Code of Ethics

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" rowspan="2" width=210 BGCOLOR="#99CC99" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="0448dfc3.jpg"> <div> <A HREF="id21.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Welcome"><U><B>Click here to return to Links Page</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <B><IMG SRC="079ac800.jpg" border=0 width="172" height="128" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Palmer Museum of History and Art</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>723 South Valley Way</B></div> <div> <B>Palmer, AK</B></div> <div> <B>99645</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>(907) 746-7668</B></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="mailto:museum@mtaonline.net" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:museum@mtaonline.net"><U><B>museum@</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="mailto:museum@mtaonline.net" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:museum@mtaonline.net"><U><B>mtaonline.net</B></U></A></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=82 BGCOLOR="#CCCC99" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="0458dfe1esnpes.jpg"> <div> <B><IMG SRC="0ac66540.jpg" border=0 width="358" height="84" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <bR> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=398 colspan=2 BGCOLOR="#CCCC99" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="0458dfc3.jpg"> <div> <I>Code of Ethics</I></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B><U>Palmer Museum of History and Art Code of Ethics </U></B></div> <bR> <div> <B>GENERAL PROVISIONS</B></div> <div> As of January 1, 1992 each nonprofit museum member of the American Association of Museums must, as a condition of membership, subscribe to the AAM Code of Ethics for Museums. This requirement is placed on these member institutions in the belief that engaging the governing authority, staff, and volunteers in applying the AAM code to institutional settings will stimulate the development and maintenance of sound policies and procedures necessary to understanding and ensuring ethical behavior by institutions and by all who work for them or on their behalf.</div> <div> <I>                           -American Association of Museums Code of Ethics for Museums, May 18, 1991</I></div> <bR> <div> Palmer Museum of History and Art (PMHA) staff and volunteers shall adhere to the Code of Ethics developed by the American Association of Museums except where superseded by the Palmer Museum of History and Art Code of Ethics as stated below or the Code of Ethics for the City of Palmer.</div> <bR> <div> The PMHA shall strive to attain the highest professional and ethical standards in all aspects of its work. This includes, but is not limited to: the acquisition of artifacts for its collection; the preservation of artifacts in its collection; the deaccession of artifacts from its collection; the interpretation of the many facets of the Greater Palmer region's past and present via its artifacts and public programming; and the education and assistance provided to other Alaska museum professionals, volunteers, and the general public.</div> <div>  </div> <div> All actions of interpretation, collections management, and exhibition must be governed by an informed respect for the cultural property concerned, its unique character and significance, and the person or people who created or owned it.</div> <div>  </div> <div> While recognizing the right of society to make appropriate educational use of cultural property, the PMHA shall serve as an advocate for the preservation of cultural property.</div> <div>  </div> <div> The PMHA shall recognize a responsibility for preventive conservation by endeavoring to limit damage or deterioration to artifacts, providing guidelines for their continuing use and care, requesting appropriate environmental conditions for storage, exhibition, and loans, and ensuring proper procedures for handling, packing, and transporting artifacts. </div> <bR> <div> The PMHA shall act with honesty and respect in all professional relationships, seek to ensure the rights and opportunities of all individuals in the museum profession, and recognize the specialized knowledge of others. </div> <div> The PMHA shall contribute to the evolution and growth of the museum profession by such means as continuing development of personal skills and knowledge, sharing information and experience with colleagues, adding to the profession's written body of knowledge, and providing and promoting educational opportunities to those aspiring to enter the museum profession. </div> <bR> <div> <B>PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT </B></div> <div> Adherence to the PMHA Code of Ethics is a matter of personal responsibility. The PMHA staff should always be guided by the intent of this document, recognizing that specific circumstances may legitimately affect professional decisions.</div> <div>  </div> <div> The PMHA staff shall be cognizant of laws and regulations that may have a bearing on professional activity. Among these laws and regulations are those concerning the rights of artists and their estates, copyright of original material, occupational health and safety, sacred and religious material, excavated objects, endangered species, human remains, and stolen property.