Reposted from Securitas

When security services operate in silos, critical risks can slip through the cracks. That’s why Securitas takes an integrated approach with solutions that work seamlessly together or independently, based on your needs.

We’ve recently enhanced our capabilities with Risk Intelligence, a proactive service that delivers real-time insights, helping you act before issues arise.

Take a closer look at Risk Intelligence to see how increased awareness can help you before threats escalate.
Let’s reconnect soon to explore what the right combination could look like for your organization. 

Contact-Emerald Jacob
Sales and Business Development
Securitas Security Services USA, Inc

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Reposted from ArtSentry

The Sentry Digest- July 2025

Rethinking Your Museum’s Security?
Ask These 5 Questions Before You Upgrade or Optimize.
If you’re preparing to invest in a new security system—or reassessing the one already in place—don’t start with the latest tech specs or vendor quotes. Start with the right questions.

Strategic questioning helps you identify real needs, unify your team, and ensure that every decision aligns with your museum’s mission, financial goals, and visitor experience. Before you commit to upgrades or changes, take time to reflect on these five critical areas:

Are our security staff deployed efficiently to avoid unnecessary staffing costs?

Security personnel often represent one of the largest recurring costs in a museum’s safety budget. But are those resources being used wisely? It’s essential to examine where your team is stationed—not just based on habit but based on where their presence has the greatest impact. Smart deployment can reduce excessive staffing costs, improve response times, and make the most of your investment in personnel.

Where in our current setup do we lack coverage or encounter blind spots in high-traffic areas?

Galleries, entrances, and event spaces experience the most activity—and often hold the most valuable or vulnerable pieces. Yet they can also be prone to overlooked blind spots. Conduct a thorough assessment of these areas to uncover any surveillance gaps. Identifying and addressing weak links in your monitoring system can prevent avoidable security breaches and reduce risk to the collection.

How does our approach to security impact visitor engagement?

The best security systems blend seamlessly into the background. While some visitors may appreciate a visible security presence, others may feel uneasy or targeted. Consider how your approach shapes the visitor experience: are your measures supportive and reassuring, or do they feel intrusive? Technologies like discreet sensors and thoughtful guard placement can maintain protection without sacrificing visitors’ comfort.

What soft costs are associated with our security strategy?

Not all costs show up on a balance sheet. Hidden impacts—such as staff burnout from repeated incidents, administrative burdens from managing minor breaches, or damage to your public image after a negative event—can take a serious toll. Factoring in these “soft costs” provides a fuller picture of your current system’s performance and may help justify investments in smarter, more sustainable solutions.

Need help navigating your next upgrade? Our guide has 25 essential questions to consider.

Whether you’re refining your existing system or preparing for a full-scale change, asking the right questions first will lead to better outcomes. You’ll not only protect your collections more effectively—you’ll also strengthen stakeholder trust, streamline costs, and enhance the overall visitor experience.

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Reposted by MAAM

Share your project at Building Museums 2026
March 11-13, 2026
Baltimore, MD

The Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums (MAAM) is pleased to announce that the Call for Proposals is now open for the 2026 Building Museums™ Symposium.

This national symposium brings together museum professionals, architects, planners, project managers, and other stakeholders engaged in the planning, design, construction, and renovation of museum buildings. We invite you to contribute to this vital dialogue by submitting a proposal for a session.
Review the Call for Proposals and make a submission here. Submissions are due September 22, 2025, at 5 pm EST.

We encourage proposals that:
Offer practical, scalable insights
Represent a diversity of institution types, budgets, and project scopes
Emphasize collaboration among museum and non-museum professionals
Address key issues such as sustainability, accessibility, equity, and community impact in museum building projects
Your expertise and experience can help shape a program that reflects the innovation, complexity, and values guiding museum projects today.
About the Building Museums™ Symposium:

The MAAM Building Museums™ Symposium is a national symposium on the process, promise, and pitfalls of planning and managing museum capital building projects. This symposium is for museum leaders, architects, planners, project managers, engineers, and other technical experts, and those who plan to implement new construction, renovation, preservation, or expansion projects for museums. The three-day symposium offers keynotes, workshops, breakout sessions, behind-the-scenes tours, and social events. Museum and allied building design and construction professionals are invited to submit diverse program topics and presentations for consideration.

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Reposted from Tim Richardson

We’re terrible listeners. Most of us, anyway.

I know I struggle with it. I talk for a living—literally—and I get paid well to do it. But that doesn’t mean I’m exempt from the need to listen. In fact, maybe I should be listening even more because I’m a professional speaker.

What about you?
This weekend, I’m heading to my professional development conference: Influence, the National Speakers Association’s annual meeting – https://influence.nsaspeaker.org. It’s a gathering of hundreds of speakers (we have had as many as 2000 attendees at our conference)—people who talk for a living. That’s a lot of words packed into about 108 hours. Let’s suppose we have 1000 attendees this year.

