>We also face the privacy legislation issue here.  We local beekeepers have nothing to hide from each other, since we don't want to inadvertently set down next to each other.  So we're proposing voluntary release of our information for a county map.<

That's what MT essentially has done.  The State Apiarist position isn't fully funded by tax dollars.  The state law says the State Apiarist or SA designee (e.g., inspectors) are the only ones authorized to issue health permits for interstate transport.  State lawyers concluded that DVDs can't, regardless of the FDA VFD of Jna 2017.

The privacy issue is mainly why hobbyists in Montana aren't required to register.  Too much push back.  It's not necessarily what some of the commercial really like, but the majority agree with what Randy and his local beekeepers decided.  Also, the State Bee Act pre-dates the more recent Constitution by decades.

All in all, it's a decision made by those who are affected - the professional beekeepers.  Overall, they support the state bee law - the alternatives are worse.  

I'm not a lawyer, but this reminds me of an incident about 30 years ago at UM, when I was President of the UM Staff Senate.  The Director of Facilities Services opened and read the email of every one of his staff, from his own assistant to the custodians, plumbers, electricians, etc.  He  did this for years until one of his manager came up with a vendor complaining about unpaid bills - they got lost on the Director's desk.  That brought up the whole issue of whether the Director of Facilities could legallyi open everyone's mail.

We ended up taking this to the Postal Inspector.  It is against Federal law for this to happen, without the employees permission.  We sent that message over. Next day, the Director called in every employee, shoved a permission form across the desk, and insisted they sign on-the-spot, in front of him.  Most caved, except for the Manager who brought the complaint.  

Staff Senate backed him, and we re-sent to the Postal Service and UM Legal Council in Main Hall.  Here's the rub.  The Koch brothers are famous for this practice - BUT, the employee can't be forced into this after being employed.  The permission form, to open U.S. Mail by anyone other than the recipient, has to be signed as a condition of employment, BEFORE the employee is hired.

The same type of argument applies to overall Non-Disclosure Agreements - they have to be a pre- agreement, not something done after.   All of this is like a Pre-Nup.  Binding if before, can't be grandfathered.

For our little Tech Transfer Company, we don't have employees sign any per-employment agreements about mail or NDAs.  We warn them that we occasionally conduct propietary research that may require NDAs.  When we begin discussions of this type of work, we sit down with the partners and the employees before signing a contract.  We outline the type of work to be done.  

If we decide to take on the project, we give our employees the option - if they are going to work on it, they need to adhere to NDA.  Same with our military research - big fines for non-adherence.  So far, no leaks, that we know of.   

I remember the work we did years ago at a Military base one year just before Thanksgiving.  At the end of the trial we had about 20 bricks of C4.  They had not been detonated, and EOD protocol required destruction.   Our EOD military experts dug a pit out in the middle of the desert.  They let the students remove the C4 from the vehicles, carry, and stack.  Then we all were sent off to a save location from which we could still see the fireworks.   It was a Big Bang.   EOD folks probably stretched the rules, letting our students carry around C4, but it was just us and them on a secure location.

We sat down the students, who were like kids in a candy shop, after the Big Bang..  We reminded them of what the work was about, that they were not at liberty to talk about why or especially how we did the bee conditioning, etc.  

I suspect that they followed the ' no details' rule.  I'm sure they told their families over Thanksgiving dinner about 'playing' with C4.  Can't imagine that they didn't.

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