[Nhcoll-l] Status of NPS custodianship agreements

[Doug Yanega]

Ellen Paul wrote:

>We received a response from the NPS regarding the request to have 
>the "custodianship" agreement (aka the "Smithsonian" agreement) and 
>while some of you may yet succeed in getting a better agreement from 
>the NPS, perhaps even the custodianship agreement, working 
>individually with the NPS, we have reached the end of a 20-year 
>effort to achieve a systemic resolution.
>
>I encourage you all to consult with your legal counsel when 
>approached by the NPS to sign any agreement be it the loan 
>agreements, the repository agreements, or something else.
>
>Sorry, all.
>
>I was asked to advise the museum community as follows:
>
>After careful consideration of the proposal to draft a common 
>repository agreement with multiple institutions, consultation with 
>the NPS Director and legal counsel, and review of NPS laws and 
>policies, we have identified some key principles that will guide our 
>future relations with partner institutions:
>
>Working directly with individual institutions provides our best 
>options for addressing the unique opportunities presented by each 
>partnership.
>Direct discussion between the principal representatives of both 
>parties -- partner institution's staff and NPS staff -- will be 
>needed to produce legally sound agreements that consider unique 
>circumstances of each proposed partnership.
>
>These principles will guide us as we move forward. I would recommend 
>that you advise the institutions, share this email with them so they 
>have an accurate understanding of our working principles, and 
>encourage the principal representatives of each individual 
>institution to work directly with the appropriate NPS staff in 
>developing and securing appropriate agreements.

This is very good to know, but it lacks one essential detail:

Who, precisely (or what office within NPS, since the individuals 
holding a given post can change) would be the first point of contact 
for any of us seeking to initiate such a partnering process?

Thanks very much for taking this proposal to them - clearly it 
required a fair bit of effort to get that far. And wouldn't it be 
nice if some of the relevant NPS people were on this mailing list, 
too? ;-)

Peace,
-- 

Doug Yanega        Dept. of Entomology         Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California, Riverside, CA 92521-0314        skype: dyanega
phone: (951) 827-4315 (standard disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
              http://cache.ucr.edu/~heraty/yanega.html
   "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
         is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82
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