Greetings all:

I am delighted (and I do not at all mean to be facetious here) that museums
in the mid west are paying these salaries for entry level people.  I have
not worked for any small history museum that could afford that salary for
entry level.  We are talking about reality here for an institution with less
than $200,000 a year budget -- or maybe even around $100,000.   Now I do not
want to take the martyr stance, mind you -- "I slaved away in an airless
storage room, went home to a cockroach infested apartment, but golly, I
loved my work" but the grim reality of small museums is that the salaries
often are gruesome, and you've got to move on if you want better.  And it
may be that you have to stick it out until you have enough experience to
look for a higher salary.   I wonder what the other solutions might be...
more fundraising? not providing opportunity to some one trying to break into
the field, because you can't pay the standard salary? working with a
skeleton staff?   I've worked in museums in rural and urban areas, and
frankly, I've always wondered how people in NYC, DC, SF, LA and the like
survive on museum salaries, especially when the museums just couldn't eke
out any more.   I admire their fortitude.   Perhaps we could organize a "We
are the World" type effort to help these courageous souls.

Now I shall hit the send button and send these awful words into cyberspace,
girding myself for the worst!

Candace Perry
Schwenkfelder Library & Heritage Center
in a small rural town with a low cost of living
Beautiful Pennsburg, PA!


----- Original Message -----
From: Jay Heuman <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, August 04, 2000 9:26 AM
Subject: To Kenya: Sticky Issue of Salary


>

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