NEWSLETTER

Volume 11, #1                       January 31, 2008
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TUCSON MEETINGS

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TENTATIVE TUCSON AGENDA 

1. Call to Order (Lueth)

2. Introductions

3. Approval of the Denver Meeting Minutes (Lueth)

4. Treasurer's Report and Paypal (Domitrovic)

5. Membership Report (Domitrovic)

6. Collections/Curators Committee Report (Lueth)

7. Collections Preservation Report (Harlow/Post)

8. Education Committee - Tucson 08 and Denver 08 exhibits, (Newman)

9. Best Practices Initiative (Lueth/Williamson)

10. SMMP Europe Report (Davidson/Huizing)

11. New Business

12. Board of Directors Election

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PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

If you think the newsletter is a little late this year, you are right. I'm suffering from a bit of writer's block and having trouble coming up with something profound. You are probably not surprised since I'm not all that profound when I feel inspired. Regardless, I've decided to review some tangible progress that the society has realized over the last year.

First is our "Best Practices" series. The number one is now posted after everyone had the opportunity to review the draft. If you have suggestions please send them on. These documents are not set in stone and should reflect new developments when they happen. Penny Williamson volunteered to do number two and a draft will be distributed at the meeting and posted on our site for your input. At the meeting I'll be looking for a volunteer to start number three on the topic of their choosing. Hopefully this series becomes the "go to" place information for specific curation topics in mineralogy as well as standard museum practice.

George Harlow and Jeff Post have made progress on establishing policy statements on the preservation of natural history collections with the Mineralogical Society of America. I congratulate these members for taking our concerns (post-Philadelphia Academy) to the scientific societies and bringing these issues to our non-museum colleagues. Most people believe museum collections are forever (as they should be) but recent developments have shown how even some of the most famous collections are threatened and even dispersed.

Sorry, but no more excuses for not paying your dues! Anna Domitrovic recently established a SMMP PayPal account for dues payments. Tony "webmaster" Kampf, installed a working link on our website. As president and top guinea pig, I had the honor of being to first to pay my dues electronically. It was easy and very straightforward - give it a try!

Finally, many thanks to Mike Pierce and Jamie Newman for tag-teaming the education case for this year's Tucson show. Mike coordinated the gathering of specimens and made the labels and placard. Jamie kindly volunteered for installation and takedown. Of course, we'll all miss Jean DeMouthe (traveling in Egypt) who has coordinated the case for many years. Kudos to all members who contributed to the case, I think it will be very popular.

Virgil Lueth, President

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2008 Board of Directors election

Three board member terms will be expiring this year. Please be prepared to nominate candidates and vote. Board members whose terms expire this year are:

Terry Huizing      Terry Ottaway     Penny Williamson

Note that the term expiration dates of the board members are provided in parentheses in the sidebar.

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BEST PRACTICES PROJECT

The first "best practices" document about research sampling of collections is posted on the SMMP website at: Best Practices No.1.

The second document initiated by Penny Williamson titled, Moving Specimens, will be presented for review at the next meeting. The current draft of this document can be seen at: Best Practices No.2.

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PROPOSED msa POSITION STATEMENT
Preservation of Natural history collections 

MSA has approved a methodology for considering and adopting position statements. The first statement submitted was a draft that George Harlow and Jeff Post had agreed to do at the 2007 meeting in Tucson.  MSA had to create an ad hoc committee to advise on a policy for adoption of position statements. George was the chair and members included with Jeff Post, Peter Heaney, and John Hughes.  Now the position statement is before the Executive Committee of MSA and George expects to hear back whether it will go for review on the MSA webpages or it needs further rewording. The present version of the statement (it has gone through some review and editing already) is available on our website: Preservation of Natural History Collections.

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MINUTES OF THE DENVER MEETING
September 2007

Click on the link above to view the minutes.

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SMMP AFFILIATIONS

American Geological Institute (AGI)

Natural Science Collections Alliance NSCA)

Although the Society of Mineral Museum Professionals maintains no official ties with the Commission on Museums (CM) of the International Mineralogical Association (IMA), the Commission resolved at its December, 2000, meeting in Melbourne, Australia, to support SMMP's efforts in uniting mineral museum professionals worldwide.

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OTHER MEETINGS OF INTEREST

M&M6
6th International Conference on Mineralogy and Museums
 Denver, Colorado - September 7 to 9, 2008

 For information click on the link above.

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SMMP LIST SERVER

You are encouraged to interact with your fellow SMMP members via our list server:

smmp@listserv.nhm.org

Please remember that when you reply to an email sent via our list server, you will be replying to the sender, although you have the option of copying the membership.

Tony Kampf processes additions to and deletions from the list server. That way we limit the list to our membership and if a member decides that they want to be dropped from the list, Tony will know whether to send them the SMMP Newsletter by snail mail. Note that you are only able to send via the list server from your email address that is on the list server. This should be the same one that is used in our on-line roster.

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PAYING DUES

SMMP dues are $10.00 U.S., payable to Anna Domitrovic, treasurer, 6118 W. Lazy Heart Street, Tucson, AZ 85713. Any directory changes or additions should be sent to Tony Kampf. In Europe, dues can be remitted to Peter Davidson, National Museums of Scotland, Chambers Street, Edinburgh EH1 1JF, SCOTLAND.

To make paying your dues easier (especially for non-US members), a PayPal account has been established and installed on our website. You can use your credit card or your own personal PayPal account. Just go to our Dues webpage.

Note that you can check your dues payment status on the SMMP on-line roster. The year shown in the last column indicates the last year for which you have paid. If you are delinquent, please remit your dues payment as soon as possible.

Remember to renew your membership. If you are planning to pay dues at the Tucson meeting, help Anna by filling out a membership application with your dues payment. Do it beforehand and save time at the meeting!