At our museum, we have two organizations that operate under our 
non-profit status, one is a Genealogy Library and the other is a 
Military Museum. Each has their own governing boards and operate there 
organization through the help of volunteers. A member from each 
organization sits on our Board of Trustee. Each organization manages 
their own funds. They pay for their supplies for office, collections 
care, and exhibits. We pay for utilities, insurance (including their 
collections), legal, accounting, etc. We share membership with the 
Library but not the Military Museum.

We have received an assessment grant and preparing to apply for a grant 
to catalogue the collection; therefore, we are looking at our 
relationships with each organization to decide the issue of ownership. 
Both organizations would be added to our curatorial budget to cover 
their collections and exhibit expenses. We feel we technically own the 
collection because they operate under our non-profit status and we are 
liable for everything that goes on. We will be consulting an attorney 
but wanted some information on how other museums have handled this 
issue. Do you have operating guidelines? Who owns the collections? Does 
the museum with the non-profit status or the umbrella organization? What 
is your policy concerning library collections? Also, is there a specific 
policy concerning how collections are brought in to ensure that items 
are not infested or moldy? If it helps, we are having the most problems 
with the Military Museum. The Library is in agreement and happy to work 
with us.

I have searched the archives but could not find anything. Could you 
please direct me on finding some more information on this? Feel free to 
reply off list.

Thank you in advance!

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