At the Indiana State Museum we do not distinguish between Board or Trustee members and the rest of the staff.  All employees or representatives must fully comply with the Museum's Ethics and Conflict of Interest Policy.  Imagine the implications of allowing one group to supersede policy while restricting another group.  The key features of the policy are the following:

1) No employee or representative of the Museum may compete with the Museum in any personal collecting.

2) Employees and representatives of the Museum must disclose in writing...all circumstances regarding personal collecting prior to employment.  

3) The Museum has the option of purchasing from an employee or representative any object that is sought in its collecting strategies.  This applies for six months after purchase and applies only to those objects acquired after employment begins.  

4) Any employee or representative who purchases or collects "readily available"  or "generally available" retail items is not considered in conflict with the collecting strategies of the Museum because those items are equally available to the Museum.  

5) Any specimen collected by the Museum's scientific staff for study will be donated by the staff member at the completion of the study.

6) Bequests and personal gifts are exempt from the Museum's option to acquire objects from its employees or representatives. 

7) Employees and representatives are strongly discouraged from accepting personal gifts offered by any company or individual doing business with the Museum.  

8) A declination in writing from the Museum to acquire an object from an employee or representative will not be rescinded at a later date because of a change in collecting strategies.

The reasoning for these statements on personal collecting is that we viewed personal collecting as not in itself unethical, unless it interferes with the lines of communication that lead to the Museum collecting what it needs to carry out its collecting strategies.  We otherwise view personal collecting as enhancing the professional knowledge and judgment of the Museum's staff.  It is a rather liberal policy as far as ethics policies go.  But what it does do is put the responsibility for conduct squarely on the shoulders of the employee or representative, while not overburdening the Museum with enforcement.  This policy does not explicitly forbid certain conduct because the Museum assumes that any employee or representative who wants to ignore or defy the policy will do so at his or her own risk.  Because we are a state agency, there would be consequences from state government as well as from the museum itself if the policy was violated.  In other words, it is a liberal policy until it is violated.  At that point, one could expect little or no mercy.     

Jeff Tenuth
Indiana State Museum
Indianapolis, Indiana

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