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SMMP Web site: www.smmp.net

SMMP Group Email Address: smmp@nhm.org

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FEBRUARY 2002 MINUTES

TUCSON, ARIZONA:  February 14, 2002

Directors Meeting, 2:00 pm

President Kampf called the meeting to order at 2:05 p.m. All members of the Board were present.

Minutes: The minutes for the Denver meeting were presented and made open to discussion. A motion to approve the minutes of the last directors meeting, as presented in the October Newsletter, was approved.

Financial Report: Anna Domitrovic, Treasurer, submitted a written financial report to the Board. A motion to accept the financial report as presented was passed.

Committee Reports:

Collections Committee: Virgil Lueth, chair of the collections committee, reported no additions to the current list of orphaned collections or curators.

Computer Committee: Tony Kampf, chair of the computer committee, reported the SMMP web site is now hosted on the AGI server as part of our membership benefits.  The site has also been redesigned.

Education: No Report.

Publications: Jean DeMouthe, chair of the publications committee, reported that she received no response to a call for articles. She noted that most of our publications should focus on web site utilization.

Stolen Specimens: Tony Kampf continues to post reports on the web site as they come available.

Collection Policies: The society continues to solicit collection policies from all member museums to produce a general SMMP policy.

Natural Science Collections Alliance: Susan Eriksson solicited the society to join the Natural Science Collections Alliance as an affiliated society. The NSCA was originally established primarily for biologic collections but has since expanded to include all natural history objects. The cost to the SMMP would be $150/year. A motion to join the Alliance as an affiliated society was approved.

AGI Report: Tony Kampf reported that the SMMP is now officially a member society of the American Geological Institute. The Geotimes subscription option was also discussed. The following were appointed to official AGI committees:

                K-12  Science Education Susan Eriksson
                Society Council Tony Kampf
                Government Affairs Program Advisory Committee OPEN
                Environmental Geoscience Advisory Committee OPEN

SMMP Europe: SMMP Europe was officially formed on October 26, 2001, at the Munich Show. A report of the first meeting was published on the SMMP web site. Another meeting of SMMP Europe is scheduled in conjunction with the upcoming IMA meeting.  The addition of a European branch will require a review of the societys current bylaws.

Other Business:

1. Travel issues when transporting specimens.

2. Mineral show security facilities

3. Symposium proposal State of Mineralogy cosponsored by MSA, FM and SMMP.

Election: The terms of Suzanne Cowan (deceased), George Harlow, and Marc Wilson will end this year. An election will be held during the general meeting to fill the positions vacated.

President Kampf adjourned the meeting at 12:55.

General Meeting, 3:00 pm

President Kampf called the meeting to order at 3:00 p.m. The meeting agenda was distributed and all present introduced themselves in the customary fashion.

Minutes: The minutes for the previous years meeting were presented and made open to discussion. A motion to approve the minutes of the last directors meeting, as presented in the August Newsletter, was approved. No minutes of the Denver meeting were available since no official meeting was held.

Presidents Report: President Tony Kampf summarized his report that was available on the web site. Tony noted the loss of two members of the SMMP, Suzanne Cowan (vice president) and Joe Nagel. The program following the meeting is dedicated to their memory. The expansion of the SMMP into Europe was mentioned in addition to the Societys association with the American Geological Institute.

Financial Report: Anna Domitrovic, Treasurer, submitted a written financial report to the general meeting.

Committee Reports:

Collections Committee: Virgil Lueth, chair of the collections committee, reported all additions to the current list of orphaned collections or curators are forwarded to Tony Kampf and posted on our web site.

Computer Committee: Tony Kampf, chair of the computer committee, reported the SMMP web site is now hosted on the AGI server as part of our membership benefits.  The site has also been redesigned and the meeting was invited to post information on our site.

Education: No Report.

Publications: Jean DeMouthe, chair of the publications committee, reported that she received no response to a call for articles. She noted that most of our publications should focus on web site utilization and proposed posting information on specimen preservation on the web site in lieu of formal publications. She also reminded the meeting that the SMMP is still collecting museum policy documents.

Stolen Specimens: Tony Kampf continues to post reports on the web site as they come available.

