SWOT Analysis of the Australian Country Music Foundation Museum

Strengths

Uniqueness – the ACMF museum is the only one of its kind in Australia. It has an extensive collection of the history of Australian country music, and is noted for its national and international significance (located at Tamworth).
In-house expertise in management, archives, exhibitions & recording.
The museum is run by top experts in country music management, recording & archive and communicating.
Volunteers are dedicated and committed to the advancement of the Foundation.
The museum also serves as a retail outlet for country music CDs, merchandise and hard to get material.
The museum is included in the Country Music Festival with support of the Tamworth Regional Council.
The museum is also supported by local tourism councils and the Country Music Association of Australia (CMAA).
The museum has links with other museums, other country music industry associations and businesses and strong support from country music associations.
Training for the volunteers is done in house and generally on the job training is conducted, particularly when working in the archive or the exhibition areas.

Reliant on volunteers (only a small number available) to keep foundation and museum working.
Limitations of exhibition – limited to country music.
The building that houses the collection is too small and doesn’t comply with all occupational health and safety requirements.
The collection relies on donations of material, so there may be gaps in the collection.
Storage of material in the current building associated with problems such as rising damp.
The age of the board members and competition with their current commitments is a weakness. There aren’t many young people involved.
The country music trail isn’t promoted.
Funding for the Foundation comes through visitors to the museum, sponsorships, memberships and grants.
The museum isn’t on the Collections Australia Network (CAN ).
The museum isn’t visited by many groups and isn’t seen as an educational resource.

As this museum is unique, there is opportunity to promote it as a comprehensive country music archive.
There is opportunity to rehouse the museum in a new building to create a national country music museum archive and research centre.
Establish travelling exhibitions.
Co-opt new members and expand sub-committees of people with expertise.
Merchandise through website.
Make joint ticketing available and promote to schools/community groups.

There are proposals to create single-subject country music museums, eg proposed Slim Dusty Centre in Kempsey.
Insufficient funds to move from present location. Lack of funds and government/council support.
Volunteers can suffer from burnout.
The collection is threatened by building problems such as rising damp.
Lack of funds means that its difficult to purchase new items for the collection.

Dee Giles

Secretary ACMF.