SteadyState for accredited museums
Board of trustees software for accredited museums
A deaccession moves from the curator to the director to the Collections Committee to the full board, and the policy manual says the approval must be noted in the minutes and kept permanently. SteadyState records each of those votes on a locked record, inside the Microsoft 365 your museum already runs.
A typical accredited museum in SteadyState
A board of twenty-odd trustees – some elected by the board, some by the membership, some appointed, a few ex officio – meets quarterly, in the boardroom and on Teams, while a Collections Committee meets between sittings and forwards recommendations. The executive director, the registrar, the chief curator, and counsel sit at the table without votes. SteadyState holds that structure as it exists: the committees, the votes, the locked decisions, and the follow-up work assigned to the registrar or the CFO.
A year of decisions
6 decisions, oldest first| ID | Decision | State | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| DEC-2026-002 | Approve the revised Collections Management Policy and record the governing authority's approval date | Approved | 14 Jan |
| DEC-2026-005 | Deaccession a misattributed painting and authorize disposal by public auction | Approved | 11 Feb |
| DEC-2026-009 | Decline a recommended deaccession and record the rationale for retaining the object | Approved | 11 Mar |
| DEC-2026-012 | Authorize the transfer named in a published Notice of Inventory Completion | Approved | 8 Apr |
| DEC-2026-016 | Approve the accreditation self-study for submission | Approved | 13 May |
| DEC-2026-019 | Accept the annual audit and the management letter response | Submitted | 10 Jun |
The problems this solves
The approval chain is policy; the record of it is scattered
Published collections management policies at major museums run a deaccession through the same chain – staff to director to Collections Committee to the full board – and say so in policy language: "Approval of deaccessions and disposals must be noted in the Minutes of the Board", and permanent records that include copies of the meeting minutes of both the Collections Committee and the Board of Trustees. The chain is written down. The record of it usually lives across old packets, email threads, and whoever kept the file.
Saying no needs a reason on the record
One leading museum's collections management policy, amended in late 2024, says that when the Board of Trustees does not approve a recommended deaccession, "the minutes shall reflect the rationale for not deaccessioning the object". That is exactly what a SteadyState rejection produces: a decision closed by a reject with a written reason, locked on the record.
Someone eventually reads the record cold
Reaccreditation comes every ten years, and four of the five AAM Core Documents must bear the date approved by the governing authority. State oversight reads deeper: a 2013 Arizona Auditor General review examined a historical society's board minutes to determine when its board had approved opening a bank account – in 1997. The question is always what the governing authority approved, and when.
How it fits
- Committee to board, as your policy writes it
- A Collections Committee recommendation moves to the board as a drafted decision. Each body's vote is recorded on its own, the approved decision locks, and a later change – say, substituting private sale for public auction – is a voted amendment linked to the original.
- An absent trustee doesn't stall the vote
- Boards this size always have someone travelling. The Chair or Secretary records an absence against that trustee's name, and on a majority or two-thirds policy the count proceeds without them. The absence shows in the tally on the locked record, so the reason a vote closed with 17 of 22 is part of the record rather than a gap in it.
- Your collections system stays
- TMS, Axiell, PastPerfect, or CatalogIt keeps the object file: accession numbers, condition reports, provenance, disposal details. SteadyState records the board's decision, cross-referenced to the accession number. The seam between the two is exactly where the minutes are.
- Not a minutes generator
- The minutes stay the secretary's document, written the way your counsel wants them. SteadyState is the structured decision record the minute cites: who was eligible, how each trustee voted, and that the record has not changed since.
What it costs
State historical societies seat 18 trustees and large art museums more, with the Collections Committee, the director, the registrar, and counsel working alongside them. Twenty-eight seats comes to $560 a month at the public rate of $20 per user per month, with a 10-seat minimum. Each seated user also needs Power Apps licensing from Microsoft, about $5 per user per month. Seats are for the people who draft, vote, and own actions – members, visitors, and donors never touch it. The full math is on the pricing page.
Questions boards ask
- How should a museum board document a deaccession vote?
- As a decision per body: the Collections Committee's recommendation recorded with its vote, the board's approval recorded with its vote, both locked on approval. The follow-ups – donor notice, consignment, restricted-proceeds deposit, website publication – become actions with owners and due dates, cross-referenced to the accession number.
- Does SteadyState replace our collections management system?
- No. The object record – accession files, condition reports, provenance, the deaccession fields your registrar maintains – stays in TMS, Axiell, PastPerfect, or CatalogIt. SteadyState records what the governing authority decided. The two reference each other by accession number.
- How does voting work in SteadyState?
- Each body sets its own policy – unanimous consent, majority of votes cast, or two-thirds – so a Collections Committee and the full board can run different rules. A rejection requires a written reason, which is the rationale your policy manual already asks the minutes to carry. Recusal matters here: a conflicted trustee recuses on the decision itself, the recusal is recorded, and the tally on the locked record shows it.
- Can consultation records or executive-session material go in SteadyState?
- Records in SteadyState are visible to every seat – there is no committee-scoped confidentiality in v1. Confidential consultation files and executive-session detail stay in the restricted systems that hold them today. The register records the board-level decision and its follow-up actions.
- Can a locked decision be changed later?
- Only by a voted amendment. If two auction attempts fail and the board substitutes private sale, that amendment is its own decision, linked to the original, and the original stays in the register marked superseded. The history reads as a sequence of votes.
- How long should a museum keep board and committee minutes?
- Museum retention schedules converge on permanently, and deaccession files must include the minutes of both bodies. SteadyState records live in your own Microsoft 365 environment, so the retention policy your museum already applies covers them.
- Is SteadyState an OnBoard or BoardEffect alternative for museums?
- For the decision record, yes. Board portals distribute board books and archive documents; SteadyState records the vote itself and locks the approved decision. Some museums will run both. The OnBoard comparison has the detail.
See it before you decide
The demo walks a decision from draft to locked record, including what happens when someone tries to change it after approval. It takes a few minutes and runs in your browser.