Dear Colleagues:

As I understand it the purpose of Museum-L is:
Museum-L is a general purpose, cross-disciplinary electronic discussion list for museum professionals, students, and all others interested in museum related issues. All museum related topics are acceptable for posting and discussion at this time. Membership in Museum-L is open to anyone with e-mail service.

This is quite broad and does not seem to preclude queries from individuals seeking assistance with employment opportuntities. Nor does it seem to preclude employment ad postings, promotion of museum-related products and services, including resources such as workshops, degree-granting programs and consulting. If I am wrong, please correct me or direct me to an appropriate source to clarify my understanding.

Personally, as a Museum-L spectator interested in the future of the museum profession and the unrealized potentail of REAL mentoring, I appreciate those of you who have the professional gusto to offer helpful advice, mentoring and references to other resources that might help and guide our emerging colleagues who query the list regarding employment opportunties.

Those of you who insist on engaging in unproductive banter regarding this matter should be ashamed of yourselves. The museum profession (read: consisting of professionals) should embrace its emerging leaders and assume a more supportive and mentoring stance. We cannot afford to ostracize our colleagues when there is so much important work to be done in our communities, museums and other educational and cultural institutions.

So let's all just relax and take a deep breath. I would like to recommend that if you have information that would be helpful to our colleagues and friends, share it, but don't embarrass me and my profession or jeopardize the true value of The Museum Discussion List (Museum-L) by assuming to control the content and purposes of the list.

Thank you for reading.
Laura Ryan

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