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Volume 13, #1
January 27, 2010 |
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Inside:
Board of Directors |
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Greetings from the Land of Enchantment (just east of Arizona), I am watching the current legislative sessions, probably like you; to see how deep budgets cuts will go this year. We have been under a hiring freeze since last year and now there is talk about pay cuts. Some state employees have been required to take unpaid furloughs. Its not unemployment, but it still is unsettling. Abstract thoughts like "tightening the state's belt" become real when you are on the wrong end of the belt. No museums are threatened with closure in New Mexico but I'm not sure that holds for all museums in this recession ravaged land. Convincing those with the purse strings that museums are important is why I am interested in attendance and donation figures among our membership. It seems many politicians view museums as easy targets for cutting. But, during hard times I believe they are accessed more but probably receive less in donations. Our own attendance has increased significantly over the last two years (5%) and our symposium set a record for attendance last fall with an over 40% increase from 200 to 287. During that same time, our donations have stayed fairly level. What is happening at your place? By compiling this information, I believe we can point out to our "decision-makers" that museums are more important during hard times and should be treated with a kind hand at budget slicing time. Besides, I have not noticed the prices of specimens going down lately! Finally, as you make preparations for the trip to Tucson, check your collections for pieces that would fit in the SMMP exhibits. Jean DeMouthe puts in significant time in preparing our very well received cases. Please make her job a bit easier and take the time to find something to contribute.
Looking forward to seeing
you all in Tucson, * * * Mystery Specimens: What are they, where are they from? Unexpected Gemstones: Gems or carvings made from materials not usually thought of as gems. The TGMS proposed that SMMP present two exhibits this year. We agreed on a theme topic at Denver last year "Unexpected Gemstones." The other may be beneficial to our collections titled, "Mystery Specimens." How many pieces reside in your collection with incomplete locality or even identification information? Perhaps you don't believe a locality label for that particular piece. Bring them out and the entire mineral collecting community can provide their opinions and perhaps solve a museum mystery for you. * * *
MINUTES OF THE
DENVER MEETING Click on the link above to view the minutes. * * * ATTENDANCE AND DONATIONS SURVEY We would still like information on your attendance and donations activity over the last 5 years. The recession has provided the opportunity to evaluate museum activities during an economic downturn. Send your numbers to Virgil Lueth (vwlueth@nmt.edu) or bring them to Tucson. A presentation of the results will be forthcoming in the fall newsletter. Thanks to those who have provided information. * * * 2010 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: Anthony Kampf Jean DeMouthe Jeffrey Post Note that the term expiration dates of the board members are provided in parentheses in the sidebar. * * * "Best Practices" documents are posted on the SMMP website at: http://www.agiweb.org/smmp/rept-practices.htm We are actively looking for more volunteers to author other best practice documents. * * *
Awards are to support curatorial research and methodologies that address
one or more of the Society of Mineral Museum Professionals (SMMP)
mission statement goals: 1) foster recognition of mineral science
collections as essential scientific, educational and cultural resources,
2) promote support for growth, maintenance and use of collections and
exhibits and, 3) advance museum practice through cooperation in the
development, review and dissemination of information. Amounts vary up to
a maximum of $1000 per grant. Grant awards determined by SMMP Board of
Directors. Grant applications and more details are posted on our
website.
http://www.agiweb.org/smmp/support-SMMP.htm Grant proposals are due: August 1, 2010. * * *
INTERNATIONAL MINERALOGICAL ASSOCIATION Dear friends and colleagues, * * * Montana Tech Royal Ontario Museum
(ROM) * * * 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. * * * You are encouraged to interact with your fellow SMMP members via our list server: 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. * * * 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! |
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