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PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

Greetings,

Quite often we focus on the negative aspects of our profession; the closing of exhibit halls or loss of space, termination of curators because of financial issues within institutions (or states), or lack of funds to improve our facilities. I think one reason for this is the fact we are charged with getting around these issues and we are constantly fighting to maintain or improve our collections. Whether we are lobbying administration and benefactors or writing grants, it often seems like an uphill battle. This "siege mentality" sometimes makes us feel as though our efforts are not appreciated, either by our colleagues, administrators or the public.

I'd like to point out in this letter that perhaps we need to look up from our proposals or memos and look around to see that not all is retrenchment or "austerity." To quote from our vice-president, Katherine Dunnell, in a recent email exchange, "For us as museum professionals, there should be a little hurray every time a new science institution opens." Katherine is speaking of the subject of our program, the opening of the Ross Perot Museum of Nature and Science. Imagine that, the opening a new museum rather than closing one because of dwindling funding. I am looking forward to the story of how the museum came into being and the fact that minerals have a strong presence in the museum – not just dinosaurs.

A little more good news, the voters of New Mexico also approved a bond measure that will fund a new museum at my own university. Our new museum promises to be 50 percent larger with additional display space in the main building entry. I am not looking forward to moving our collections for the second time in my career, but the people have spoken! The number of new exhibit halls and other museum re-openings also reveals that it is not all bad news out there. Check out the SMMP(Europe)/IMA-CM report and tally the number of "good" news items. With the world economy continuing to falter, it is good to see people embrace museums as something important enough to create and sustain. Perhaps the people are indeed speaking... and they are giving us the vote of confidence we may be too busy to notice.

Looking forward to seeing you all in Tucson,

Virgil Lueth, President

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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, 2013

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MINUTES OF THE DENVER MEETING
September 2012

Click on the link above to view the minutes.

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Report on the joint meeting of the
IMA-Commission on Museums and SMMP-Europe
Munich, Germany - October 26, 2012

Click on the link above to view the minutes.

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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
Jean DeMouthe
Katherine Dunnell

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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 filling out a membership application with your dues payment. Do it beforehand and save time at the meeting!