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Network
Member Newsletter of the Museum Education Roundtable
Winter 2006
Notes from the Board
Technology Taskforce Report
Submitted by Jim Angus
- Our Office Manager and our Newsletter Editor now have access to
edit documents on our website. This should help increase the freshness
of our content. Many, many thanks to Rose and Mari.
- Rose, Mychalene and I have met several times to discuss the
"virtual office" concept. We owe many thanks to Rose for her
willingness to use computer resources at her home in support of MER.
Georganne has agreed to upload boarding meeting related documents to the
board section of the MER website. This should make review of the
documents easier in the future. Our thanks to Georganne! The
membership database will not be available online for a while. However,
anyone who requires access to the database can request a copy from Rose.
They will need to have a copy of FileMaker Pro installed, so this will
need to be arranged in advance. We will work towards a better solution.
- Much of the content on the website needs to be refreshed. We
will pull together a group to review this content and report at the next
board meeting. We will update what can be done and make recommendations
on how to proceed with the remainder.
Program
Submitted by Scott Winterrowd
Accomplishments:
- Meeting location and speaker are set for Annual MER Members reception and talk for AAM 2006. The program will be on Saturday, April 29 at 5:30- 7:00 p.m. at the Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA), Boston. The speaker will be Gail Anderson now editor of the spring JME topic, "Museums of Relevance."
- Theresa and Stacey hosted an informal roundtable in DC in the fall, more news to follow.
- Erik Holland and Gretchen Adams are working with their presenters on the AAM, MER session, "Who Cares? Being Relevant to Less Frequent or Reluctant Visitors."
- Program committee met to discuss the Guidelines for Regional Roundtable Partnerships and Programs that Marcia wrote last year. It was decided that in light of the changes in the publication of the Journal through Left Coast Press and recent budget issues, brought up a number of questions about our original guidelines including issues about article use for programs, sale of Journal issues etc. It was decided that these issues need to be further discussed with Mychalene, and brought before Left Coast Press to see what we can or cannot use for our programming efforts.
Upcoming
- Susan and Lynn McRainey of the Chicago Historical Society have met to begin planning a MER/CHS program that will focus on the Field Trip issue of the Journal. The afternoon workshop may feature a stellar speaker, panel, and breakout sessions. Susan and Lynn will promote the event to teachers as well as museum educators.
- Sarita is repeating the 2005 AAM program as a TAM (Texas Association of Museums) half-day workshop on April 4, 2006. The workshop has been advertised in the TAM annual conference program as developed by MER.
Publications
Submitted by Carol Brown
Accomplishments:
- Entered into an agreement to co-publishing JME with Left Coast Publications
- Monica Smith s first JME issue shipped, Creativity. Next issue: Field Trips (Feb)
- First issue of Network under editorship of Mari Shopsis
- Request to all Chairs for Committee/Task Force updates and articles to include in upcoming Network
- Recommendation that all Board members ask five friends to join MER (to maintain/insure membership numbers to comply with co-publishing agreement).
- Thanks to outgoing JME managing editors Ann Grogg and Ellen Hirzy.
Draft Publication Schedule (planning for regular publication dates):
- Winter 2006 Field Trips guest editor Lynn McRainey
Proposed future themes:
- Vol. 30, Nos. 2-3 - Field trips issue guest edited by Lynn McRainey Probably date of mailing: February
- Vol. 31, No. 1 - Museums and relevance issue guest edited by Gail Anderson To be sent to new journal producer/managing editor Detta Penna of Left Coast Press by Feb. 3. If all goes well, we will unveil the new journal design at AAM in Boston at the end of April!
- Vol. 31, No. 2 Possibly: museum education and curriculum theory guest edited by Julia Rose First drafts by March 1; scheduled to come out in August.
- Vol. 31, No. 3 - Issue about professional relevance guest edited by Elsa Bailey for December publication. Focus on what is a museum educator? Who are we as a profession? Where are we going as a profession? What are the changing successes and challenges faced by museum educators?
- Other proposed topics: Therese Quinn interested in issue about museums and social justice. Awaiting proposal. Technology and Museum Education (including videoconferencing) as per Cynthia Copeland and Carol Brown.
Membership
Submitted by Gretchen Adams
Accomplishments:
- Susan and Gretchen looked up the mailing addresses for the almost one hundred museum studies programs in the US and abroad and sent the list to Mitch to use in mailings promoting subscriptions to the Journal.
- At a recent Chicago Hands-On Educ. meeting, Susan made an announcement encouraging people to join MER and alerting them to the redesign of the Journal. Ten people took membership brochures.
- Once the Field Trip issue has been distributed, Susan and Lynn McRainey of the Chicago Historical Society will finalize plans for a MER/CHS program. Susan and Lynn will promote the event to teachers as well as museum educators.
- Gretchen hosted a MER table at the Marketplace of Ideas at the New England Museum Association and recruited 11 new members.
- Plans are underway for MER recruitment tables at both the MER and EdCom receptions at AAM.
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