ECPN Meeting Minutes
Monday, November 5, 2012
Attendees:
Molly Gleeson (Chair)
Eliza Spaulding (Vice Chair)
Angela Curmi (Communications)
Anisha Gupta (co-Outreach)
Avigail Charnov (Architectural Specialty Group Liaison)
Ruth Seyler (AIC Staff Liaison)
Rebecca Rushfield (ETC)
Ryan Winfield (AIC Staff Liaison)
Saira Haqqi (Graduate School Liaison – NYU)
Stephanie Lussier (Board Liaison)
Rachael Perkins-Arenstein (AIC e-Editor)
1. September Meeting Minutes Approved
2. Portfolio Session Planning – Molly will have Gwen send an email update. She is currently contacting potential speakers.
3. ECPN Annual Meeting Poster-Survey Plans
- Angela is working on the survey revisions and will try to have these done by the end of the week. Ruth would also like to look over the survey. If it is going to all AIC members, she may want to ask additional questions, or create a series of surveys out of this. However, she cannot have this done by December 1st. She will talk to Eryl first. Ruth is also concerned about sending out too many surveys to people.
- Molly asked how much time is needed to work on the poster, and Anisha responded that it would be best to have about 3 months with the data to work on the poster, using the last month for formatting and editing. This means data should be collected at the beginning of February. Angela and Anisha will make the revisions by the end of the week and send to Ruth. Ruth will then decide whether it should be 1 or 2 surveys.
- Rachael agreed with Ruth that other questions could be incorporated since this is going to all AIC membership. They will be in touch.
4. Mentoring Program Restructuring
- Eliza has been trying to streamline the program – one idea is to spread the work out among a few committee members: the vice-chair will oversee the program, one co-professional education and training officer will be in charge of pre-program mentoring, another in charge of post-graduate mentoring. A lot of pre-program mentees have similar interests and needs, so Eliza suggested we put together a series of documents in an accessible place (perhaps facebook?) where they can also share questions and have a dialogue. That way there will be a smaller pool of mentees. The document on basecamp outlines this plan and gives a timeline for implementation.
- Molly suggested building the pre-program info on the wiki. Rachael responded that this would be an easy place to develop the documents and it can be constantly updated, but facebook would be a good place for dialogue once the documents have been developed. Anisha commented that this discussion should also be on the blog for those who don’t have facebook.
- Stephanie asked about the timeline and whether we would no longer be accepting pre-program applicants starting in December. Eliza responded that phase 1 of the plan would be establishing the infrastructure (with the new roles to govern the program) and then by March the new structure would be in place. Ruth expressed concern about no longer accepting pre-program applications, and Eliza asked whether pre-program mentees should then remain part of the match process.
- Stephanie commented that we should not say that the program is shutting down in December but that applications will not be accepted again until March. This will give us enough time to catch up and for the new vice chair and team to become familiar with the program. She said pre-program mentees usually require less work from mentors and shouldn’t be excluded.
- Eliza proposed that we make the resources available, and then if this is not enough they can still apply to be pre-program mentees. She also explained that there is not a large volume of applicants that comes in. If an effort is made to keep up with each match cycle, then it’s manageable. Ruth commented that we should also make clear what this program can and can’t do, refine the description. Also, make the pre-program mentorship more scripted than the post-grad. Eliza will talk to past mentees and get their feedback on this. Stephanie asked about resources to help mentors as well. Eliza responded that she does share a list of helpful tips for mentors.
- Molly suggested tying in the work on the wiki as good pre-program experience – people can be paired up. Rachael commented that pre-program and grad students often want to help but don’t know enough information, so they should be paired up with established conservators who know the content but don’t know how to use the wiki. Certain people might also get more out of certain topics – this should also be considered. The wiki can be a good vehicle for providing virtual one-on-one mentoring around content. This can be suggested as something mentors and mentees can do together.
- Eliza is going to re-work the mentoring program description. She will outline the resources available, especially for pre-program, but the mentoring program will still be available to everyone. She will write a follow-up email on this.
- Stephanie asked how long the relationships will last and Eliza responded that each is individual and we leave it up to them to decide when they have gotten what they need out of it. Contact with the program itself is not necessary. Eliza had sent out a survey and found that many mentors were ready to come back to the program and be matched again. In correspondence with mentors, she tells them to let us know when they have reached that point. She will write up more specific instructions.
5. New Grad Student Liaisons – Communications, Encouraging Work on the Wiki
- Graduate student liaisons have been established with Buffalo, Columbia, NYU, UCLA, Queens, Winterthur (one or two liaisons each). They are always welcome to join our calls. Since we have a lot of project-based calls, we are now having conference calls every 2 months. This will need to be updated on the flyer and AIC website. We can also use facebook to let everyone know when calls are scheduled.
- Molly said we will be communicating with the graduate student liaisons about the wiki – incorporating student papers or coming up with topics. This is something to think about in the near future. Rachael said students at Winterthur are using their assignments on instrumental analysis for wiki articles and the RATS group is interested in seeing this. Molly and Rachael will draft something. The list of liaisons will also be up on the website soon.
6. Updates from Liaisons
- Avigail will work on getting liaisons from the Penn program as well.
- Anisha had an update from Robin O’Hern – the committee on sustainable conservation practice is looking for someone for a student position. She will post this information.
- Molly mentioned that there is a letter (re: organizing SG support at the annual meeting) on basecamp drafted by her and LeeAnn which she will share with the liaisons.
7. Student Research Resource Update
- Carrie has arranged a call with Eryl next Tuesday.
- Angela has been in touch with the SGs and will summarize their feedback in a document and share with the group before the call.
8. Webinar
- Eliza asked Ryan if it would be possible to use the webinar program from 12-1 for the google hangout practice. Ryan has this scheduled. Eliza will send the list of people who will be participating.
- Angela will post the webinar announcement tonight on the blog.
9. Next call: Monday, December 17th, 2012 at 1pm EST