I have been looking over several different facility rental policies lately
and some of the institutions state clearly that they will not rent to
poltical parties.  Others have stated that any function would have to be
within the mission of the museum.  I would guess that it is not illegal to
rent a facility to a political party provided they went through all the
hoops you put others through for renting the place and that no special
favors were awarded.  It may be more of an issue of what kind of policy do
you want to have.  And by the way, I think there is a difference between
having the mayor (or the Prez!) come to one of your programs and having a
political rally at the museum.  I'm not familiar with what happned at the
Colorado museum, but Cincinnati Museum Center recently hosted a Presidential
speech.

Again, this depends on what kind of policy you want to set and what kind of
ethical dilemma you think you might have.

HK


Harry Klinkhamer
Program Officer
American Association for
State and Local History
1717 Church St.
Nashville, TN 37203-2991
615-320-3203
FAX: 615-327-9013
[log in to unmask]
www.aaslh.org

=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).