Notes from the Board

Publications Committee
Submitted by Carol Brown

The Journal of Museum Education is on the Move!

JME readers are in for a treat over the next few months!  It begins with the final issue from our esteemed retiring JME Editor, Wendy Pollock, Director of Research and Publications, Association of Science and Technology Centers and the upcoming issues from our new Editor, Monica M. Smith, Project Historian/Exhibits Specialist Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation Smithsonian Institution . 

Ms. Pollock walked MER through the redesign of this award winning Journal since the late 1990s, bringing you the world of museum education from a plethora of vantage points.  You may recall such issues as "The Museum as a Public Place, " Reverie, Reflection, and Being Alone: Solitude and Sociability in Museums," "Cultural Reflections: Museums in a Global Society ,"  and the recent, "Literacy in Museums." Ms. Pollock was Editor in Chief on many, and brought her wide influence in the quality of  the reknowned guest editors and writers from both the museum and higher education worlds in the US and abroad.    Her final issue will focus on "Museums that Matter.

Ms. Smith’s first issue is titled "Encouraging Creativity" and will be in publication this summer. This will be followed by "The Field Trip, Enigma or Paradigm" from guest editor Lynn McRainey from the Chicago Historical Society .

The Editorial Advisory Board includes continuing advisors Jeanne Vergeront and Cynthia Yao, MER board members and advisors Marcia Britton and Carol Brown, and new advisors Liz Eder and John Falk. Many thanks to all of them for generously agreeing to serve on the editorial board of the Journal of Museum Education! And thanks to the women who ready each issue, managing editors extraordinaire Ellen Hirzy and Ann Grogg.

As with the recent “Museums and Literacy,” MER’s Program Committee is designing panel discussions/workshops to coordinate with teachings from select JME issues to present around the country.

Monica Smith writes “ I am honored to follow in Wendy Pollock’s footsteps as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Museum Education. My first issue, “Encouraging Creativity, “ will be published this summer followed by “Field Trips, Enigma or Paradigm,” guest edited by Lynn McRainey of the Chicago Historical Society, planned for fall 2005. Ideas for future issue themes, guest editors, and authors are always welcomed! Please contact me at smithmo@si.edu.

NETWORK

Alexis Bierman Roberts, Editor-In-Chief of MER’s newsletter, Network, is retiring as her duties at the Witte Museum in San Antonio are keeping her extremely busy. Alexis ably and with a lot of humor, brought our newsletter from a simple print document to a colorful, robust, online eZine with the assistance of Technology Task Force Chair, Jim Angus.

Program Committee
Submitted by Marcia Wolf-Britton

The Program Committee and Membership Committee are collaborating to promote the work of MER through regional roundtables focused on themes highlighted in the Journal of Museum Education. Keynote speakers will kick off discussion on a JME topic and breakout sessions will follow. Emphasis is on roundtable discussion among participants on substantial subjects about museum education. If your organization is interested in cosponsoring a regional roundtable with MER, please contact us!

Erick Holland of the Program Committee reports that he and Gretchen Adams have been scheming, planning, and developing a session proposal for the 2006 AAM annual meeting related to an upcoming JME issue. The issue’s subject is Relevance; and that of the session is relevance of our museums, exhibitions, sites, and programs. Several museum professionals have been contacted concerning their parts in this proposed session and they have expressed interest and willingness to be involved. More to come as the session develops and AAM draws near

Membership Task Force
Submitted by Susan Bass Marcus

As a result of MER's participation in the Marketplace of Ideas at AAM in Indianapolis, the Membership Task Force has added a new working member, Dr. Stephanie Davenport, Director of Educational Services, DuSable Museum of African American History in Chicago. If other MER members would like to participate in our quarterly conference call meetings please contact the chairs Gretchen Adams gadams@paulreverehouse.org or Susan Bass Marcus smarcus@spertus.edu.

The Task Force also is reviewing the current brochure with the intention of updating it and increasing its appeal. All suggestions are welcome (smarcus@spertus.edu).

MER/EdCOM Task Force
Jim S.H. Hakala

Among the highlights this past Annual Meeting was the revision and reprinting of Excellence in Practice: Museum Education Principles and Standards. This document was originally released in 2002, and identifies Best Practices for Education in Museums, and Professional Standards for Museum Educators. The new version is not a revision of content, but a reformatting to make the document clearer in purpose and more usable for all of us in the profession. If you would like to get a copy of the revised E in P, please contact Jim Hakala, Vice President of the MER Board of Directors.

Several members of the EdCom Executive Board and the MER Board of Directors participated in the AAM National Interpretive Planning Colloquium held at the Indianapolis Children's Museum on Thursday May 5th. The purpose of this working colloquium was to begin to craft Best Practices in Interpretive Planning to be used by the AAM Accreditation Commission. It was a productive day of discussion and dialogue as professionals from all segments of the field wrestled with the questions of the intellectual framework for interpretation, the challenges of interpretive planning, and the elements of the interpretive planning process and plan itself. Keep a watch out for more developments on interpretive planning in the coming months, and mark your calendars for June of 2006 as AAM and EdCom will sponsor a Learning in Museums Seminar in St. Louis on interpretive planning.