I’m a bit puzzled by Sammy Jones’ and Albert Haim’s comments. The issues raised in the Code of Conduct and new principles are not some arcane positions unrelated to the ARSC constituency and membership like, say, what the Association’s response is to the endangerment of polar bears. In part these are responses to the actual experiences of ARSC members that are, by any measure, unacceptable. Quite a few of the emails in this chain have made clear that some members have been subjected to wholly unacceptable behavior.

Is it your position that ARSC should not confront such behaviors and work to deter them?

Gerald Seligman

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> On Jul 21, 2020, at 8:32 PM, Albert Haim <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Sammy Jones wrote: "I'm just a record collector, and I'm only interested in
> being in a record/archiving club; not an activist organization."
> Similarly, I am just a jazz historian, and am only interested in the
> scholarly activities of the ARSC, The ARSC should restrict itself to its
> stated purpose:
>
> The Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) is a nonprofit
> organization dedicated to the preservation and study of sound recordings,
> in all genres of music and speech, in all formats, and from all periods.
> ARSC is unique in bringing together private individuals and institutional
> professionals—everyone with a serious interest in recorded sound.
>
>
> Albert Haim
>
>
>
>> I'm just a record collector, and I'm only interested in being in a
>> record/archiving club; not an activist organization. In fact I cannot be a
>> member of a political activist organization. The ethics of my profession
>> don't allow it. If you know how I feel on politics and current events,
>> it's because I have shared that information with you as a friend or
>> fellow-member, not because I expect ARSC to act or make statements about
>> those views or beliefs.
>>
>>
>>
>>