Category: Topics

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

The blog of AIC’s Emerging Conservation Professionals Network has moved!

To continue to read ECPN-related posts, go to www.conservators-converse.org/category/ecpn

About the ECPN Committee Officers

A while back, the names of the new ECPN committee officers were announced on the blog. Now, we thought you might like to know a little more about them:

Molly Gleeson, Chair

Molly Gleeson completed her BA in Art Conservation from the University of Delaware in 2002 and her MA from the UCLA/Getty Program in the Conservation of Archaeological and Ethnographic Materials in 2008. She is now living and working in San Diego, CA, devoting part of her time to assist on a joint research project between UCLA and the Getty Conservation Institute, focused on Native California featherwork. In addition to her recent election to the ECPN committee, she also serves as a Member-at-Large on the board of the Western Association for Art Conservation (WAAC).

Eliza Spaulding (Vice Chair)

Eliza Spaulding is currently an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in Paper Conservation at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In 2010, she graduated from the Conservation Center, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University with an Advanced Certificate in Conservation and a Master’s Degree in Art History. In addition to working with ECPN, she also is involved in establishing the Philadelphia Area Conservation Association, a regional network for preservation and conservation professionals in the greater Philadelphia area.

Anisha Gupta, co-Outreach Coordinator

Anisha is an undergraduate senior majoring in Art History and Chemistry at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She has worked at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art as a conservation intern and currently works at the Oak Street Library Facility doing book and paper conservation. She graduates in May 2012 and hopes to have a conservation internship for a year and then apply to graduate school.

Megan Salazar-Walsh (co-Outreach Coordinator)

Megan was born and grew up in southern Spain. In 2007 she received a BA in Art History from Whitman College. She interned with several conservators in private practice in Seattle, WA and in Seville, Spain. She also volunteered at the Seattle Art Museum, working with the conservation department on objects, paintings and outdoor sculpture. Last summer she was an intern at the Shelburne Museum, VT. She is currently a first year student at Buffalo State College.

Amy Brost, Communications Coordinator

Amy is a pre-program intern at The Library of The Jewish Theological Seminary (paper), Wilson Conservation, LLC (objects) and The Metropolitan Museum of Art (photographs) as well as a chemistry student at New York City College of Technology. Over the summer, she worked for the Research Foundation at CUNY, assisting chemistry faculty with research pertaining to the development of solid oxide fuel cells. She came to conservation after 10 years working in advertising and communications. She has a BA in Art History and a BS in Art from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Carrie Roberts (Professional Education and Training)

Carrie is a recent graduate of the Winterthur / University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation, where she majored in objects conservation with a preventive minor. Her areas of interest include the conservation of stone and archaeological materials, and the impact of environments on the stability of art objects. She has interned at the Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology, English Heritage, the Worcester Art Museum, and the Kaman-Kalehoyuk archaeological excavation in Turkey. She currently works as a Samuel H. Kress Conservation Fellow at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology at the University of Michigan.

Amber Kerr-Allison, who has been serving as co-Professional Education & Training, is a Paintings Conservator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum Lunder Conservation Center. She will complete her ECPN term in December. 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.

We are holding our committee calls on the third Monday of each month at 1 pm ET. The call-in information is on the ECPN page of the AIC website. Any member of ECPN is welcome to join those calls. Alternatively, keep up with our activities through the minutes from our calls that are posted to the blog each month, and feel free to reach out to any of us with your ideas and feedback.

ECPN MEETING MINUTES

Monday, October 31, 2011

Conference Call Attendees:

Ryan Winfield (Staff Liaison)

Stephanie Lussier (Board Liaison)

Molly Gleeson (Chair)

Eliza Spaulding (Vice Chair)

Anisha Gupta (co-Outreach Coordinator)

Megan Salazar-Walsh (co-Outreach Coordinator)

Amber Kerr-Allison (co-Professional Education and Training)

Caroline Roberts (co-Professional Education and Training)

Rachael Perkins Arenstein (AIC e-Editor)

Rebecca Rushfield (ETC Liaison)

1. Basecamp orientation and training (Rachael) – Rachael conducted training on Basecamp and did an overview of the basic features.

a. General notes – Everyone controls their own username and password, not Ryan or Rachael. In order to change this information or your email address, go to account information settings. If you use Basecamp for projects outside of ECPN, you should have only one login username and password but have access to all your different groups through one account.