</div> <bR> <div> The PMHA staff should follow appropriate standards for safety, security, contracts, fees, and advertising. The PMHA may enter into contractual agreements with individuals, institutions, businesses, or government agencies provided that such agreements not conflict with principles of the PMHA Code of Ethics, the laws of the City of Palmer or the laws of the state of Alaska. </div> <bR> <div> PMHA staff is responsible for work delegated to other professionals, students, interns, volunteers, subordinates, or agents and assignees. Work should not be delegated unless staff can supervise the work directly, can ensure proper supervision, or has sufficient knowledge of the practitioner to be confident of the quality of the work. </div> <bR> <div> <B>GOVERNANCE </B></div> <div> Museum governance, in its various forms, is a public trust responsible for the institution's service to society. The governing authority protects and enhances the museum's collections and programs and its physical, human, and financial resources. It ensures that all these resources support the Museum's mission, respond to the pluralism of society, and respect the diversity of the natural and cultural common wealth. </div> <bR> <div> The governing authority of the PMHA will ensure that all those who work for, or on behalf of, the Museum understand and support its missions and public trust responsibilities. It will also ensure that the Museum's collections and programs, and its physical, human, and financial resources are protected, maintained, and developed in support of the Museum's mission, and that the PMHA is responsive to, and represents the interests of, society. </div> <bR> <div> The governing authority of the PMHA shall maintain a relationship with staff in which shared roles are recognized and separate responsibilities respected with working relationships among employees and volunteers based in equity and mutual respect. </div> <bR> <div> The governing authority of the PMHA shall adhere to the professional standards and practices that inform and guide museum operations and ensure that policies are articulated and prudent oversight is practiced. It will also promote the public good rather than individual financial or personal gain. </div> <bR> <div> <B>COLLECTIONS </B></div> <div> The distinctive character of museum ethics derives from the ownership, care, and use of objects representing the world's natural and cultural common wealth. This stewardship of collections entails the highest public trust and carries with it the presumption of rightful ownership, permanence, care, documentation, accessibility, and responsible disposal. </div> <bR> <div> The PMHA ensures that if offered artifacts, the licit quality of which it has reason to doubt, it will contact the competent authorities of the place of origin in an effort to help safeguard any region's heritage. </div> <bR> <div> Gifts and bequests of artifacts should only be accepted by the PMHA with a proviso that, in the event of any object proving to have been illicitly obtained, the authorities of the PMHA should be empowered to take actions which will be in the best interests of the artifact's rightful owner. </div> <bR> <div> The PMHA will ensure that its collections are not treated as capitalized or financial assets; that the collections in its custody support its mission and public trust responsibilities; and that the collections in its custody are protected, secure, unencumbered, cared for, and preserved. </div> <bR> <div> The PMHA will ensure that the collections in its custody are regularly accounted for and documented and that access to the collections and related information is permitted and regulated. </div> <bR> <div> The PMHA will ensure that acquisitions, deaccessions, and loan activities are conducted in a manner that respects the protection and preservation of natural and cultural resources and discourages illicit trade in such materials; and that acquisition, deaccession, and loan activities conform to its mission and public trust responsibilities. </div> <bR> <div> All reasonable efforts should be made to ensure that artifacts systematically collected, scientifically important, or historically unique should remain in the public domain. Artifacts deaccessioned from the PMHA's collection should, when possible, be transferred to the collections of another Alaska museum whose mission they help fulfill. If no Alaska museum can be found in need of the deaccessioned material in question, it may then be offered to museums outside the state. </div> <bR> <div> The PMHA, recognizing the cultural importance of human remains and/or sacred material, shall strive to assist in the proper repatriation of human remains and/or sacred material whenever possible. </div> <bR> <div> <B>PERSONAL COLLECTING </B></div> <div> The PMHA believes that collecting activities should promote the public good rather than personal gain. As conflicts of interest, or the appearance of impropriety, may arise when any museum board, or staff member personally collects items which are similar to objects collected by the museum, members of the PMHA Board of Directors, the PMHA Museum staff, and the Museum's Acquisitions Committee are prohibited from</div> <div> 1) Actively collecting archaeological materials, either legally or illegally, for private use.</div> <div> 2) Competing with the museum for the purchase of items offered by private collectors, artists or public agencies to the museum's collections.</div> <div> 3) Purchasing objects offered for sale from the PMHA Museum's collections.</div> <div> 4) Bringing personal collections of materials like those in the museum's collections into the museum, unless approved by the curator for a museum related purpose.</div> <div>  </div> <div> A board or staff member who anticipates a potential conflict of interest in personal collecting should seek advice from the museum's curator. Any suspected improprieties should be reported to the museum's PMHA board or a member of the Acquisitions Committee so they may be addressed by the PMHA Board of Directors.</div> <bR> <div> The acquiring, collecting, and owning of objects is not in itself unethical, however, the acquisition, maintenance, and management of a personal collection by a PMHA staff member can create an ethical question and may bring the Museum under unwarranted public scrutiny which could seriously damage the integrity and reputation of the Palmer Museum of History and Art.</div> <bR> <div> No staff member may compete with the PMHA, or other programs in the Division of Cultural Resources, in any personal collecting activity.</div> <div>  </div> <div> No staff member may use Museum affiliation to promote his or anyone else's personal collecting activities.</div> <bR> <div> No staff member may participate in any dealing (buying or selling of artifacts for profit as distinguished from occasional sale or exchange from a personal collection).