Bishop Museum staff and collections

[Neal Evenhuis]

To all:

As you may have heard, the Bishop Museum Friday 26 February layed off
approximately 20 staff and reduced time for another 12 people. Six of these
staff were employed in natural sciences.

The Bishop Museum is a privately funded institution that derives the great
majority of its operating funds through admission fees, contributions,
trusts, bequests, grants and contracts.

Because of a stagnant Hawaiian economy, lower-than expected returns on
investments, delays in expecting large grants and contracts, and a
significant reduction in state subsidy, the Museum has had to implement a
cost-reduction plan involving the elimination or reduction of some of our
activities.

For the next four months (until the new fiscal year), no collections
transactions (accessions, deaccessions, and loans) will be carried out and
no access will be provided to collections by researchers and scholars
unless specifically funded or obligated through existing grants or
contracts. Basic maintenance (care and preservation) of all collections
will continue.

For those of you that have already made plans to come and use our
collections, we will honor those obligations. For all others, this
restricted access will unfortunately be in force until further notice.

These reductions will in no way affect our current grant and
contract-funded obligations, nor will it lessen our commitment to the care
of collections. The activities that have been reduced were those that we
normally funded through museum operating funds, which have now been
severely cutback.

In the meantime we are working with our state legislature to try to
increase our state appropriation (during the past few years it has been
reduced by more than $2.1 million to $381,000 today).  Many of you wrote
letters of support last year and this helped us to retain some state
support (last year our allocation was reduced from ca. $800,000 to
$381,000).  If you would again like to write in support of Bishop Museum
please send your letters to Dr. Allen Allison, Vice President for Science,
Bishop Museum, 1525 Bernice Street, Honolulu, Hawaii 96817.  Fax
808-847-8252, e-mail allison at hawaii.edu.  We will distribute letters to key
legislators and state officials.

Many thanks for your concern and for your support.


Allen Allison                           Neal Evenhuis
Vice President, Research                Chair, Natural Sciences