Yikes! Well, I would talk to the Director. (I know you're saying yeah, right) Before you talk to him, you have to figure out what would convince him that it is in his best interest to renegotiate this part of the contract- otherwise, you'll just appear a whiner. Among the obvious- personal liability/scandel for mismanagement- I would dig up an article or two about Ray Pisney and do him the great favor of saving him from a potential future scandel.
Janet L. Gallimore, Director
Lake County Discovery Museum
Greenbelt Cultural Center
27277 Forest Preserve Dr.
Wauconda, IL 60084
Phone - (847) 968-3380
Fax - (847) 526-0024
[log in to unmask]
>>> [log in to unmask] 11/27/00 10:21AM >>>
Suppose, hypothetically, that there was a director at a hypothetical small,
up-and-coming museum who had just hired a person to enter collections
information into our, ahem, THEIR new PastPerfect database.
Suppose that new person was being paid about two thirds the going rate for
such a position, but that she had negotiated a deal into her contract that
allows her to be paid with items from the museum's collection, in addition
to her paycheck. For example, let's suppose she collects military uniforms,
and that the museum has many duplicates in its uniform collection.
She negotiated this arrangement with the director, who has no museum
background and no knowledge of collections management. There are no other
paid staff in the collections/exhibits realm, but there is a half-time,
volunteer Exhibits/Collections Manager with nominal responsibility. He has
some museum background (mostly exhibits), and sees this as a blatant
conflict of interest.
He's expected to review and approve each item that the data-entry/registrar
would like to deaccession and take home, but doesn't have the detailed
knowledge of uniforms that she has as a collector. Her contract doesn't
specify any objective way of determining the value or exchange rate for the
uniforms. Essentially, she decides what is surplus in the collection,
determines its value, etc.
Now, the Exhibits/Collections Manager could conceivably research each item
to determine its real value, but I, ahem, HE is already swamped with other
urgent museum work, essentially performing a full-time job in 20 hours a
week. (He still works full time elsewhere.) He's also appalled at the idea
of paying the staff with items from the collection.
I hear you all asking, where is the collections policy? Where are the
professional standards? Don't they know that items in the collection are to
remain in the public trust?
Well, the Exhibits/Collections Manager knows, and one of those urgent tasks
is the writing of a collections policy. But such policies have existed in
the past, and have generally been ignored by the director and board. (Their
hearts are in the right place, but IMHO they tend to view all this formal
museum crap as a hindrance to their agenda.)
What should that hypothetical Exhibits/Collections Manager do, under the
(purely hypothetical) circumstances? He's most interested in correcting the
problem, but at the very least would like to cover his hypothetical
backside.
Surely some of you have been in similar situations. What did you do? Sure,
I'd love to hear success stories, but I'd like to hear about the pitfalls
and failures, too. I need to know what NOT to do as well as what I should
do.
Thank you for your advice!
=========================================================
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).
========================================================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).
|
