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NEWSLETTER

Volume 14, #2                       August 31, 2011
__________________________________________________________________________

Inside:
SMMP Meetings
Denver Agenda
President's Message
Best Practices Project
SMMP Grant Program
Meeting Minutes
SMMP Europe
SMMP Affiliations
SMMP List Server

Paying Dues

Board of Directors

President
Virgil W. Lueth
New Mexico Bureau of Mines
801 Leroy Place
Socorro, NM 87801
, USA
vwlueth@nmt.edu

Past President & Newsletter Editor
Anthony R. Kampf
Natural History Museum
of
Los Angeles County
900 Exposition Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA
90007, USA

Vice President
Penny Williamson
School of Earth and Environmental Sciences
University of Wollongong
NSW 2522, Australia

Secretary
Jean F. DeMouthe
California Academy of Science
Golden Gate Park
San Francisco, CA 94118
, USA

Treasurer
Anna M. Domitrovic
6118 W. Lazy Heart Street
Tucson, AZ 85713, USA

Board Members:

Katherine Dunnell
Mineralogy Department
Royal Ontario Museum

100 Queen's Park
Toronto, Ontario M5S 2C6, Canada

Julian Gray
Tellus Science Museum
100 Tellus Drive
White, Georgia  30120

Jamie Newman
Dept. of Earth & Planetary Sciences
American Museum of Natural History
Central Park West @79th St.
New York, NY 10024, USA

Terri Ottaway
Gemological Institute of America
5345 Armada Drive
Carlsbad, CA 92008, USA

DENVER MEETINGS

Date: Friday, Sept. 16, 2011
Place: Denver Merchandise Mart
Board Meeting: 1:30 - 2:00 PM
Membership Meeting: 2:00 - 3:00 PM

Denver Exhibit: "Russian Minerals"
Please contact Jean DeMouthe
if you are planning to participate in our society exhibit at the Denver Gem & Mineral Show.

* * *

TENTATIVE DENVER AGENDA 

  1. Call to Order

  2. Introductions

  3. Approval of the Tucson Meeting Minutes

  4. Treasurer's Report

  5. Membership Report

  6. Collections/Curators Committee Report

  7. Education Committee - Denver exhibit; Tucson program and case

  8. SMMP Grant Program

  9. Best Practices Project

  10. New Business

* * *

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

Greetings from the "Land of Enchantment."
     I'm busy preparing for this weekend's show in Silver City, New Mexico - our first show of the fall season. It is always my reminder that Denver is about 2-3 weeks away and I need to get busy writing this message.
     There has been a spate of recent threats of closure of mineral museums from coast to coast. I've written more letters to governors and policy makers this year than in any past years of my tenure. Public institutions are under siege and now is the time to rally any troops you have, from school teachers and their students to local rockhounding groups. The bottom line we need to promote; museums provide significant public benefit for a modest amount of money.
     Another disturbing development is the reduction of support to museums to attend the larger gem and mineral shows (Denver in particular). The cost of attending the larger shows has never been met by the support given by the organizers. In the meantime, most of our budgets are being cut making travel to shows more difficult. Obviously we have to carefully weigh the public relations benefit of attending these events with the costs of attending. But it looks like the increasing cost considerations may force many of us to discontinue exhibiting at these shows. I've heard a number of museums are not attending this year's Denver show because of the reduction in support. Interestingly, our local show committees (in NM anyway) now support our attendance to their shows to a greater degree than the larger national or international galas. Perhaps we are better off turning our attentions closer to home and more effectively serving our immediate constituents?
     I'm looking forward to seeing my SMMP friends and colleagues in Denver. May your travel be pleasant and all your specimens arrive safely.

Virgil Lueth, President

 

* * *

BEST PRACTICES PROJECT

The first "best practices" documents about research sampling of collections are posted on the SMMP website:

BEST PRACTICES REPORT NO. 1: Research Sampling of Collections

BEST PRACTICES REPORT NO. 2: Moving Specimens

We are looking for more in the series - please submit your idea to the board at the Denver meeting or contact Virgil Lueth (vwlueth@nmt.edu).

* * *

SMMP GRANT PROGRAM

The SMMP Grant Program 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 are available on request. Applications are due August 1st and award notification on October 1st. Guidelines are available on our website: http://www.agiweb.org/smmp/support-SMMP.htm

* * *

MINUTES OF THE TUCSON MEETING
February 2011

Click on the link above to view the minutes.

* * *

SMMP Europe 2011 Meeting

The Annual Joint meeting of SMMP Europe and the IMA-CM
will take place at 16:00 on Friday 2
8th October, 2011
during the
Munich International Mineral Show.

As in previous years, the venue will be
Room A51 on the First Floor of Hall A5
of the Neue Messe Riem, Munich.
Access is from Hall A5.

* * *

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.

* * *

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.

* * *

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 Denver 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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