Just for the record:  my original responses to the Board member's message
was not intended as support or criticism of Mr. Gagnon himself.  I was
simply addressing the vulgarity of someone essentially blacklisting a
former employee. A message like that sent out by a U.S. employer could gain
the former employee his or her salary for a long, long time (without having
to work for it).

When someone leaves our employ under less than happy circumstances we
should assume it was simply bad chemistry within our institution and wish
that employee well at the next stop where he or she might do just fine.
 Reference checks from the next potential employer should be neutral; yes,
the person worked here, yes, the salary was $xxxx.xx.  There is even danger
in giving a positive reference if the person was terminated or resigned in
lieu of termination.  That could come back to haunt you if the former
employee learned of the postive recommendation.  He/she could come back and
claim that there was, based on the recommendation, no cause for termination
and sue to get his/her job back.

This is, I am sure, not new information to many of you.  I am sharing it
with those who might not be aware of these dangers.  Pardon me if I am
presumptuous.


------
Robert Handy
Brazoria County Historical Museum
100 East Cedar
Angleton, Texas  77515
(409) 864-1208
museum_bob
[log in to unmask]
http://www.bchm.org

----------
From:   Harry Needham[SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent:   Monday, February 22, 1999 9:51 AM
To:     [log in to unmask]
Subject:        Re: HERVE  GAGNON'S DEPARTURE - Previously Volunteer horror
stories

Herve Gagnon's museum is in the Eastern Townships of Quebec, an hour's
drive
south of Montreal.

I very much doubt that any member of his board of directors has a computer,
let alone subscribes to MUSEUM-L and I find it inconceivable that he might
have resigned as a result of having posted two relatively innocuous
messages
to this list.

>From previous postings Herve made to the list, I had the impression of a
continuing debate on the future of the museum between Herve and his Board.

I wish to note that I have written to his museum three times over the past
year, inviting them to develop a partnership agreement with the Canadian
War
Museum and to join the more than 130 museums, historic sites and other
institutions to which we will be offering a variety of small exhibitions
for
FREE, as well as participation in other joint projects. I have not had so
much as an acknowledgement to any of them. Draw your own conclusion!!!

Martyrdom in the cause of MUSEUM-L? Come, now.

Harry Needham
Special Advisor - Programme Development
Canadian War Museum
330 Sussex Drive,
Ottawa, Canada
K1A 0M8
Voice: (819) 776-8612  Fax (819) 776-8623
Email: [log in to unmask]

> ----------
> From:         Boylan P[SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Reply To:     Museum discussion list
> Sent:         Sunday, February 21, 1999 8:36 PM
> To:   [log in to unmask]
> Subject:      HERVE  GAGNON'S DEPARTURE - Previously Volunteer horror
> stories
>
> Robert:
>
> I see what you mean in your two comments about the posting concerning Dr.
> Herve Gagnon's departure from his museum.
>
> However, I read the posting by Harry Isbrucker on behalf of the President
> and Board of Directors of the Stanstead Historical Society (where's
> that? - somewhere in Canada according to Herve's address) rather
> differently.
>
> I suspected immediately that Herve's very recent "resignation" (if
> that's what it really was) less than a week after his contributions to
the
> "volunteer horror stories" series was directly connected to his comments
> about the confusion of volunteer and Board roles and Board and Director
> roles in an un-named museum - but plainly his own.
>
> Perhaps we now have our first martyr to the Museum-L cause?
>
> For those wanting to look back the (really excellent) searchable Museum-l
> archives gives Herve's first contribution  to the "volunteer horror
story"
> file as Monday 1 February 1999 at 13.21h.  If you then follow the "same
> author forward" button on the header you will find two more the same day
> and a further horror story on Wednesday 3 February. Alternatively you can
> use the search engine on the archive's home page.
>
> For those who have forgotten the Museum-L web archive is at:
>
>         http://home.dc.lsoft.com/archives/museum-l.html
>
> Patrick Boylan
>