ECPN February Meeting Minutes

ECPN MEETING MINUTES

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Conference Call Attendees:

Molly Gleeson (Chair)

Eliza Spaulding (Vice Chair)

Carrie Roberts (co-Professional Education and Training)

Abby Aldrich (co-Professional Education and Training)

Anisha Gupta (co-Outreach Coordinator)

Megan Salazar-Walsh (co-Outreach Coordinator)

Stephanie Lussier (Board Liaison)

Ryan Winfield (AIC Staff)

Ruth Seyler (AIC Staff)

Robin O’Hern (CSCP)

LeeAnn Barnes Gordon (OSG liaison)

Lauren Bradley (PSG liaison)

Emily Williams (Chair, Education and Training)

 

  1. Roll call — Eliza Spaulding took roll.
  2. Minutes Approval (Molly) — January meeting minutes were approved.
  3. Specialty Group and Committee Liaisons Reports (Molly) – Hoping to institute an update from the specialty group and committee liaisons on every other call. Anisha will take over Molly’s role of reaching out to the liaisons before every other call and soliciting updates. Liaisons also can submit updates to Anisha to report.
    1. LeeAnn Barnes Gordon (OSG) – Would like to host a wiki meeting Tuesday evening of the annual meeting, hopefully after the ECPN meeting. Results of the wiki edit-a-thon last month: objects group reached all of their goals. They increased participation to over 50 people, updated entries, and more work is underway. 16 emerging conservators were involved in various aspects of the objects wiki edit-a-thon. If anyone else is interested, getting in touch with Rachael Perkins Arenstein continues to be the best way to become involved. Reaching out to your specialty group or a training program are other options. Perhaps ECPN could help facilitate these other modes of communication? Continue to think about incorporating the wiki into the mentoring program? June and July are possibilities for another edit-a-thon. Lee Ann needs to confirm this with Rachael. Stephanie asked LeeAnn if she would write up a blog post highlighting the contributions of emerging conservators in the edit-a-thon and encouraging other emerging conservators to become involved. LeeAnn will do this and agreed that the positive contributions of emerging conservators need to be highlighted.
    2. Robin O’Hern (CSCP) – CSCP working on three projects: wiki, organizing a lunch during the annual meeting on sustainable conservation practices, and sent a survey gauging how conservators use sustainable conservation practices in their work environments. Molly added that CSCP should feel free to use the ECPN Facebook page and blog to promote their events.
    3. Lauren Bradley (PSG) — PSG Reception Sponsor a Student Campaign: the goal is to have all students and emerging conservators attend the reception for free this year–those interested in attending should contact the AIC office directly. This is a new, unprecedented movement! Call for PSG Nominations is out: the call ends Friday (February 24). Anyone interested in pursuing a leadership role within the PSG, should contact Nicholas Dorman: nicholasd@seattleartmuseum.org. PSG is looking for contributions to the tips session: tips would include any interesting/new/innovative uses of materials/treatment techniques/etc. AIC PSG Business Meeting: Thursday, May 10 @ 7:30AM — complimentary breakfast, sponsored by Gamblin Paints. Would be a great way to learn more about the activities of the PSG group and about ways to become involved.
    4. Amanda Holden (TSG) (through Molly) – The TSG is going to start publishing their Postprints on the AIC website only (and no longer distribute CDs to the membership).  Next year they’ll also be looking for anyone who is interested in joining the Postprints editing team.  If anyone is interested they can contact Amanda and she can go into more detail about what they do and ideas that they have for the Postprints (AHolden@imamuseum.org)
    5. Lisa Nelson (Health and Safety) (through Molly) – remember Health and Safety is here as a resource. Please contact the committee with any questions. Respirator fit test during the annual meeting; those interested can sign up through registration.
    6. Molly – Still looking for liaisons for EMG, CIPP, ADG (archaeological discussion group), PMG, CCN (collections care network), and RATS.  Please email Molly if you have any suggestions for liaisons for these groups.
    7. Regional Liaisons Update (Megan and Anisha) – Have been working to recruit liaisons from different specialties from around the country. Writeboard on Basecamp of all of the liaisons. First conference call is: February 28, 2012 at 12:30pm EST. Goal of call is to discuss the purpose of gathering the regional liaisons and how they can host gatherings and reach out in general. Many are already affiliated with their regional groups, which should help with this. Molly suggested making this first call open to everyone so those who might be interested can learn a little more, too. Anisha agreed and will work to promote this. She also will confirm the conference call time and number with Ryan.
    8. PR Toolkit Project (Molly) – The AIC Board asked ECPN to create a toolkit for how conservators can promote themselves through a variety of media. Liz Schulte (Paper Conservator and former BPG Chair and AIC Board member), Abby, Megan, Amy, Ruth, Ryan, Stephanie, and Molly are working on this. They will start to develop content on the wiki, then migrate it to the AIC website. AIC would like some content by the annual meeting, but understand this will be an ongoing project. Rachael will lead a wiki training session on either March 9 or 16. An example of something they might create is a template for how to write a press release. Other issues they’re tackling are determining clear terminology for communication, and social media and internet protocols and ethics.
