NEWSLETTER

Volume 7, #2      September 2, 2004
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Contents
SMMP Meetings
President's Message
Coll. Policy Project
Web Site and Email
Meeting Minutes
SMMP Affiliations
SMMP Europe
CSM Open House
Tracking Dues

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Board of Directors

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

Past Pres. & Newsletter Ed.
Anthony R. Kampf
Nat. Hist. Mus. of Los Angeles Co.
900 Exposition Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90007, USA

Vice President
Terry Huizing
Cincinnati Museum Center
1301 Western Avenue
Cincinnati, Ohio 45203

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

Treasurer
Anna M. Domitrovic
Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum
2021 N. Kinney Road
Tucson, AZ 85743, USA

Paul Bartos
Colorado School of Mines
1310 Maple St.
Golden, CO 80401

Dimitri Belakovskii
Fersman Mineralogical Museum
Leninskii Prospect 18-2
117071 Moscow, RUSSIA

George E. Harlow
American Museum of Natural History
Central Park West at 79th St.
New York, NY 10024, USA

Michael A. Wise
Dept. of Mineral Sciences, MRC-19
National Museum of Natural History
Washington, DC 20560, USA

SMMP 2004 Denver Meetings
in conjunction with Denver Gem & Mineral Show

TENTATIVE DENVER MEETING AGENDA

1. Call to Order
2. Introductions
3. Approval of the Tucson Meeting Minutes
4. Treasurers Report
5. Membership Report
6. SMMP Grant Program
7. Collections Policy Project
8. Education Committee Denver case, Tucson program and case
9. New Business

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PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

The smell of fresh roasting chile (yes, thats how we spell it here) permeates the New Mexico air and signals that the Denver Show is near. The fall show on the front range of the Rockies is one of my favorites. It is big enough that you get the opportunity to see many great specimens, visit old friends and see new mineral finds; yet small enough that you feel you had the chance to see everything.

I especially encourage you to attend this years SMMP meeting at the show on Friday. One of the important topics we will discuss is the structure of our proposed grant program. After the meeting, the directors will formally adopt a policy (via email) for awarding the grants that will be presented to the membership at the meeting in Tucson. Discussing potential grant rules at this meeting will allow everyone to contribute to the policies that will guide the program. The intent of the grant program is to promote good museum curation practices and help our general membership by presenting the results of the grant via the newsletter.

In addition, we will review the progress in our Collections Policy project (see the report below). We had an initial response by a number of institutions and now its time to beat the bushes for a few more. Bring your written policy along or email it to Patty to contribute to this worthy project. It is also a chance for us to discuss issues such as the Sorbonne Museum editorial in the latest Mineralogical Record and other topics related to life in the museum.

Finally, Jean DeMouthe will not be attending the show this year so I have volunteered to coordinate the SMMP case. Jean suggested the topic, Minerals named for famous mineralogists. Sounded good to me so you decide if the mineralogist was famous enough and provide a sample or two for the case. Send me the name and locality of the mineral, the name of the mineralogist, and a very short biography (two or three sentences about the scientist). I can work up a little biographic information if you dont have the time, just volunteer some specimens! Contact me by clicking on my name in the Denver meeting announcement above. See you in Denver.

Virgil Lueth
President

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COLLECTIONS POLICY PROJECT

At the 2004 Tucson SMMP meeting, there was a call for compiling Museum Collections Policies. The response has been good. We have received six collections policies and four "we don't have one (yet)" replies.

Thank you to all who have replied so far! There are over 60 museums with members, so this quest for knowledge isn't over yet. I put our (New Mexico Bureau of Geology & Mineral Resources) collections policy online; anyone is welcome to browse it. It's linked from my homepage, or you can download the PDF directly:

http://www.nmt.edu/~plfrisch

http://www.nmt.edu/~plfrisch/policy04.pdf

If you have your museum policy online, please send me the URL and I will download it and add it to the collection. Otherwise you are welcome to email it to me (plfrisch@nmt.edu) or send me a paper copy.

Patty Frisch

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SMMP Web site: www.smmp.net

SMMP Group Email Address: smmp@nhm.org

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FEBRUARY 2004 MINUTES

The minutes of the February meeting were not available at press time. They will be posted on our Web site when they are available.

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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.

We need to fill the following openings:
* Representative to AGI Government Affairs Program Advisory Committee
* Representative to AGI International Geoscience Advisory Committee

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SMMP-Europe 2004 Munich Meeting
in conjunction with Mineralientage Mnchen

You will be notified of this meeting by e-mail when details are finalized.

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CSM MUSEUM OPEN HOUSE

An open house at the Geology Museum of the Colorado School of Mines will be held on Wednesday night, September 15, 2004, from 7 10 p.m. The facility is located at 1310 Maple Street in Golden, Colorado.  Hors doeuvres, cash bar and silent auction will be available. Special exhibits by Dave Bunk, Hilja Herfurth, Dawn Minette, and Martin Zinn will also be featured.

The Museum is located across from the Steinhauer Field House. A detailed CSM map is available at www.mines.edu/csm_maps/.For further information, contact: Paul Bartos (303) 273-3823 or pbartos@mines.edu

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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 Peter Davidson, National Museums of Scotland, Chambers Street, Edinburgh EH1 1JF, SCOTLAND.

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 '04), please remit your dues payment as soon as possible.