Quick math: 108 hours × 1,000 talkers = 108,000 hours of talking.

But how many hours of listening? Not nearly enough. My Listening Experiment

At a previous NSA conference, I tried an experiment: I didn’t talk about myself.

When someone asked, “What do you speak on?” (an awkward and grammatically clunky question, by the way), I flipped it. I asked questions instead. I stayed curious. I wanted to see what would happen if I just listened.

In my experiment, I spoke with over 30 people. And with only one or two exceptions, no one ever asked a genuine follow-up question about me after I asked them a question. Once they finished answering my question, they moved on or redirected the conversation back to their work, even though I had asked them questions about their hobbies, interests, and free time pursuits.

It was disheartening—but eye-opening.

Listening Is More Than Being Quiet

Listening isn’t just about closing your mouth. It’s about being present. It’s about curiosity over credentials. It’s about paying attention to someone’s words, tone, body language, and emotions.

Great listeners do a few simple (but rare) things:

Make eye contact
Nod or affirm to show understanding
Ask clarifying questions
Avoid interrupting
Pause before responding
And most importantly: make it about the other person, not themselves
Want to stand out in a noisy world? Be the person who listens.

The Follow-Up Is Part of Listening

The conversation isn’t over when the words stop. A thoughtful follow-up tells someone: I heard you. You matter.
Here are a few ways to follow through after a conversation:
Send a link to an article related to what you discussed
Write a short email summarizing the key takeaways
Schedule a call, coffee, or lunch to keep the dialogue going
Offer help without being asked
Talk Less. Listen More.

In a world of constant noise and self-promotion, the real differentiator is silence—and presence.
Let’s commit to being more than talkers. Let’s be curious. Let’s be connectors. Let’s become listeners who make people feel seen, heard, and valued.
Because listening should always come before speaking.

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Reposted from SafeHaven Security Group

Early Warning Systems Save Lives

Whether we are talking tornados, heart attacks, or targeted violence, early warning systems save lives. But there is one major barrier that prevents you from getting information about a violent act in advance, and it's not at all what you think.

An early warning system (EWS) is anything that gives you advanced notice of danger, giving you time to prepare and implement plans. In the case of targeted violence, specifically the workplace kind, that might mean:

• A tip from a worker who overheard a troubling conversation.
• A former employee posting indirect threats on the internet.
• The spouse of an employee who threatened to come to work and hurt her.

Any of these situations could be going on at your organization right now, and you might not even know it. You see, learning about it in advance is the key to preventing workplace violence. If someone doesn't speak up and tell the right person, nothing will be done. That means no one will take action until the assailant shows up with a weapon. And that is almost always too late.

The secret: leaders must build trust-based relationships with their people, or they won't speak up when they need to.

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Reposted from AMM

2025 Conference
Association of Midwest Museums
Illinois Association of Museums
Iowa Museum Association

Virtual: July 23
In-Person: July 30-August 2

Register by this Friday, July 18, for "virtual only" access to the conference. Topics covered in sessions and programs on Virtual Day (July 23) include:
·    Creative staffing strategies and part-time staff development
·    Speaking with the public
·    Downward trends in volunteerism and giving - and recommendations
·    The need for diverse perspectives in museum projects
$50 for members and $100 for non-members includes a multitude of sessions (some live and some pre-recorded), a networking roundtable, virtual exhibits, and a chance to virtually visit two unique Quad Cities museums.

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Reposted from Tim Richardson

Let’s be honest – nobody likes to hear the word “no.”
For customers, no is more than a two-letter word.
It’s discouraging. It’s frustrating. It’s the sound of a door closing.

“No, we can’t do that.”
“No, that’s against policy.”
“No, my manager said it’s not possible.”

No is about rules, not people. And in today’s world, it’s service poison.
On the other hand, yes is visionary.
Yes builds trust, loyalty, and connection.
Yes keeps customers and attracts new ones.

I don’t like hearing no—and I certainly don’t like saying it—so maybe that’s why my recent trip to Greenland started off with hearing no too many times.

The Trip That Almost Wasn’t

I had just finished giving a keynote in St. Augustine on a recent Monday and stayed at the hotel with my family after the conference. But since the event was still in full swing, I kept running into attendees—even during what was supposed to be my “vacation.” I also had some other business to attend to during vacation, so my mind wasn’t fully disengaged.

By Thursday, I was spent, and my vacation was almost over.

Thankfully, we have a family cabin in the mountains of Western North Carolina. My wife, understanding my need for solitude and space, gave her blessing for me to head up for a week of rest, reflection, and writing.

