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PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

Season's greetings for 2016. For those who are under water or snowed in, I hope you and your collections are safe.

As you know by now, unfortunately the M&M8 conference scheduled for Changsha in May this year has been cancelled. There will be an announcement at the Tucson general meeting (Thursday, February 11, 4 pm) by the IMA Commission on Museums to get the M&M series back on track.

Please assist Anna with your SMMP dues of only $10 (US) per annum by providing correct money and a business card if you are paying at the meeting so she can write the receipt. If you can, it is preferable to fix it up via the website prior to Tucson, giving Anna more time.

Jean has again come up with a quirky theme for the SMMP educational display at Tucson. Please support this display by firstly contacting Jean to ensure she can do the labels and bringing an orange specimen at set up for the Tucson Show.

Julian has organised the Tucson program as a panel discussion which should be of wide interest - "On Loan: Enhancing Museum Exhibits through Loaned Collections". This will be held immediately after our general meeting, at 5 pm. Please support it and invite anyone else along too as it is a public presentation.

Once again, Jim and Gail Spann are generously hosting an evening for SMMP, with Jordi Faber on Thursday, 11 February at Casa Vicente, just after our SMMP program at 6 pm. This is a strictly invitation only, RSVP event, which will be posted via the SMMP list server.

This year we will be having an SMMP meeting in conjunction with the Saint-Marie-aux-Mines Mineral and Gem Show in June. For any curators who will be attending Ste. Marie, the meeting will be held on Friday, 24 June, time and place to be advertised later, all welcome. The Ste. Marie Show committee have kindly offered us a room and resources for the meeting. We have a two hour timeslot, probably just before the seminar series organised by Eloise Gaillou, so the European members can have time to discuss any matters. If it is a success, this will be an annual event. We will need a champion, like Peter Davidson does for Munich, preferably French-speaking. If anyone is interested in being Ste. Marie champion, please let me know.

We held a spirited discussion about the "Meet the Curators" event at the Denver Show in September 2015. As a result, we have given the Denver Show feedback and hope to work with them to improve the event in future years.

As I reach my twilight years, retirement looms. Do you and your organisation have a succession plan for your position and longevity of the collections? Retirement creeps up daily: plan your exit.

On such happy thoughts,
Best wishes for 2016.

Penny

2015 group photo

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MINUTES OF THE DENVER MEETING
September 2015

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BEST PRACTICES PROJECT

"Best practices" documents are posted on the SMMP website:

BEST PRACTICES REPORT NO. 1: Research Sampling of Collections

BEST PRACTICES REPORT NO. 2: Moving Specimens

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SMMP RESEARCH STUDY GRANTS

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, 2016

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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
Katherine Dunnell
Jean DeMouthe

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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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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 giving her a business card with your dues payment. Do it beforehand and save time at the meeting!