for the record, i quote below the entire passage of mine that Miguel seems to think shows me as advocating the Museum's imposition of "standards" on communities and minority museum workers. i believe anyone with adequate reading skills will see that, on the contrary, my post suggests that the Museum as a community-based institution has quite a lot to learn and gain from its surrounding communities. further, this passage indicates that museums should take advantage of that fact while at the same time introducing the Museum as a profession to the community through internships (in addition, of course, to its other community functions, e.g., exhibit/event/education center). BEGIN QUOTE my reading of the original post is that the author is calling for internship positions to be created or targeted based on the specific skills or cultural knowledge of the potential intern. for example, if an institution is considering presenting exhibitions or events aimed at getting, say inner-city women into the room, why not hire a woman from the inner city to help work on some aspect of the program? she'd have to be qualified for some aspect of the work as she (theoretically) knows the target community better than the staff. the institution would in fact be hiring someone qualified for the job, as the job is being tailored specifically for her qualifications. she will gain museum experience on the job, which is what (i always thought) an internship is supposed to be about. if i'm misreading the original post and the call is to simply hire based on color, gender, religion, etc. then i'm completely opposed. any employee, it seems to me, has to be able to bring something tangible to the institution. either way, we should avoid confusing the terms "qualified" and "experienced." END QUOTE -- i do not respond to unsolicited email. kjk (inviting you to put as much thought into reading my post as you do into writing yours). ############################# Notice: This message was found in a dead-letter box and appears to be for you. If you have already gotten a copy of this message, we beg your tolerance. The Unix Systems Group