It might be useful to refer to the Museums Association’s current guidelines on internships – http://www.museumsassociation.org/download?id=705443 (pdf) The important points are: The MA believes that all internships should: ● Pay reasonable work-related expenses and give interns reasonable access to staff benefits (such as free tickets to exhibitions or events). ● Be planned and structured with a clear brief, specific job content and a named line manager or supervisor. ● Give a clear outline of what is being offered to interns, and what is expected of the intern. ● Offer an agreed training and development plan with the intern, setting out what learning opportunities will be offered. ● Ensure that potential interns are told whether there is a realistic chance of the internship leading on to employment. ● Be of a minimum of eight weeks and a maximum 12 months (if paid) and a maximum of three months (if unpaid). Rebecca Atkinson Online publications editor Museums Association Tel: 01274 404851 Twitter: @rebeccaa_ma email: [log in to unmask] Please note my usual working days are Wednesday, Thursday and Friday I work predominantly from home in West Yorkshire, with regular visits to the MA’s offices in London From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Andrew Lewis Sent: 26 May 2017 07:55 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Unpaid internships and the mailing list: vote now! I would like to request we change the survey here. It doesn’t seem to quite reflect the different opinions on unpaid activity. I would say the three bottom-line positions people appear to have expressed are: Option 1 – Black and White - Unpaid work is always bad MCG community declare it is not OK to post unpaid posts of any sort including volunteers on the MCG community list Option 2 – Some flexibility to allow people to support museums by volunteering in other ways than working for them. (like many people do outside of museums) – This usually means volunteering, but also being a trustee and offering crowdsourcing help are also unpaid MCG community could manage this by stating its position as being opposed to replacing jobs that are vital to a museum operating with unpaid work and not allowing those onto the list, with this stated in the posting rules. Calls for volunteer and some other unpaid opportunities to help could be allowed, but all of these would need to be flagged so the community could spot them and decide if they counted as job-displacement by unpaid workers. This requirement would be defined and stated in the posting rules. (I’m ignoring the exact pedantic wording that would define this for now, you get the gist. Please don’t start a thread on that yet – the principle is clear, whether we agree with it or not ) I would suggest that if this was an agreeable option to the community (and some members of the community have expressed they want this in one form or another), we have standard wording for any opportunity asking for unpaid assistance and we post-moderate it. I would say unpaid work of any kind be flagged with something like (and again we should not debate the wording of this now): “Volunteer opportunity – please note this is unpaid” Option 3 - We allow calls for unpaid work of any kind and let individuals decide This seems to me to represent the various opinions and needs expressed in the best way to have a representative vote. I am ambivalent about adding an option 4 for no opinion, but let’s keep that too, just to see how many that respond feel that way. We should post the results. Nick, I am happy to set this up as list moderator and resend Andrew Lewis | Data and Insights Architect | Technology Solutions | Natural History Museum | Cromwell Road | London | SW7 5BD Tel: 020 7942 6134 | Email:[log in to unmask] From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Nick Clarey Sent: 25 May 2017 17:10 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Unpaid internships and the mailing list: vote now! Please find below a link to a Google Form to vote to permit or forbid advertising of unpaid internships on the MCG mailing list: https://goo.gl/forms/REabxMe3g662tsTz1 Please note: all responses are anonymous, no login required. Best regards, Nick -- Nick Clarey CEO, Airsource Ltd. @airsourceltd Phone: +44-1223-708370 **************************************************************** website: http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/ Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ukmcg Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/museumscomputergroup [un]subscribe: http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/email-list/ **************************************************************** ______________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned by the Symantec Email Security.cloud service. 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