>>> casandra karl <[log in to unmask]> 8/7/2007 2:40 PM >>>
>snip< Not the form, the letter you send to the donor 
letting them know that their item is being deaccessioned and asking them if 
they want it back.  

I'd suggest you >not< offer the item back to the donor.  If a tax receipt was issued at the time of donation, you'll be running into trouble with the CRA/IRS for returning the item.  Even if a tax receipt was not issued, there are bad optics surrounding the gifting of a publicly-owned resource (assuming your institution is publicly-owned, and not a private collection) to a private individual.  And, if the donor should be deceased, how are you to determine which of the heirs has a claim to the property?  All-in-all, a potentially huge can of worms....

We do not issue notices of deaccessions to our donors.  Our gift agreement gives us the right to administer our collections in the best interest of the Museum, including de-accession (although that's not explicitly mentioned on the form).  We maintain full documentation on the deaccession process (photographs, review of the object's condition, provenance, and relevance to our mandate, signatures of curator and administrator, means of disposal and destination, etc.)--if any question regarding the status of the item should arise, that documentation serves to demonstrate we have acted responsibly. 

Our preferred method of disposal is to find another museum that's interested in the object, and so keep it in the public domain.



------------------------------------------------------------
Tim McShane, Assistant--Cultural History
Esplanade Museum
401 First Street SE
Medicine Hat, AB   T1A 8W2
Tel: (403) 502-8587
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