From Plant Press, Vol. 14, No. 4 from October 2011.
On 27 September, the staff and community of the National Museum of Natural History gathered to celebrate with and honor the 22 individuals retiring from 7 departments across the museum. Within this venerable group the Department of Botany had the largest number of retirees representing 204 combined total years of service. Retirees from the department include: Mark Littler (1982), Jim Norris (1975), Katherine Rankin (1986), Susan Rechen (1979), Harold Robinson (1962), and Bob Sims (1978). In an accompanying article on page xx we recognize the individual contributions, accomplishments, and leadership that each has imparted during their many years of service. We will certainly miss them all and on behalf of the department I extend our sincere gratitude to these individuals for their dedicated service to the museum and greater botanical community, and we wish them a happy, fulfilling retirement.
While the Department is fortunate that most of this group has graciously chosen to serve in an emeritus or volunteer capacity in the future, we recognize that with their departure under the recent buyout opportunity and others who previously retired we are faced with significant gaps at both the research curatorial and museum collections and IT specialist levels. Over the past few decades the curatorial ranks of the Department have dwindled from 19 to 11 curators and from 42 to 28 technical staff, while the collections in the U.S. National Herbarium have continued to grow. The current staffing upheaval is unprecedented within the Department and although it presents an immediate challenge to fill some rather large shoes it has created an opportunity that has allowed us to embark on a hiring campaign to re-build the department and position it for long-term stability.
Over the past few weeks we have actively solicited ideas from everyone in the Department via an appointed committee that has been charged with the task of drafting a staffing plan based on a consensus of departmental needs and priorities. Almost without exception, the response has been that we have two main functions; systematic and evolutionary research focused on plants, algae and fungi (i.e., lichens), and maintenance and use of the Herbarium. In the near future a comprehensive hiring plan will be shared with the Department and national searches undertaken. The initial focus will be to fill areas of critical need and function such as a museum specialist to sustain the plant mounting operation and a cryptogamic curator. The honest input from all staff has been invaluable and it is gratifying to see how engaged everyone has been throughout the process. My greatest hope is that we can attract candidates for the vacant positions with the same depth of knowledge, dedication, and longevity of service as those retiring.
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