--- Julia Moore <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Not to be a nay-sayer, but teachers, police and
> firefighters are occupations for which the out-of-pocket
cost to the individual is nothing (beyond their taxes, the
general principle of which they begrudge anyway) and the
ultimate value to society is without question.
> Museums, on the other hand, mostly charge admission and
> for the most part the general public believes that the
museum actually runs on their admission fees.  

I've always gotten the "I thought the (state/local)
government paid for museums. That and they think I went to
school to learn how to dust things . . . 

>trying to make a case to the public that museums are
understaffed and underpaid would just elicit whoops of
laughter.

Actually, I envision dirty looks with a "well who isn't
underpaid?"

And while I'm not terribly keen on making museums seem as
if on the brink of closure (we are after all dependant on
donations and who wants to donate hard earned money to a
place that might not  be there) I do think her core idea of
banding together is a vital one. We're too busy seeing
other museums as the enemy, horning in on our potential
profits. We do need a national campaign to educate the
public as to what we do, why we do it and what we need to
accomplish the job. And I think Indigo may be right in
thinking that AAM would be a good place for it to start.
Sitting tight and not saying anything is definatley not the
way to go. 

Instead of viewing Indigo's proposal as unreasonable,
perhaps we should see it as a springboard for even bigger
and better ideas. Everyone seems to be moaning about the
lemons that she's brought us, but I say save 'em up. One
day someone will step up with a great plan, organize us and
we'll make that lemonade she's talking about. Just because
it isn't feasible today does not mean it will never happen.
Certainly, shooting down an idea without seriously looking
at its merits is a quick way to get nowhere. 

And while you should never feel guilty about leaving your
work at work and enjoying your life, everyoe can do
something to help keep our profession alive and give the
next generation a fighting chance. I graduated last year
with a MA in Museum Science and feel incredibly lucky to
have a job at all. Currently I am the evening supervisor
for the library of a community college. But guess what.
They have an archives. And I'm in charge of it. That wasn't
in the official description. Just lucked into it. I'm
whipping it into shape, creating a paper database and I
hope I can get it all into a computer database (hey, i can
dream) and housing everything in acid free materials. And
what else am I doing? Something beyond my job description?
At every turn I'm mentioning to the director and
administration how many of my fellow students would kill to
have my job right now . . . well, I think a lot of them
would kill to have any job right now, but especially mine.
I emphasize that when I find my dream museum job and leave
this institution that they should email this listserv as
well as archive listservs and advertise the position with
the archive duties included and highlighted in the
description. My hope is that when I leave here a fellow
Muse/Archive person will replace me. It may be all I can do
right now, but I'm trying to ensure that future museum
professionals have at least one more job available to them.
This is what Indigo is getting at. She's not saying that
we're doing too little, she's simply pointing out something
that (too) many of us have pointed out before: museum jobs
are hard to come by. We need to not only hold onto the ones
that we already have, we must find ways to create new ones.
She's offered us an idea to kick around (I said kick
around, not punt out of the stadium). So, thanks, Indigo.
Everyone may not agree with everything in your proposal but
it's definatley food for thought.

Marie Morgan



-----
Another belief of mine: that everyone else my age is an adult, whereas I am merely in disguise. Margaret Atwood, Cat's Eye, 1988

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