As one who spends real time with real people in a real museum environment,
I'm just glad sometimes that smaller museums like ours can "just stagger
along."  We can "make do" only because of our volunteers, and they don't
feel at all put upon.  In fact, they love working with a museum so long as
they don't have to deal with the tough questions such as replacing HVAC
equipment, repairing roofs, meeting our payroll, competing for limited
private sector funding.

No offense intended, Mr. Segal, but institutions (museums as well as
universities) consist of people.  The workers and the volunteers ARE the
institutions.

Ross Weeks Jr.

----- Original Message -----
From: Troy Segal <[log in to unmask]>
> Why shouldn't an institution have to "pay for all it gets"? Don't most
> employers? If a business ran the way a museum does--getting by with free
> labor--it would be called exploitation. I believe that a museum always has
to
> "break even"--or risk losing its status as a nonprofit.
.
> I think everybody loses--because museums won't invest in personnel or
> resources, but stagger along in a makeshift, make-do manner. We don't have
> "both sides benefitting" now, we have the institutions benefitting--at the
> expense of the workers, both current and those of the future, who can't
find
> employment.

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