AGI Report: Tony Kampf reported that the SMMP was officially recognized as a member society of the American Geological Institute at the last AGI Member Societies Council Meeting, which took place on November 5, 2001 in Boston in conjunction with the Geological Society of America meeting. The following AGI committee positions and representatives appointed to official AGI committees are as follows:

                K-12  Science Education Susan Erikson
                Society Council Tony Kampf
                Government Affairs Program Advisory Committee OPEN
                Environmental Geoscience Advisory Committee Michael Wise

AGI membership costs to the SMMP are $2 per member and we reported 63 U.S. members out of a total membership of 92. The SMMP web site is now hosted on the AGI server. The Geotimes subscription option was also discussed.

SMMP Europe: Terry Huizing reported that the first meeting of SMMP Europe was officially held on October 26, 2001, at the Munich Show. Between 25 and 30 people were in attendance. Peter Davidson was elected coordinator and Jana Hork will serve as subscription officer. A report of the first meeting was published on the SMMP web site. Another meeting of SMMP Europe is scheduled in conjunction with the upcoming IMA meeting.  The addition of a European branch will require a review of the societys current bylaws.

Other Business:

Review of the Bylaws: Jean DeMouthe will chair a committee to review the By Laws with respect to the addition of SMMP Europe.

IMA Meeting Commission on Museums: Carl Francis reported the Commission resolved to endorse SMMP as an umbrella organization for curators. The Commission will be cosponsoring 3 sessions at the IMA meeting in Edinburgh, Scotland with the SMMP.

Collection Policies: The society continues to solicit collection policies from all member museums to produce a general SMMP policy.

Natural Science Collections Alliance: Susan Eriksson presented a proposal for the SMMP to join the Natural Science Collections Alliance as an affiliated society. The NSCA was originally established in the 1940s primarily for biologic collections but has since expanded to include all natural history objects. The cost to the SMMP as an affiliate society would be $150/year. A discussion about how the alliance is related to the SMMP mission ensued. The Board of Directors earlier approved joining as an affiliate.

State of Mineralogy Session: Jeff Post introduced the concept for a special session discussing the state of modern mineralogy for a future Tucson Show. The session would be co-sponsored by FM-MSA-SMMP-TGMS. The following people will serve as co-chairs for the session: Alex Speer and John Rakovan (MSA), Susan Eriksson (FM) and Jeff Post (SMMP).

Airport Transport: George Harlow initiated discussion about recent security changes at airports and how it impacts travel with mineral specimens. He stressed how dont touch concepts must be discussed with security supervisors when traveling. A suggestion to share travel experiences on the SMMP list server was suggested.

Secure Storage at Mineral Shows: Mark Mauthner agreed to serve as a facilitator between the SMMP and TGMS for arranging on site secure storage before and after shows. In addition, the concept of a host museum/university for secure storage was also discussed.

Bureau of Land Management Educational Programs: Frank Hissong, program analyst for elementary education, discussed the development of educational programs through cooperative efforts of the BLM and museums. These programs would involve the joint development of plans and curriculum.

Announcements:

        Pennsylvania Symposium (A. Sicree)
  Earth Science Speakers Directory through a coordination of FM and MSA
  Call for Papers for the 2003 SME Meeting in Cincinnati
  MSHA endorsement for collectors that is currently under development
  NRC study on geoscience data and collections impending data gathering workshops.
  MSSC Show at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

Elections: An election was held to fill the positions vacated by Suzanne Cowan (deceased), George Harlow, and Marc Wilson whose terms were ending. George Harlow, Carl Francis, Andrew Sicree and Dimitri Belakovskii were nominated and Harlow, Francis and Belakovskii were elected.

President Kampf adjourned the meeting at 4:00 p.m.

Election of Officers

A special meeting of the Board of Directors to elect officers was convened immediately following the regular meeting and preceding the program. The Board elected the following officers for current year:   President Tony Kampf; Vice President Carl Francis, Treasurer Anna Domitrovic, Secretary Virgil Lueth.

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SMMP AFFILIATIONS

SMMP is a member society of the American Geological Institute (AGI) and an affiliate member of the Natural Science Collections Alliance (NSCA). In addition, the Commission on Museums of the International Mineralogical Association has resolved to support SMMP's efforts in uniting mineral museum professionals worldwide.

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SMMP EUROPE

If you are a European member of SMMP, please note that we have a European Coordinator, Peter Davidson, to arrange society activities in Europe and a European Subscriptions Officer, Jana Hork, to assist in processing dues. You may send dues to the Jana or directly to the SMMP treasurer, Anna Domitrovic. If you have questions or suggestions concerning SMMP activities in Europe, please contact Peter.

