Personally, I've taken my efforts elsewhere. I've written AAM and my letter (I'm
told) will be published in the Nov/Dec issue of Museum News.

John Handley
Museum of Ophthalmology
______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: The Value of an M.A. - $7.25/hr?
Author:  [log in to unmask] (Katherine Steiner Stocker) at INTERNET
Date:    8/6/98 12:25 PM


Sorry for continuing this thread, but had to respond to a couple of these
comments.

>Take any one of the trade's, carpentry, metal working, plumbing is a great
example.  Plumbers can make anywhere from $100-$400 an hour.  Does their
work have more intrinsic value than a museum worker?

Only if you have burst pipes, or sewage seeping into (dare I suggest) the
room where you display your collection of 16th century artwork.

> Do they have to spend thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours at
college?  No, they are just organized and they believe in the value of
their work.  They are willing to extend the extra effort of unionizing,
which may not always be the best choice but it is one that insures that
they will be able to support their families.

Here in the sunny South, we don't have a tremendous amount of union
activity. Many tradespeople are non-union, but command high salaries, not
because they believe in the value of their work, but because the people who
pay for their services do.  It seems our culture places a higher value on
not standing ankle deep in sewage than on art and history. Sadly, before a
culture is civilized enough to support museums, we have to rely on people
without expensive college degrees to pick up our garbage, snake our
toilets, build our homes, slaughter our beef, etc, etc, etc.  And by the
way, I hope the gentleman who thinks we should be paid the salaries that
schoolteachers get isn't going to be my union rep---sheez, I think that's a
group of people who are truly undervalued.

>Instead of replying that we all have
>'crappy pay', maybe looking at ways to change the standards would be more
productive.  We need to create camaraderie not draw battlelines among
ourselves.

Now this, I agree with, and appreciate, but until we figure out a way to
band together and get more funding for museums, we're stuck.  You can't
squeeze blood from a stone.  Bottom line is that even though we'd like to
think museums are above bourgeois economics, we, just like for-profit
concerns, are to some degree, a business, ruled by supply and demand, and
sadly the money that is supplied to us just never seems to be what we'd
like to demand.  We as employees suffer, our exhibits suffer, our visitors
suffer, our buildings suffer. . . Our only choice is to suck it up and try
to improve things, in the full knowledge that we may never be valued
appropriately, or strike out into the business world, where the values are
somewhat different.(Take that any way you'd like)  I suppose all I really
mean by this is that the reason I dare to be tired of this conversation, is
that I see a lot of people (to paraphrase an old expression) doing nothing
but sitting on the pot.

Katherine Steiner Stocker
[log in to unmask]
"If the world were a logical place, men would ride side-saddle."  --Rita
Mae Brown

American Academy of Ophthalmology
http://www.eyenet.org