Hi everyone,
I have learned that the Hayashibara Museum of Natural Sciences in Japan is at a very high risk to close its operation and lose its staff due to its financial trouble. As many of you know, Hayashibara Museum has grown to be an internationally renowned institution on dinosaur research, particularly those from Mongolia. Apparently, the legal matter concerning the possible closure of the museum is moving extremely rapidly. Its museum staff has asked me to help soliciting as many supporting letters as possible from people in the paleontological community to save the museum and its staff. The letter should be addressed to the company president, Mr. Shigeharu Fukuda, and the letter should emphasize the museum's scientific contributions and its importance to Mongolian dinosaur research. Please send your letter ASAP (within the next 15 hours if all possible) to Dr. Mahito Watabe at moldavicum@pa2.so-net.ne.jp. Some critical executive meetings to determine the fate of the museum will take place in the next 30 hours, so this is an extremely time-sensitive matter. If you can print a letter on an institutional cover sheet and send Dr. Watabe a JPG or PDF scan of the letter, that would be the best. However, even a message as a simple e-mail text will help Dr. Watabe to compile letters to be presented to the attorney he is working with. Thank you very much in advance for your help!
Kenshu
P.S. In order to facilitate the process, below is my letter I just sent to Dr. Watabe, that you can use as a template:
"Dear President Fukuda,
I am writing this letter in response to the proposed closure of the Hayashibara Museum of Natural Sciences. The Hayashibara Museum is an internationally renowned paleontological museum that is recognized as one of the leading institutions in dinosaur research. As far as research on Mongolian dinosaurs goes, I believe it is among the top three museums in the entire world, and it has made tremendous scientific contributions over the past 10+ years. As such, not only the closure of the Hayashibara Museum will be a major blow to the scientific advancement of dinosaurs, it will also tarnish the great reputation of Japanese scientific research in which your staff members have diligently built over the years. In addition, it will also damage the image of the name "Hayashibara" now well-recognized by the international paleontologicial community. For these reasons, I would like to extend my deepest wishes to save the operation of the museum and all the associated staff positions. Thank you very much for your consideration.
Sincerely yours,"
