[NHCOLL-L:1905] FW: Re: Threatened Collections

[Elaine Hoagland]

RE: [NHCOLL-L:1898] Re: Threatened CollectionsI had answered Brent off-list
yesterday; he asked me to repost to the list as he is having trouble doing
so.  I'll add my best wishes to the whole group, and will re-iterate Brent
and Bobbi's suggestion that you use the time available at the upcoming
nscalliance meeting to develop plans to address these issues.  So many of
the conversations on the web this past week or so have been "deja vu all
over again" for me, down to comments from one of you that we should get TNC
to help us!  I hope that some old hands will be at the meeting to keep
you'all from reinventing wheels, or spinning them.

One thing I've learned at my present position with the Council on
Undergraduate Research is to structure meetings so that participants can
actually take home a personal plan to deal with a national issue on a local
(e.g., campus) level.  I feel that this would help in your quest to use the
national PR materials that the Alliance has developed, as well as other
national material (including the SA 2000 document and ancillary reports).
Brent's and my emphasis on local action/politicking is apropos here.  You
can't just tell policymakers why collections are important, you have to SHOW
them, and do this by your own deeds and productivity as well as the broader
data.  Make yourselves indispensable.  I know you and the collections are.

Elaine



-----Original Message-----
From: Brent Mishler [mailto:bmishler at socrates.Berkeley.EDU]
Sent: Sunday, April 20, 2003 4:58 PM
To: Elaine Hoagland
Subject: RE: [NHCOLL-L:1898] Re: Threatened Collections


Hi Elaine,


Thanks!  For some reason my message bounced back from the list (says I'm not
a member even though I am), so could you do me a favor and send your note
again copied to the list?  Thanks!


Hope all is well there.


Cheers,


Brent


  You can say it better than I, Brent, being in the trenches.  You've got to
show that you are valuable if not indespensible, in order to compete for
resources, and this means locally valuable.   You are doing a great job at
Berkeley.  I hope that the meeting is productive!

  Elaine

    -----Original Message-----
    From: Brent Mishler [mailto:bmishler at socrates.Berkeley.EDU]
    Sent: Saturday, April 19, 2003 1:46 AM
    To: faulzeitler at nscalliance.org; dyanega at pop.ucr.edu; elaine at cur.org;
NHCOLL-L at lists.yale.edu
    Subject: Re: [NHCOLL-L:1898] Re: Threatened Collections

    Dear all,

    I appreciate all the comments on this issue over the last few days, this
is a good time for introspection.  We need to avoid whining, though (i.e.,
"no one appreciates us...") and instead get in there and do things that
bring appreciation.


    My experience after nearly 10 years as a university museum director is
that administrators are not evil (I started out thinking they must be, but I
realize now they aren't -- in fact that is giving them too much credit!).
Instead, administrators are basically ignorant -- they don't have an
informed opinion about the status of any particular field.  They form their
perceptions about the fields under their responsibility by how well the
faculty in that field do.  They want to see lots of published papers,
grants, news articles, honors, good public outreach and teaching, etc.
Systematics is a great field right now in which to do all those things
well -- it is in a revolutionary stage of development both conceptually and
empirically, there are lots of new integrative funding initiatives at NSF,
and the majority of the public does understand and appreciate biodiversity:
dinosaurs, flowers, and butterflies -- in fact, we have much better public
understanding of what we do as compared to particle physics, astronomy, or
biochemistry.  The reason some of those fields have higher standing on some
campuses is because faculty in those fields have done a better selling job
on their administrators.


    So my take on the current crunch brought on by state budget crises all
over the country (yes, we have one too -- I just had to lay people off as pa
rt of an across the board 10% cut in state funds) is that we in the
university museums should redouble our efforts to stay in the mainstream of
science and campus life.  Publish lots of papers, try for innovative grant
proposals, teach the general courses and do it well, and don't forget
participating in campus administration and politics.  Doing a favor for your
administrator by taking some hard committee assignment gives you leverage
next time you need help and support from that administrator.


    I'd like to second what Bobbie said -- let's everybody get together here
in Berkeley in June for the NSCA meeting and look at ways to strengthen the
standing of musuems of all types (I'm obviously focusing on university
musuems here, but most of these ideas apply across the board).  We have
sessions planned to address all the relevant issues, and the timing couldn't
be better.


    Cheers,


    Brent


    --

    **********************************************************
    Brent D. Mishler
         Professor, Department of Integrative Biology
         Director, University and Jepson Herbaria
         Associate Director, California Biodiversity Center
      Mailing address:
         UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY
         UNIVERSITY AND JEPSON HERBARIA
         1001 VALLEY LIFE SCIENCES BLDG # 2465
         BERKELEY, CA  94720-2465  USA
      Phone:  (510) 642-6810
      FAX:    (510) 643-5390
      E-mail: bmishler at socrates.berkeley.edu
      WWW:    http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/people/mishler.html
    **********************************************************




--

**********************************************************
Brent D. Mishler
     Professor, Department of Integrative Biology
     Director, University and Jepson Herbaria
     Associate Director, California Biodiversity Center
  Mailing address:
     UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY
     UNIVERSITY AND JEPSON HERBARIA
     1001 VALLEY LIFE SCIENCES BLDG # 2465
     BERKELEY, CA  94720-2465  USA
  Phone:  (510) 642-6810
  FAX:    (510) 643-5390
  E-mail: bmishler at socrates.berkeley.edu
  WWW:    http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/people/mishler.html
**********************************************************
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