b. Uploading Files — You can upload different versions of the same file to Basecamp. These versions will appear as different files and be nested on top of each other. You can email people to alert them that you have uploaded a file. Other people can edit files and their versions will appear as separate versions of the file. If more than one person is editing a file, both of their versions will appear as two separate documents.

c. Writeboards —This is a useful tool when a project is in its early stages and formatting is not crucial. The Writeboard can be used to compare different versions of an idea and keep it all in one place. More than one person can edit the Writeboard simultaneously. Rachael suggested that this was a good place to put the meeting minutes so anyone can go in and add to the minutes.

d. Messages —A good place to brainstorm ideas and also archive ideas so people within ECPN in later years can come back and see our ideas. Files can also be attached to the message. These files can be found in the file list under that particular project. Important note: the author of the message can include anyone on the message, but if other people want to be added onto the thread later, only the author can add more people to the recipient list.

e. Calendars —Basecamp calendar can be synced with iCalendar (Apple calendars). Two different types of things can be created on the calendar: events and milestones. An event is of short-duration and had a set beginning and end time. Our monthly conference calls would be examples of events. A milestone is a bigger project that requires different tasks leading up to the milestone that need to be accomplished. A milestone can be assigned to the whole group or just one person; multiple people cannot be assigned with a milestone.

f. To-Dos—To-Do lists can be created to organize projects. A full description can be given for what the to-list pertains to. To-Dos can be added to milestones. One can comment on a To-Do list and have multiple To-Do lists going at once.

2. Minutes – 13 October 2011 meeting minutes were approved (Molly)—Molly suggested that we start putting the agenda on the Writeboard for everyone to look over before the next meeting.

3. Student Research Database (Carrie and Amber)—Carrie and Amber have been working on creating an online platform for student work to be accessed. Right now, they are trying to gauge interest in this project from graduate schools. They are still discussing whether it will be a database or website. When talking to contacts at the graduate schools, some issues were raised, such as how it would be supported financially and who would contribute the up-front costs. In order to gauge interest, they have put together a questionnaire of what they would like to ask grad school programs. This document has been uploaded to Basecamp. They plan that the responses to this survey will inform a budget and a second proposal. Reaching out to Abby Aldrich was also discussed because she expressed interest in getting involved. She can help with the continuation of the project when Amber steps down.

4. Allied Professionals List (Eliza)—The list of Allied Professionals is being updated and expanded and is currently on Basecamp. The pre-existing list on AIC was checked and updated. Carrie and Amber are getting together more organizations we can call our allies and those have been added to the Writeboard. Eliza said some doubts had come up about some of the organizations. She will send out an email with further details.

5. Outreach Coordinators’ Questions (Anisha)—Anisha asked about how we would like to proceed with forum calls. Molly suggested putting ideas about the subject of future forum calls on Basecamp. Anisha also asked about moving to the AIC blog. Ryan said we can move whenever we want to. ECPN will get authors’ privileges and will post on the blog with the tag “Emerging Conservator.” When we want to move is something that the group needs to discuss more. When we decide when to move, Rachael Perkins Arenstein can give us all a tutorial about using the new blog. In general, Ryan does not need to be informed of blog ideas but it may be a good idea to run administrative issues by him. Stephanie would like to be cc’d on emails about blog ideas and posts.

6. Email Blasts (Molly)—Ryan said it would not be wise to do email blasts too frequently so people are not annoyed by too many emails. He can do email blasts before forum calls or if we would like to really advertise a particular initiative. For most other things, continue advertising through the blog or Facebook page.

The next meeting was confirmed to be on Monday, November 21 at 1pm EST.

Respectfully submitted,

Anisha Gupta

If you completed your conservation training 3 years ago (or more), you may now be eligible to apply for Professional Associate (PA) status. Being a PA comes with many benefits, including approval for listing in the online guide Find a Conservator and eligibility to apply for Individual Professional Development Scholarships, which help defray costs for professional development activities, including attending workshops, courses and conferences (excluding the AIC annual meeting).

The next application deadline is January 1. The application involves submitting examples of your work, including condition and treatment reports, lab reports and research papers, and obtaining 3 sponsors, such as current or former supervisors who are AIC members with PA or Fellow status.

Are you wondering if you are eligible to apply or do you have questions about the application process? You can find more information about the necessary qualifications and the application form here.

Please give us your feedback! We’d like to know what you think about PA status, and if you have recently qualified as a PA, we’d love to hear from you about what the process was like. Also, if you have any questions that we might be able to help answer, please let us know! Stay tuned to the blog and our facebook page for more information.