PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

Measuring the success in achieving the annual goals set in the Museum's Business Plan is done in a number of ways. One of those ways is to quantify if we have achieved targets we set for various activities.

A basic activity of this museum is to develop and show exhibitions. We planned to have about 12 exhibitions during 1999 based on a number of projects coming into shape and a number of strong exhibitions we already had. We achieved and exceeded the projected Number of exhibitions, with most held at the Museum but a few including 'Still Here', the Newmarket display and Fabrics, facilitated at or travelled to other venues. Still Here, in particular, was in constant demand from other venues.

The Museum also aimed to have a dozen publications. Considerable work was done on our web site by several people so that internet publications were a strong feature. We also created a newsletter on the web site for the very first time. We also had a work experience student create a web site in Spanish for his family and friends back in El Salvador. We produced eight printed publications, including park brochures in three additional community languages.

We also contributed to or facilitated two publications with other organisations. Another form of publications were the heritage and archaeological reports, which comprised the greatest quantity of information. Two of the heritage studies accounting for more than 1000 pages alone. Another contributor to our publications, media student Yakov Zaper, created a multimedia CD ROM about the History of the Land Gardens.

Attendances were steady this year. There were not so many large gatherings and international crowds as there were in 1998 but there were more people overall. Our income from paid tours was 30% more than we expected and greater numbers of smaller groups conducted seminars in the Museum.

Financially, the museum became stronger during the year and we recovered from a deficit in 1998 to a break even point in 1999 as predicted. Our turnover recovered and increased more than 25% to over $300,000 for the year.

The real measure is the thousands of smaller activities with the community. They have included over 100 major events, such as talks, tours, seminars, workshops, launches, planting festivals and celebrations. These demonstrate the nature of the work of this museum which is constantly engaging with its contacts to explore the potential of bringing history and heritage into effective play in the contemporary context. In many cases several goals are tied up in one project or even one person. Conversely several activities or projects can be expressing one goal.