such as the implementation roles and the responsibility, expected result, schedules, resources requirements and sources, communication process, review, monitoring and correction and accountability procedures. For museum to develop and sustains her relevance, it must plan ahead to exist in the future. It must develop skills that relate to the long term existence this is referred to as strategic planning and management.