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COLLECTION PRESERVATION
An Announcement from Michael Hawkins
New York State Museum

We have begun a large scale project that we think is potentially important to the future preservation of underfunded and undermanaged institutional collections. We have signed an agreement with Hamilton College in Clinton, New York to take long term loan of the Oren Root Collection, an important 19th century collection heavy with New York State specimens that are of particular interest to us. We have agreed to curate and database the entire collection, as well as, digitally photograph many of its important specimens. Also, we are building a special display case for its highlights to be shown to the public in our Mineral Gallery.

The recognition by larger institutions of our responsibility to assist and preserve important collections that might not otherwise survive comes, unfortunately, too late for many. However, we think that it is important to preserve whatever we can preserve at this point in time and, hopefully, get the word out to smaller institutions and university geology departments that there is interest in preserving important and underappreciated collections.

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MEETINGS OF INTEREST

Second International Symposium on
MINERAL DIVERSITY - RESEARCH AND PRESERVATION
Sofia, Bulgaria - October 11-14, 2002

5th International Conference on
MINERALOGY & MUSEUMS
Paris, France - June 2004 

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Colorado Chapter of FM Symposium
GEMSTONE DEPOSITS OF COLORADO AND THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN REGION
A Symposium to be held at Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado
September 7-10, 2002

Sponsored by Friends of Mineralogy, Colorado Chapter; Colorado School of Mines Geology Museum; Denver Museum of Nature and Science; and U.S. Geological Survey

The symposium will precede the Denver Gem and Mineral Show,
theme "Colorado Gemstones", Sep. 13-15, 2002

All persons, amateur and professional, interested in the geologic occurrence of gem minerals are invited to attend.
The symposium will include:
Welcoming party, Friday evening Sept. 6 at the Colorado School of Mines Geology Museum
Lectures, Saturday Sept. 7 and Sunday morning Sept. 8, at the Colorado School of Mines
Sat. banquet; speaker, Dan Hausel, Wyoming Geol. Survey, "The Great Diamond Hoax of 1872"
Tour of Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Sunday afternoon Sept. 8
Reception at DMNS, Sunday evening Sept. 8
Field trips, Monday & Tuesday, Sept. 9 & 10. We hope to include trips to the State Line kimberlite district, Pikes Peak batholith, and Cripple Creek mining district.
A booklet of extended abstracts and field trip guides

Speakers will include: Dick Berg, Montana sapphire deposits; Bill Chirnside, Utah pink topaz; Bob Cobban, Colorado blue corundum; Howard Coopersmith, Kelsey Lake diamonds; Heather Douglas, emeralds of northwestern Canada; Nelia Dunbar, origin of thunder eggs; Mary Garland, origin of Montana sapphires; Mike Gray, rare and unusual gem minerals; Dan Hausel, Wyoming gem occurrences; Mark Jacobson, Mt. Antero aquamarine; Bob Jones, turquoise of the Southwest; Melissa Kirkley, new theories of the origin of diamonds; Jay Lininger, Art Montgomery and the history of mining gem minerals in Colorado and Utah; Pete Modreski, Colorado topaz; Jack Murphy, Colorado gemstones; John Rhoads, Colorado peridot; Jim Shigley, Utah red beryl; Art Soregaroli, Zapot pegmatite, Nevada; and others.

To receive further information about symposium registration and the details about the program and field trips, or to offer to present a paper at the symposium, please contact any of the following:
Paul Bartos, Colorado School of Mines, 303-273-3823, pbartos@mines.edu
Dan Kile, U.S. Geological Survey, 303-541-3029, dekile@usgs.gov
Jack Murphy, Denver Museum of Nature & Science, 303-370-6445, jmurphy@dmns.org
Pete Modreski, U.S. Geological Survey, 303-236-5639, pmodreski@usgs.gov
or write to Friends of Mineralogy, Colorado Chapter, P.O. Box 5276, Golden CO 80401-5276

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TRACKING DUES

SMMP dues are $10.00 U.S., payable to Anna Domitrovic, treasurer, Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, 2021 N. Kinney Road, Tucson, AZ, 85743. Any directory changes or additions should be sent to Tony Kampf. In Europe, dues can be remitted to Jana Hork, National Museums & Galleries of Wales, Cathays Park, Cardiff CF10 3NP, WALES.

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. A "??" appears in this column for new members whose initial dues payment has not yet been recorded. If you are delinquent (any year earlier than '02), please remit your dues payment as soon as possible.