>y.  It
>would be a shame to limit the pool to just the few who already have a museum
position>>
To argue the other point of view, it is a lot easier to base a hiring decision
based on several months of observation rather than a couple of brief
interviews.  Of course, we all have faults and those are bound to show up
during the course of several months.  I have observed that boards often favor
the relative unknown from out of town over a local person for a director's
position.  I call it the magic of the man (woman) on horseback.