But before I left, I found out that one of my sisters-in-law had to cancel her spot on a long-planned cruise to Greenland. I’d always wanted to go—and suddenly, the door opened. I called my brother. I called the airline. I called the cruise line. And I heard there the first no.

“No, it’s too late to change the name on the passenger record”
“No, our system won’t allow it.”
“No, my supervisor said it’s not permitted.”

But I wasn’t ready to give up.
The Power of the (Polite) Pushback

I kindly asked to speak to another supervisor. I asked why the rules were in place. The agent didn’t know—but promised to check. After an enthusiastic plea, an hour later, I got the call:

“You’re in!”
And with that, I was heading to Greenland.
Of course, hearing no didn’t stop there. During the trip, I heard:
“No, you can’t play the piano in the lounge.”
“No, we can’t serve the regular dining room meal in the themed restaurant.”
“No, we can’t allow you to speak during our evening story time, it’s only for our staff”
“No, that’s not how it works.”

And yet—every time someone said yes instead of no, it was memorable. It made the experience feel personal. It felt like someone cared. Fortunately, I heard yes too. For example, I heard yes when

• the expedition team was asked to pause for picture taking or turning off the boat motor to enjoy nature more fully
• Leo, our server in the restaurant, was asked anything!
• Even a yes, when the hotel general manager heard I would play the piano very early in the morning each day.

But remember, having a yes experience four times can be squelched by one no.

Why Yes Matters

When I worked at a luxury oceanfront resort years ago, I was tasked with leading the effort to earn the prestigious Five Diamond Award. Part of my job? Redesigning our training program to elevate every guest experience.

One of the golden rules we taught:

There’s almost never a good reason to say no to a guest. Always look for the yes.

Yes, isn’t about ignoring boundaries. It’s about creative service. It’s about being solution-oriented, not excuse-driven.

“Yes, I’d be happy to check into that for you.”
“Yes, we can find a way to make that work.”
“Yes, let’s explore some options together.”

Saying yes tells a customer: You matter.

From No to Loyalty

Every time someone says yes, they create the potential for something powerful:
Not just a satisfied customer—but a raving fan.

A fan who tells others.
A fan who returns.
A fan who remembers how you made them feel.

So, the next time a customer makes a request, ask yourself:

Is there really a good reason to say no?
Or is there a better reason to say yes?

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Reposted from Art Sentry

Art Sentry-

False alarms don’t just waste time, they distract your team from genuine risks. Museums using Art Sentry, powered by Sentry Intelligence, have reduced false alarms by more than 80%, enabling their staff to focus on what truly matters.

In The Ultimate Buyer’s Guide for Museum Security, you’ll find tips on optimizing monitoring systems to reduce distractions and improve overall protection.

How would cutting alarm fatigue impact your team’s efficiency? Let’s explore how Art Sentry can make this happen.

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Reposted from AMM

Crosscurrents 2025 Conference-
Association of Midwest Museums 
Illinois Association of Museums
IOWA Museum Association
Virtual July 23rd
In-person July 30- August 3rd

The success and sustainability of museums is dependent on many factors and, in a world where word-of-mouth is ever more influential, there’s no denying that our approach to visitor experiences and managing operations have a critical role to play. How can a shift in our approach to online and onsite experiences help us attract and foster connections with new audiences?  How can we build a more collaborative, positive work environment to retain talent and strengthen operations?

 Find out how to increase attendance by removing your audience’s perceived barriers during the in-person Concierge Content session by marketer and technologist Despi Mayes.

  Gather scalable strategies for operations, community engagement, and visitor experiences from Chris Morehead at Newfields during the in-person Building Strategic Operations That Deliver Exceptional Experiences session.

 Chat with visitor services staff from the Putnam Museum at their conversation station Uphill Battles in Visitor Services to find out how they have managed operations and maintained a positive visitor experience through a variety of disruptions.

 On Virtual Day, catch Staff Up! Leveraging the skills of part-time employees to meet the needs of multiple departments by Figge Art Museum staff. Then follow it up with a chat with leadership from another Quad Cities gem, the Family Museum, during their conversation station Managing Blurred Lines in Museum Roles.

 Catch a session by leaders from Minnesota Historical Society and Missouri Historical Society on breaking down silos and improving operations during Paddling Your Own Kayak? How to get your teams into the same boat for more efficiency and impact.

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Reposted from Abigail G Manning

Welcome to my monthly newsletter. You are part of a strong and growing community, and I'm here to support your path forward with helpful insights, opportunities, and encouragement.

My mission is to empower individuals with actionable guidance and authentic encouragement to keep building:

COURAGE to recognize and remove limiting beliefs of #PurpleThreads

STRENGTH to prevent setbacks and the downward #AdverseSpiral

CONFIDENCE to think bigger and use #ThinkSayDo skills to get after it!

Unleash your potential, begin your journey today!

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