Lori,
You indicate that the items you wish to dispose of are outside of your mission. Is this mission written down and formally adopted by your board? Do you have a collections policy. This is a written policy that states what you collect, under what circumstances you will accept an item for the collection, under what circumstances you will dispose of items from the colleciton, how that disposal will take place, etc. You should really have this policy in place before you make any decisions about what you are disposing of and where those items will go. It does sound like the organization you're talking about would not be the best place for these items, but if you have a policy you can justify your decision (and you will be prepared to answer donor questions about it now and in the future. AASLH published (many years ago) a good leaflet with step by step suggestions for a policy. You can contact them at aaslh.org.
On Thu, 19 July 2001, Lori Tomlinson wrote:
>
> <HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><FONT COLOR="#ff8040" SIZE=2 FAMILY="SCRIPT" FACE="Formal436 BT" LANG="0"><B>Hello all.
> <BR>
> <BR>I am seeking your advice. I am the director of a small history/natural
> <BR>history museum. I have finally convinced my board that we need to make our
> <BR>collections management a top priority. The collections have been neglected
> <BR>for years... improperly accessioned (or not accessioned at all), improperly
> <BR>stored, many items having no relation to our mission. Most are kept in
> <BR>off-site in two storage units, for which we pay monthly rent.
> <BR>
> <BR>I have been approached by an emerging non-profit organization (historical
> <BR>exhibit producers; official non profit status is pending) to take the bulk of
> <BR>the non-related items from us as a donation. In turn, they will donate the
> <BR>items to other organizations, trade for other artifacts, or sell outright to
> <BR>anyone willing to buy. I am afraid that this organization will not follow
> <BR>AAM standards in all their transactions (such as using the proceeds from
> <BR>artifact sales to purchase more artifacts, or to care for their current
> <BR>collections). Knowing this, do we take the easy way out, saving countless
> <BR>hours trying to find takers for the items ourselves, or take the time to
> <BR>distribute items ourselves, making every possible effort to ensure as many
> <BR>items as possible are kept in the public trust? Note that we have a small
> <BR>staff (4) and that much of the work to distribute artifacts would fall to
> <BR>myself and any board members I can get to help. Also, we are working toward
> <BR>AAM accreditation in the next 4 - 5 years.
> <BR>
> <BR>A Frazzled Director</B></FONT></HTML>
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