[NHCOLL-L:888] addressing permits for dummies

[Holly I. McEntee]

At 10:45 AM 2/7/2001 -0800, you wrote:
Andy Bentley wrote:
>But as with most things one needs to start somewhere.  I think one needs to
>start small and get collection managers to educate the curators in their
>museums and then those that they have dealings with.  A book isn't required,
>just a protocol which can be distributed to inform them of the way things
>should be done.  This should also be incorporated into webpages where loan,
>voucher and exchange protocols are publicised and available.  Anyone willing
>to put together a strawdog type document (or has one already) that we could
>all add to and refine and then use would be doing us all a huge favour.  Any
>takers??

I know this is a recurring problem for all of us in this line of work and
that there have been lots of attempts to address the knowledge gap.  The
confounding factors of course are:

1)  the U.S. laws change
2)  the state laws change
3)  museum personnel change
4)  the crop of students change and cycle through
5)  the professors change and cycle through

And of course those don't even touch non-U.S.-related factors.  Whew.

Upon further reflection I find that what I'd really like to see is a way to
direct the education to graduate students (and their professors!) in
natural science disciplines.  Those of us involved in the day-to-day museum
work with specimens and collections are (hopefully!) aware of the various
laws on the books; it's the more peripheral users and donors to museums
that I worry about: the field researcher, the exotic pet farm owner, the
zoo veterinarian, et cetera who are working in situations that may involve
wildlife laws and, ultimately, our museums and institutions.  All of the
information is out there in print and on the web, thanks to the hard work
of many people: the hard part is making sure everyone who needs to know the
information knows where to get it!

As Andy suggests above, we in the museum field have to start somewhere with
this educational effort by teaching our own curators, collection managers,
interns, students, loan borrowers, potential donors, etc. about wildlife
laws and permits in every context we have.  I think we're all doing a good
job in this arena, but it sure is time-consuming.  

The dead elephants in the room that no one is talking about (especially
me!) are those researchers who do know about the laws and deliberately
choose to take their chances and not comply, due to time or cost
constraints or for some other behavioral malady.  The consequences then
fall to the museum that receives the specimens.  Ugh.  I have no
suggestions for dealing with this situation.  My standard reaction - backed
up by my director - is that we simply do not accept undocumented specimens.
 So far, so good.

In any case, I'd like to thank everyone who is participating in this
discussion!  I apologize to anyone who may have perceived my initial post
as a criticism or as anything other than an observation borne of
frustration.  I also apologize to anyone cursing me for provoking a
discussion that fills up their emailbox with all these posts.  <grin>

Sincerely,
Holly



Holly McEntee, Registrar and Permits Coordinator
University of Wisconsin Zoological Museum
Lowell E. Noland Zoology Building
250 N. Mills Street
Madison, WI  53706-1794
 
Phone/Fax:  608-262-3766/5395
hmcentee at facstaff.wisc.edu
http://www.wisc.edu/zoology/museum/museum.html