I hope you reconsider feeling nervous. Having a dedicated fund for 
conservation or acquisition is a GOOD thing. That deaccessioning unrelated 
material established this fund is neither illegal nor immoral. It is good 
business practice, as is investing these funds to insure their future 
availability. It is wholly appropriate to take the income generated by 
this investment and spend it, provided you only spend it within the 
paramaters of the original restriction. 

A long range conservation plan will help you establish how much money 
you'll need overall and prioritize treatment of existing collections. Then 
you can tailor your investment to meet these goals. Again, nothing to be 
nervous about and an example of sound financial management. It is always 
good to plan for the future. 

Diane Gutenkauf

On Fri, 21 Apr 2006 09:53:34 -0400, Candace Perry 
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>This may be a sensitive topic, so if anyone can provide any good advice,
>feel free to contact me at [log in to unmask]
>Over the past few years we deaccessioned a large group of paintings not
>related to our mission, and smaller groups of other objects.  As a result,
>we now have  restricted funds to be used toward purchases and 
conservation.
>What's happened is that my collections committee has placed 70% of the 
funds
>in a mutual fund, and 30% in a money market for use for purchases or
>conservation.  I'm still not sure about this arrangement, but so be it. At
>this point in time any serious conservation work on our fraktur 
collection,
>for example, can chew up the 30% in a snap. They are looking at rolling 
the
>interest from the mutual fund over into the money market, to have more
>available funds.
>Now they're talking about putting in the 70% in an endowment.  I have no
>idea if this is the best way to go...so I told the committee I'd ask other
>professionals for their opinion.  This is not a small amount of money for 
us
>(we are small) and I think it makes everyone a little nervous that it 
exists
>at all.  I can give more partitulars about the amount of money off list if
>that seems important.
>HELP!  I would like to see the end come to the seemingly never ending saga
>of the deaccession funds.
>Candace Perry
>Schwenkfelder Library & Heritage Center
>www.schwenkfelder.com
>

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