ECPN MEETING MINUTES
Monday, November 21, 2011
Conference Call Attendees:
Ryan Winfield (Staff Liaison)
Stephanie Lussier (Board liaison)
Molly Gleeson (Chair)
Eliza Spaulding (Vice Chair)
Amy Brost (Communications officer)
Anisha Gupta (co-Outreach Coordinator)
Megan Salazar-Walsh (co-Outreach Coordinator)
Carrie Roberts (co-Professional Education and Training)
Rebecca Rushfield (ETC)
Emily Williams (ETC)
LeeAnn Barnes Gordon
Amber Kerr-Allison (co-Professional Education and Training)
Gwen Manthey
1. Minutes Approval – October 31 minutes taken by Anisha were approved. Amy will post to the blog. Minutes distribution protocol was discussed. Want to follow the process used by other committees, if one exists. BPG puts final minutes on listserv. We also share minutes with all members. Process will be as follows: Draft can be posted to Basecamp. Post approved minutes to AIC-Emerging listserv and the ECPN blog. Notify membership of minutes posted to the blog by including the link in a Facebook post.
2. Student research database update (Carrie and Amber) – Carrie hosted a conference call to bring everyone up to date, including discussion of the questionnaire to send out to program leaders for their input. Proposal draft in progress. Short- and long-term cost estimate in development. Working with Rebecca Rushfield, Abby Aldrich (working with AATA on student abstracts), Emily Williams, in addition to ECPN committee members. Questionnaire just sent out to program leaders as a writable PDF. Questions on possible structure, submission procedures, support, copyright, content review, and other topics. Outcome will inform proposal development. Draft is on Basecamp, identical to the document that went out. Questionnaires expected back Dec. 30 – more than half are already back. Responses, once all are in, will be compiled and shared with the group on a future call.
3. Poster Proposal (Carrie) – Awaiting response. Ready to gather case studies from the blog comments and Facebook to begin work on content as soon as we hear about approval.
4. IAG meeting (Molly) – Molly attended IAG meeting and notes are on Basecamp. Some ECPN-related activities, such as next AIC meeting activities, came up. Discussion of posters – the theme is a good one for ECPN. New AIC website will be launched by the end of the year. We won’t see obvious changes, but the back end will improve functionality, like adding an online member directory. Board approved the Collections Care Network (Cathy Hawks is the point person for Eliza at present). Forum calls were another topic that came up.
5. Forum calls (open discussion) – Amy and Molly to manage these. Topics list on a Writeboard on Basecamp. Use Forum call on quarterly basis to see what people want to see from ECPN. Screenshare, like Rachel used for Basecamp training, might be appropriate for Forum call format. Perhaps have a poll or survey to start. Stephanie pointed out that going step-wise, starting with a survey on topics for Forum calls, and use the calls for further discussion. The regional liaison group can also be a way to help set group priorities. First call toward beginning of 2012. Early December survey to help select topic. Amy will develop survey in Surveymonkey or Google poll. Anisha agreed that themed Forum calls have the potential to be very popular. Need to schedule at a time people can participate. Carrie liked the internship topic in particular (paid vs. unpaid). A very strong topic. Good one to bring in established professionals, to talk about experiences they can offer to pre-program students. Megan said part of the poll could ask when the call should be scheduled for. If we know generally weekends are best, we have to be sure any “guests” we invite to speak to the group can do that time also. Molly mentioned that some topics will be more specific and targeted (post-grad vs. pre-program) – want to be sure to cover the whole spectrum.
6. Communications update (Amy) – Blog posts: Amy is working on a blog post about a recent conference by Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan NY, titled “Artists’ Records in the Archives.” A pre-program student volunteered to contribute a blog post about her pre-program internship and provide an overview of the conservation activities of the Adirondack Museum. With one more bio, the “meet the committee officers” blog post will be completed. Amy will also begin work on a project to create an announcement, column or article for AIC News about the benefits of having student and junior members on the AIC committees. There was some discussion about whether ECPN would prefer to advocate for more ECPN liaisons, or more student members, who may not be affiliated with ECPN. The consensus was that the positions are different and beneficial for different reasons, so both can be encouraged. Avoid adding to existing ECPN officer workload – use these positions to bring new people into the group. Molly will speak to Lisa G. about this and other ECPN contributions to the AIC News, such as something about the mentoring program.
7. Outreach activities (Anisha and Megan) – Regional liaisons list can be started right away. Molly has a few names to start, based on committee applicants, Stephanie has some names from the NYRAC list. Molly will give names to Anisha and Megan, along with the region the people are in, but also encouraged that Anisha and/or Megan could get in touch with the regional conservation associations to expand the list. Will help with organizing meet-ups and coordinating activities. AIC website has a list of regional associations. Molly is on the WAAC board, so she can help there. Emerging Museum Professionals Facebook page shows a lot of activities with regional focus. Good to look at for reference and ideas. People on our Facebook page are looking for activities. The Getty lab tour was a success – more like that will be possible with regional liaisons. Bloomington, IL has a group that is particularly active. Encourage more regional networking and activities, and keep a connection to the whole of ECPN.
8. Mentorship program update (Eliza) – Program is on unofficial hiatus, because it’s grown so substantially in size, an has become an administrative burden for Ryan. Needed time to take stock of the success of the mentor-mentee matches. Reviewed applications and matching methods. Matches could be strengthened if there were projects for mentors-mentees to work on. Come up with a list of tasks that they would like to work on, and then reach out to the current group of mentors and mentees. Ask them if they are still interested in participating, and what tasks they would like to work on together. Then, also work on revamping the program, and create a branched program, like the “Find a Conservator” section of the AIC website. Identify tasks that aren’t time consuming (ie, lab tour), and conservators willing to do those could add that to their profiles. For more time-consuming projects, continue with the ongoing mentoring relationship. How to sustain the relationships is another concern. It is currently on the shoulders of the mentor-mentee, but could have a mentorship “kit” that would provide a framework and give suggestions and ideas on how to move forward and maintain the connection. Look at other programs for ideas. Gwen Manthey, WUDPAC graduate at the Walters, is interested in working on the program and meeting some of these challenges. Visit “Possible mentoring program projects” list on the Writeboard on Basecamp, and add any ideas to it. Developing a sort of advisory group from Education & Training and ECPN, to help with matching the 33 people on the list now. Emily mentioned that ETC would love to work on this.
9. ECPN and the Wikis – LeeAnn mentioned the January “Edit-A-Thon” planned for the Wikis. Amy will follow up with Rachael Perkins-Arenstein to see what the opportunities could be for ECPN to participate, and to see what the next upcoming training date is for the Wiki software. If appropriate, Amy can work with Rachael on a blog post to reach out to ECPN and let members know how to get involved.
10. Amber Kerr-Allison has completed her ECPN term. She has made a great contribution to growing ECPN over the past four years. The committee is deeply grateful for her sustained commitment to ECPN.
Next call: Monday, December 19 at 1pm ET
Respectfully submitted,
Amy Brost