Re: private collecting

[San Diego Natural History Museum Library <libsdnhm@CLASS.ORG>]

A very thoughtful posting. SVP does not have the resources to mount "a 
training program," but the Outreach Committee is producing an 
"Opportunities" brochure to list all the training and experience programs 
that are available for amateurs. If you have programs that you believe 
merit inclusion, please let me know no later than Dec. 31. This brochure 
will be distributed in early to mid-1996. We had talked at one time about 
accrediting amateur training programs, but they are so diverse--some 
based on formal classroom work, others on hands-on participation--that we 
are a long way from even considering that. We're hoping that the 
"Opportunities" publication will be a start in this direction as well as 
a public service. Right now, any program that gives amateurs and 
volunteers a chance to learn how to do good paleontology will be 
seriously considered for inclusion. There are no limits on age taught and 
no particular standards for the type or amount of instruction. Help us 
define this (please reply off-list unless there's a huge amount of 
information). 

Re amateurs collecting on public lands: first, I disagree that 
professionals will lose nothing if they are banned. They (er, we) will 
lose a tremendous amount. Having said that, it's worth pointing out that 
there are people at the BLM who have been in contact with responsible 
amateurs to work on the possibility of getting them into the permitting 
process. If you are on the Outreach newsletter mailing list (yeah, yeah, 
it will be on its own page soon, just not yet), you'll get automatic 
updates on this. Currently there is no formal process for this in the 
federal permit system, but the work has started. A lot of the standards 
for responsible amateur collecting mentioned in the Lightwaves post 
parallel the concerns of the amateurs and land managers, so I think we're 
in much more agreement than we realize.

Cheers,

Sally Shelton
Director, Collections Care and Conservation
Chair, SVP Outreach



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