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NEWSLETTER

Volume 19, #2                       August 11, 2016
 __________________________________________________________________________

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

Board of Directors

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

Past President
Virgil W. Lueth
 New Mexico Bureau of Mines
801 Leroy Place
Socorro, NM 87801, USA

Vice President
Julian Gray
 Rice Northwest Museum
of Rocks & Minerals
Hillsboro, OR, USA

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

Eloise Gaillou
 Musee de Mineralogie
Ecoles des Mines de Paris
60 Boulevard St. Michel
75272 Paris
|France

Alan Hart
 Gem-A
21 Ely Place
London EC1N 6TD, England

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

Webmaster:

Anthony R. Kampf
 Natural History Museum
of Los Angeles County
900 Exposition Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90007, USA

DENVER MEETINGS

Date:

Place:

Board Meeting:

Membership Meeting:

 Friday, September 16, 2016

 Denver Merchandise Mart (G39-41)

 2:00 - 2:30 PM

 2:30 - 4:00 PM

Denver Exhibit: "Unusual things from Africa"
Please contact Virgil Lueth 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 Report
  9. Best Practices Initiative
  10. New Business

* * *

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

Greetings from the beautiful southern hemisphere. Two thirds of the way through winter, the sun is shining, the temperature is mild, the birds are singing... I hope all is well in your respective worlds. The Denver Gem & Mineral Show is next month, along with our regular SMMP meeting.

This year we had our first SMMP meeting at Ste Marie aux Mines and it was a great success (see the photograph and minutes). As this will become a permanent fixture, please consider making the effort to go to Ste Marie in late June, particularly European and British curators. We had extra time for socialising after the meeting, which worked well, so I have extended our meeting format in Denver to allow time if wanted.

Jean is unable to come to Denver this year and therefore will not be coordinating our SMMP Denver display, which is "Unusual African Minerals". Virgil has stepped in, offering to do labels, set up the case and dismantle it. Please assist if possible.

James Hagadorn, Denver Museum of Nature and Science, has organised an extra event in our Denver calendar, with a VIP Behind-the-Scenes Tour of the collections at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, on Thursday Sept 15th from about 6 to 8 pm.

Bruce Geller, Colorado School of Mines, has notified the list, via email, of the theft of a mineral specimen.  This is an effective method of notifying interested curators. If you know of similar incidents, please use the list server.

SMMP is affiliated with the American Geological Institute, AGI, who donate 50 Earth Science Week Toolkits to us in August each year. They are sent to James Hagadorn, who kindly brings them on to the Denver Show for our meeting, available for anyone to take. These toolkits have some interesting things for outreach activities. If you would like some toolkits, and are not going to be in Denver personally, please arrange for one of your colleagues to collect them on your behalf. They are quite heavy, so posting them is not an option.

We welcome any new ideas or issues. If you would like any issues discussed at the Denver meeting, please contact me. We usually manage to take up the entire hour with lively discussion so I have extended the meeting room availability for 90 minutes to allow some socialising at the end.

Looking forward to catching up with many colleagues in Denver.

Penny Williamson
President

* * *

MINUTES OF THE TUCSON MEETING
February 2016

Click on the link above to view the minutes.

* * *

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.smmp.net/support-SMMP.htm

* * *

JOINT SMMP/IMA-CM Meeting IN MUNICH

The Society, in conjunction with the IMA Commission on Museums, will be holding its annual meeting during the 2016 Munich Mineral Show. Those who attended last year's meeting will recall that it was a rather stormy affair. It will be held on Friday 28th October at 16:00 - 17:00. The venue has still to be confirmed. It is hoped that the details of the meeting will be finalised by the SMMP meeting in Denver.

Peter Davidson
 P.Davidson@nms.ac.uk

* * *

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.

Handing your business card with your dues helps the process of keeping track when you pay by cash at a meeting.

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The Society of Mineral Museum Professionals
Webmaster: Anthony R. Kampf