Chuck-
In you Hypothetical situation-- You are right, this is blant ethical
conflict.  First of all, the person entering the data should NEVER be
allowed to selected what they feel is excessive or non-valuable and then be
allowed to place those same items into their personal collections.  If they
must get paid this way (which is totally wrong!!!) then, an outside expect
should be making the determination of what goes and stays and that person
should  have NO connection with the data entry individual.  Second, I would
be informing the board of its responsibilites and liablity in okaying this
action.  I hope no donor ever hears of this, its a law suit waiting to
happen!!  There are some laws in every state that monitor this.  Third-
Look at Getting a NEW job.  You don't want this to come back on you.  If you
have lodged a written explanation of why this is ethically wrong and feel
that the board isn't responsive, you want to go elsewhere.  You have done
all you can and they will have to deal with the consequences.  You need to
more on and stay out of the fire.  If you stay, you might get pulled into
the fighting.

These are of course, my personal views of the situation you described.  Do
what you know to be right!

Tracie Evans
Tracie Evans, Curator of Collections
Stonefield Historic Site, SHSW
PO Box 125
Cassville WI 53806
608-725-5210
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----- Original Message -----
From: Chuck Stout <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, November 27, 2000 10:21 AM
Subject: Another ethics question


> Suppose, hypothetically, that there was a director at a hypothetical
small,
> up-and-coming museum who had just hired a person to enter collections
> information into our, ahem, THEIR new PastPerfect database.
>
> Suppose that new person was being paid about two thirds the going rate for
> such a position, but that she had negotiated a deal into her contract that
> allows her to be paid with items from the museum's collection, in addition
> to her paycheck. For example, let's suppose she collects military
uniforms,
> and that the museum has many duplicates in its uniform collection.
>
> She negotiated this arrangement with the director, who has no museum
> background and no knowledge of collections management. There are no other
> paid staff in the collections/exhibits realm, but there is a half-time,
> volunteer Exhibits/Collections Manager with nominal responsibility. He has
> some museum background (mostly exhibits), and sees this as a blatant
> conflict of interest.
> He's expected to review and approve each item that the
data-entry/registrar
> would like to deaccession and take home, but doesn't have the detailed
> knowledge of uniforms that she has as a collector. Her contract doesn't
> specify any objective way of determining the value or exchange rate for
the
> uniforms. Essentially, she decides what is surplus in the collection,
> determines its value, etc.
>
> Now, the Exhibits/Collections Manager could conceivably research each item
> to determine its real value, but I, ahem, HE is already swamped with other
> urgent museum work, essentially performing a full-time job in 20 hours a
> week. (He still works full time elsewhere.) He's also appalled at the idea
> of paying the staff with items from the collection.
>
> I hear you all asking, where is the collections policy? Where are the
> professional standards? Don't they know that items in the collection are
to
> remain in the public trust?
>
> Well, the Exhibits/Collections Manager knows, and one of those urgent
tasks
> is the writing of a collections policy. But such policies have existed in
> the past, and have generally been ignored by the director and board.
(Their
> hearts are in the right place, but IMHO they tend to view all this formal
> museum crap as a hindrance to their agenda.)
>
> What should that hypothetical Exhibits/Collections Manager do, under the
> (purely hypothetical) circumstances? He's most interested in correcting
the
> problem, but at the very least would like to cover his hypothetical
> backside.
>
> Surely some of you have been in similar situations. What did you do? Sure,
> I'd love to hear success stories, but I'd like to hear about the pitfalls
> and failures, too. I need to know what NOT to do as well as what I should
> do.
>
> Thank you for your advice!
>
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