    9. ANAGPIC 2012 (Eliza) – Reached out to Michele Marincola at NYU in January about ECPN giving a brief presentation at the conference or submitting a flier. Michele replied saying the conference was packed, but would check with the other program directors to see if they could squeeze in a presentation by ECPN. Followed up with Michele three weeks later to check in and express that CAC-ECC would like to collaborate on either a presentation or flier. Have not heard back yet. Stephanie has been working with Debbie Hess Norris behind the scenes to see if this can be moved forward. We could start to draft a flier in anticipation that will be a possibility.
    10. AIC 2012 Meeting
      1. ECPN Poster Update (Carrie) – Working group had a call last week. Reviewed the list of potential contributors. Created a list of questions for them to answer the content of which will be included on the poster and companion blog posts. These questions have been sent out. Hoping to have a draft of the poster by mid-March. Amy will be helping with the design of the poster. Will send the draft of the poster to the contributors for their input before printing.
      2. Portfolio Sessions (Carrie) – Currently have 6 participants. Still need contributors from Buffalo, Queens, Columbia, and Penn. There will be two portfolio sessions during the annual meeting. One of the sessions will overlap with the Poster Q&A during the last break on Thursday. This happened last year and seemed to work okay. Please let Carrie know any thoughts on how to organize the sessions in terms of specialties and programs. Molly suggested using the specialty group liaisons to solicit for additional contributors. Names of the liaisons can be found on a Writeboard on Basecamp. Stephanie and Carrie discussed in the past inviting advanced conservators to speak about portfolio presentation from an employer’s perspective. One way to include them would be to have them stationed in the portfolio session rooms and let emerging conservators know they can bring their portfolios to them for feedback.
      3. Forum Call Survey (Ryan and Molly) – Survey asked about how people felt about having forum calls on a quarterly basis and what topics they’d like to see presented. A brief summary: there was overwhelming interest in the idea; equal interest in all topics; especially interested in certain topics such as next steps after graduate school and setting up a private practice. Wednesdays for 30 minutes to 1 hour was the preferred day and time limit. Many people wrote in comments: would like ECPN to assist recent graduates more, more resources about going into private practice, would like to see forum calls featured online so those in different time zones can access later. Would like to hold our first forum call before the annual meeting. Starting a private practice/contract work is one idea for the first call. Could invite a small group of private and contract conservators to share why they started working independently and what challenges and opportunities are available to them. Other ideas for forum calls: new resources in conservation publications venues; self-advocacy (Stephanie and Debbie have been discussing); over saturation of conservation job market and the future of the profession. Molly will organize a working call soon to discuss the first forum call. Stephanie added that discussing starting a business is a complicated topic and that the discussion should be kept general and made clear that this call will not be about how to actually start a private practice, which could be tackled on a later call when there is more time for development of this idea. The timing of this call is nice—right before the annual meeting when colleagues reconnect and as students are graduating and thinking about job options. If anyone is interested working on the forum calls, email Molly.
      4. Mentoring Program (Eliza) – Recently received the results of the letters and surveys we sent out. Ryan, Stephanie, Molly, and Eliza spoke on February 14th about the results. Were able to make some immediate matches, and would like to work with the rest of the working group/review committee to make the remaining matches. Need more mentor applicants. Gwen is working on writing up a call for mentor applicants, which we’ll reach out to the specialty group liaisons to see if they can post. Are hoping to have matches completed by mid-March. Continue to work on revising the mentoring program in general as well in time for the annual meeting.
      5. Student Research Platform (Carrie) – Have heard back from almost all of the program directors about their interest in supporting this project. Waiting for a few more responses. So far, the responses have been mixed. Those who responded in support of the project said they would be willing to review submissions internally and in terms of the actual structure of the platform would like to see access to links as opposed to full text. Will schedule a call this week for early March. A special thank you to Rebecca Rushfield, Megan, and Molly for helping to solicit responses from the program directors.

 

Next call: March 19, 2012 at 1pm EST

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Eliza Spaulding