I don't know what comment started this thread or the general tone, but I thought I would comment on what I do as a heritage tourism consultant vis. interns. I pay interns, but I don't use them often. I identify undergrad history majors who have taken a research methodology course and excelled at it. (I talke to their professors). I identify projects that have a scope of work that requires no travel and can be accomplished in a reasonable time frame by a student with said skills. I pay them $10/hour. Pretty good, is my understanding from the students and their profs. I give them an estimated time frame that I expect it to me accomplished in (say thirty hours or fewer). They have to provide me the research in a format that I lay out, but they must use their own equipment. This has worked well for me. I have used students for annotated bibliographies, baseline biographical and specific event research, and will continue to do this. The students get hands on experience with projects where they see the application between the research and the final work product. I share the economics of the specific project with them. My goal: to get history students from my alma mater to truly understand that there exist myriad applications for a history major and it can pay the bills. Incidently, I do this a few times per year and primarily with students from "Lewis and Clark College." Please no requests for short term work! I do believe in the following: " If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys!" No offense to anyone. TTFN Mike At 11:04 AM 8/17/96 -0400, you wrote: >In my building preservation consulting practice I don't have employees, >but do have interest from preservation students to become interns. My >micro-company operates in the real world without benefit of excessive >corporate profits or governmental financial backing. I don't pay my >interns anything, infact they must provide themselves with liability >insurance, remote and local transportation, and living expenses. Sometimes >I do provide lodging and meals. Even with these terms internships barely >break even when I compare the value provided with the cost to my company. >Not that there is little value generated by the intern, but the costs of >dealing with an intern is considerable. > >My interns and I see the internship as a continuation of their education, >and similar to the rest of their education, they are responsible for >paying the costs. > > > >John Leeke, Preservation Consultant >26 Higgins St., Portland, ME 04103, USA >207 773-2306 >Old-House Journal, Contributing Editor >AOL, HouseNet, Historic HomeWorks, Pundit, [log in to unmask] >CompuServe, Handyman, Old Houses, SYSOP, [log in to unmask] > > Mike Teskey CommunityFirst! Partners 2088 Jasmine Street Denver, CO 80207 phone: 303-393-7623 fax: 303-394-9876 e-mail: [log in to unmask] URL: http://www.csn.net/~tesk