Mary Ann,
You identify two distinct, if connected, concerns. First is the replacement of paid by unpaid (volunteer) staff. Your state's labor law may have something specific to say about that (e.g. it may not be legal). This is distinct from an educational internship where the paid employee is teaching/mentoring the student volunteer. Which brings us to the second question of contractor vs employee; if the position requires supervision and training it is, according to the NLRB, not a contractor-client relationship. These contradictions may also threaten the organization's tax status with IRS.
regards,
------------------------------
Kevin Coffee
Oneida Community Mansion House
Oneida, NY
Original Message:
Sent: 12-19-2016 10:14 AM
From: Mary Ann Gabriel
Subject: Appropriate use of interns
Thank you for your response, Kali.
Another concern which I didn't mention is that the repository curator position is a contract position, not an employee position. Under this state's labor laws, service for an employer is considered employment if, among other conditions, the employer were to "provide more than minimal training for the individual." Therefore, to provide sufficient training to someone who has no collections care and management experience would be in violation of state labor laws.
------------------------------
Mary Ann Gabriel
Original Message:
Sent: 12-19-2016 09:41 AM
From: Kali Mason
Subject: Appropriate use of interns
Hi Mary Ann,
My advice would be to see if it would be possible to have the outgoing curator train the professor who will be overseeing interns. It sounds like they just don't want to (or maybe can't) hire another curator and are wanting to use resources they already have.
On the use of student interns, it sound like they would be getting hands on collection experience which is appropriate. Would it be better if they were paid? Absolutely. But they will get helpful experience working with the collection. It'd be inappropriate if the interns were doing things like making coffee or doing other unrelated tasks. Maybe down the road they'll be able to pay the interns.
------------------------------
Kali Mason
Original Message:
Sent: 12-19-2016 09:10 AM
From: Mary Ann Gabriel
Subject: Appropriate use of interns
I would appreciate the opinions of Open Forum readers on the appropriate use of interns in a curatorial repository at which I have been a long time volunteer. The repository is a county operated facility which curates both objects of local history importance and artifacts from state owned property. There is one part-time employee, who is retiring soon. The county administrator in charge of the repository is an urban planner who is just beginning to develop her understandings of the scope of collections care and management.
The administrator is pursuing increasing the repository's use of undergraduate anthropology interns from a local university to do the repository's collection care and management work as a cost reduction. I think that there was an Open Forum discussion about interns recently, and I remember that there have been lawsuits regarding internships as learning opportunities vs. free/cheap workers. Unfortunately, I didn't archive any of that information.
In addition the administrator has proposed replacing the retiring curator with an adjunct professor from the university to be on-site to supervise the increased number of interns. The university offers anthropology and archaeology courses, including laboratory analysis of archaeological artifacts, but does not have a program in museum studies or collections care and management. Thus, no adjunct professor would have training in the legal, ethical, or stewardship aspects of the artifacts the repository holds in trust, and would only be able to provide the interns with minimal collections care and management instruction.
I have expressed my opinion that this proposed plan is ill-advised regarding both appropriate use of interns and ensuring the future of the repository. I would appreciate your suggestions about discussion points and resources to which to direct the administrator.
Mary Ann Gabriel
Long-time Volunteer, Concerned Citizen, and Certified Collections Care and Management Specialist