The records in this collection are from the administrate offices of the Michigan Museum Association (MMA) and include materials dating mostly from 1997-2007, with copies of by-laws and job description documents created in 1979, 1980, and 1982. The collection contains subject files kept by members of the MMA executive team in the daily operations of the organization. There are also copies of major presentations given and grant applications completed, along with the subsequent documentation required to fulfill the grant requirements. Members of the executive team and individuals who were in communication with team members, are documented in correspondences throughout the collection. There are lists of MMA members, both individual and organizational, as well as program participant lists included in this collection. Programs that provide training for museum professionals in order to help Michigan museums accomplish their missions, as well as strategic multi-organization partnerships to help improve museum attendance and programming are recurring subjects in the collection. The participant manuals for these programs are included in the collection in addition to short publications used to disseminate information for museum practitioners to use with their collections.

Files are arraigned into four series based on the focuses of the organization: Administrative files ; Advocacy; Events; and Grant Administration.

Administrative Files are separated into five subseries by creator or function. They include: Director's Files; Executive Board Files; Administrative Reports and Notices; By-laws, Job Descriptions, and Policies; and Correspondence.

Within the subseries Director's Files, are further divisions for the files kept by Teresa Goforth and LuAnn Kern during their respective tenures as directors of MMA. The subseries of Executive Board files is separated into: meeting minutes (which are further subdivided by date); correspondence; nomination committee files; and rosters. Administrative Reports and Notices, and Correspondence can each be subdivided into date groups. There is only one folder which contains all the By-laws, Job Descriptions, and Policies.

The Advocacy materials relate to the activities of MMA to help the museum community at large. The subseries in this section involve activities that MMA was involved in to help spread knowledge about the museums in Michigan and the museum profession, including: Publications that were created by MMA to help disseminate information to their members as well as to the public about museums and Interagency Cooperation, which is further divided by the organization that MMA was partnering with and then foldered according to the name of the program they were working on together.

The Events series includes the events which were put on by MMA during this period. These events are organized by year from 1992 through 2006. Each year includes materials on the MMA annual conference and when available materials on other MMA events during that year.

Lastly, the Grants series highlights this major operation of the MMA. Materials in this series are is subdivided by the name of the granting organization then further divided by the name of the grant.

This collection contains very limited materials from before 1987. Materials from 1973-1987 relating to the Michigan Museum association can be found within three separate collections (record group numbers: 82-08; 84-47; and 86-29 ) at the Archives of Michigan in Lansing.