Hi Michael, Having board members pressure staff into lending is a tricky issue, especially if the board members are affiliated with the other institution. However, if lending is part of the Historical Society's mission and they are willing to consider the loan with the provision that the borrowing museum will pay for the conservation, I would suggest to your friend that his response should be to request a formal written loan request from the institution (not a board member) along with an AAM standard facilities report. If the Historical Society agrees to loan the object, they should write up a contract, including a statement regarding conservation and shipping, and have the borrowing museum sign it. Having borrowing museums pay for conservation is something that is done quite regularly in larger museums. It is an excellent way of having an item cared for at someone elses expense. A few things go along with this: 1) the Historical Society should arrange and manage the conservation and then bill the borrower before the work is completed 2) the board member(s) should be removed from the situation as soon as possible. All "transactions" need to be done between the 2 museum staffs I know that this situation can be very annoying and can open a number of cans of worms, but this could also be an opportunity for the Hisotrical Society to educate it's Board on how things like this are handled so that they know the process for the future (because it will happen again - no matter how much we hope it won't). Just my 2 cents! Rosie Rosie Cook Registrar and Assistant Curator The Chemical Heritage Foundation From: Michael Reuter <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] Sent: Wednesday, June 29, 2011 3:17 PM Subject: Collegue who needs help! Hi all, A colleague of mine who works for a small historical society in the Dakotas asked for my advice on the following matter and I am looking to any of you out there for the same. Several board members who are associated with this historical society are requesting that an artifact be loaned or sold to another musuem who is doing an exhibit that the artifact would fit well into. The artifact is in dire need of conservation and the musem who would potentially be borrowing it would pay for the conservation in exchange for the object. Has anyone delt with this type of pitfall and if so, how have you responded? Thanks, Michael Reuter Curator of Collections/Registrar Milwaukee County Historical Society 910 N. Old World 3rd St. Milwaukee, WI 53203 414-273-8288 To unsubscribe from the MUSEUM-L list, click the following link: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=MUSEUM-L&A=1 ========================================================= 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).