</div> <div>  </div> <div> Under no circumstances shall artifacts removed from PMHA collections be obtained by PMHA staff, their families, or members of the governing board. </div> <bR> <div> <B>PROGRAMS </B></div> <div> The Palmer Museum of History and Art serves the public by advancing an understanding and appreciation of the natural and cultural common wealth through exhibitions, research, scholarship, publications, and educational activities. These programs further the Museum's mission and are responsive to the concerns, interests, and needs of society. </div> <bR> <div> The Palmer Museum of History and Art ensures that the programs and exhibitions it creates support its mission and public trust responsibilities and that those programs and exhibitions are founded on scholarship and marked by intellectual integrity. The PMHA will also ensure that those programs and exhibitions are accessible and encourage participation of the widest possible audience consistent with its mission and resources, and that those programs and exhibitions respect pluralistic values, traditions, and concerns.</div> <div>  </div> <div> Revenue-producing activities and activities that involve relationships with external entities should be compatible with the PMHA's mission and support its public trust responsibilities.</div> <div>  </div> <div> Interpretation at the PMHA shall take special care not to dilute or ignore historical accuracy and inclusiveness for the sake of public entertainment and popularity and must accurately reflect the cultural context of the subject matter. The PMHA will also ensure that collections shall be interpreted with sensitivity to their cultural origin. No interpretation shall use collections in a consumptive manner except as categorically delineated and specifically allowed within the collections policy. </div> <bR> <div> <B>OUTSIDE EMPLOYMENT AND CONSULTING </B></div> <div> Museum employees often will be considered representatives of their institutions while they are engaged in activities or duties similar to those they perform for the PMHA even though the work may be wholly independent of the institution. All employment activity must be undertaken within the fundamental premise that the employee's primary responsibility is to his/her institution; that the activity will not interfere with his/her ability to discharge this responsibility; and that it will not compromise the professional integrity of the employee or the reputation of the PMHA. </div> <bR> <div> The PMHA employee should disclose to the museum curator or other appropriate superior the facts concerning any planned outside employment or consulting arrangements that are in any way related to the functions that such employees perform for the PMHA. Disclosure should not be required for employment, small businesses, or similar activities that are unrelated to the work the individual carries out for the PMHA. </div> <div> The name of, and the employee's connection with the PMHA, should be sparingly and respectfully used in connection with outside activities. Museum professionals should conduct themselves so that their activities on behalf of community or public service organizations do not reflect adversely on the reputation or integrity of the PMHA. </div> <bR> <div> <B>GIFTS, FAVORS, DISCOUNTS, AND DISPENSATIONS </B></div> <div> PMHA employees and others in close relationship to them shall not accept gifts, favors, loans, or other dispensations or things of value that are available to them in connection with their duties for the PMHA. </div> <bR> <div> Employees should be permitted to retain gifts of trifling value when acceptance would not appear to impair judgment or otherwise influence decisions. Meals, accommodations, and travel services while on official business may be accepted if clearly in the interest of the PMHA. </div> <bR> <div> Museum employees have the right to accept and retain gifts that originate from purely personal or family relationships.</div> <bR> <div> <B>CREATIVE ACTIVITIES </B></div> <div> PMHA employees who are creative artists or pursue similar outside interests must perform these activities in such a way that their status with the institution is not compromised and the institution not embarrassed. It must be recognized that the exhibition of objects in a museum can enhance their value, and the PMHA should display materials created by staff members only under circumstances in which objectivity in their selection can be clearly demonstrated. </div> <bR> <div> <B>VOLUNTEERS </B></div> <div> Palmer Museum of History and Art staff should be supportive of volunteers, receive them as fellow workers, and willingly provide appropriate training and opportunity for the volunteers' intellectual enrichment.</div> <bR> <div> Access to the PMHA's inner activities is a privilege, and the lack of material compensation for effort expended on behalf of the PMHA in no way frees the volunteer from adherence to the standards that apply to paid staff. The volunteer must work toward the betterment of the PMHA and not for any personal gain other than the natural gratification and enrichment inherent in PMHA participation.</div> <div>  </div> <div> Conflict of interest restrictions placed upon staff must be explained to volunteers and, where relevant, observed by them. Volunteers must hold confidential matters of program function and administration. </div> <bR> <div> <B>INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS </B></div> <div> The professional museum worker always must be dedicated to the high standards and discipline of his profession, but he also must remain mindful that he is an employee as well as an independent expert. While he/she must strive for professional excellence in his/her own specialty, they must at the same time remember they are part of a team effort and must cooperate supportively with their colleagues for the good of the institution. </div> <bR> <div> <B>OWNERSHIP OF SCHOLARLY MATERIAL </B></div> <div> Any artifact, its documentation, and all additional documentation accrued or developed on museum time subsequent to its acquisition are the property of the PMHA. They may not be used by museum staff, for personal or financial gain. Any other materials written, designed, or produced by PMHA staff on museum time, are the property of the museum. Ownership of, or remuneration for, scholarship created on personal time must be approved by the appropriate museum supervisor.</div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>