Conference Update
At this writing, NEMA is knee-deep in last-minute preparations for the 96th Annual NEMA Conference, November 19-21 in Boston/Cambridge. More than 950 people have already registered, so we will break our attendance records for a second year in a row. This year we have more off-site sessions than ever with several of them sold out. On-site we will have over 65 sessions throughout the three days including the Demonstration Station in the Exhibit Hall. Our new addition, “NEMA”, has been busy visiting local sites throughout Boston and Cambridge. Check out the Twitter feed (#nema2014) and NEMA’s Facebook page for the latest information on conference, including several informal meet-ups that are taking shape.
Come celebrate the creativity of your colleagues in NEMA’s first-ever Pop-up Museum featuring work by our NEMA community on November 18 at 7 pm, where you’ll mingle with the artists and chat about their work.
PAG Updates
NEMA would like to extend a huge and heartfelt thank you to our outgoing PAG Chairs. Allison Crosscup, Membership, Development, Public Relations & Marketing PAG; Mary Busick, Registrar PAG Co-Chair; and Jeanne Koles, IMP PAG Co-Chair have all contributed their time, energy, and expertise to providing NEMA members with high-quality professional development opportunities throughout the years. We wish them well in all of their future endeavors!
Conway Tours
We are pleased to announce a new opportunity for the NEMA community, a partnership with Conway Tours that will raise funds for your museum (and NEMA) while giving you a new way to engage with your audience. The program features a week-long tour of Italy's Sorrento region in November, 2015. If you participate in the program, you'll be able to offer the tour to your audience (it makes a great member benefit), letting them know that they'll be supporting your museum while they vacation. Conway Tours will handle all the details, supplying customized marketing materials with your logo, handling reservations and logistics. All you need to do is send an email introducing the program to your audience. For each reservation through your museum, you'll receive 5% of the tour price and NEMA will receive 5% as well*. Because other NEMA museums will be participating along with you, your museum does not have to guarantee a minimum number of reservations - a great advantage that allows participation of museums that ordinarily could not host a travel program of their own. Conway Tours is highly respected in the travel business, a leading provider of high-end tours at affordable prices. They're NEMA members themselves, based in Rhode Island, and are committed to giving our community an exceptional win/win opportunity. For more information about the program, contact Kevin Higham of Conway Tours at 401-658-3400 or khigham@conwaytours.com, or visit them at Booth #21 at the upcoming NEMA conference.
*Commissions are not provided on airfare, taxes, fees, and fuel surcharges.
Coming Soon: MuseumsNewEngland.com
NEMA is currently developing a new website, MuseumsNewEngland.com, which will provide information about NEMA member museums to tourists and others interested in learning more about museums in the region. The opportunity to list your museum on the site is a new, free benefit of a NEMA institutional membership. It will be making its debut at the conference – come by the registration desk and check it out!
Many thanks to the members who helped with the development of MuseumsNewEngland.com, by sharing their ideas and suggestions for the site in a focus group earlier this year, and by providing information about their museum to include in the pilot website.
Interested in listing your museum on MuseumsNewEngland.com? Contact BJ Larson at bjlarson@nemanet.org for more information.
2014 Excellence Awards
Congratulations to the winners of NEMA’s inaugural Excellence Awards Competition!
Alexandra Allardt, Principal and Managing Director, ArtCare Resources
Darius Coombs, Associate Director, Wampanoag Indigenous Program, Plimoth Plantation
David Glassberg, Professor, Department of History, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Kathryn Hussey, Volunteer Collections Manager & Registrar, Brick Store Museum
Kimberly Smith, Secretary/Treasurer, Board of Directors, Presque Isle Historical Society
Rainey Tisdale, Independent Curator.
Winners will be honored at the NEMA Annual Meeting on November 21. We received an impressively competitive set of nominations for acts of excellence large and small. This is a sign of an extraordinarily talented and empathetic museum community here in New England. Even though we could not award prizes to each nominee, we are proud to acknowledge each and every one of them as the best of NEMA’s membership. Their work makes us better as a community of museum professionals and as a field.
NEMA Stats: A Monthly Museum Attendance Report
We invite you to participate in NEMA Stats: A Monthly Museum Attendance Report, a new program in which museums share visitor data confidentially with one another. When you participate in NEMA Stats, you agree to share your museum’s visitor data with other program participants. NEMA collects the data and issues a monthly report, with which you can compare your statistics against those of your colleagues from around the region. Enrollment for 2015 ends February 27, 2015. Click here for complete details of the program.
Lunch with NEMA
In 2015, we will continue our popular Lunch with NEMA series, a FREE monthly conversation from noon - 1 p.m. on the last Wednesday of each month. Each month will highlight a different discussion topic. If you have a topic or would like to present in 2015 at a Lunch with NEMA please contact BJ Larson at bj.larson@nemanet.org.
NEMA Board Slate
The Nominating Committee of the NEMA Board of Directors has submitted the following slate for new officers and members of the NEMA board. The committee included in their deliberations names that had been submitted by the NEMA membership, considering attributes that included prior service to the association and the experience that the candidates would add to the current NEMA board.
You can vote on the slate at the Awards Luncheon and Annual Meeting, which will take place at 1:00 p.m. on November 21, 2014 at the Hyatt Regency, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Many thanks to the members of this year's nominating committee:
Cathy Saunders, Director of Education, Providence Children's Museum (Chair), Pilar E. Garro, Castle Hill Engagement Manager, The Trustees of Reservations, The Crane Estate, Mark Gold, Partner, Parese, Sabin, Smith & Gold LLP, and Robert Wolterstorff, Executive Director, Bennington Museum
Officers, 2014-15
President
Susan Funk
Executive Vice President, Mystic Seaport Museum
First Vice President
Janie Cohen
Director, Fleming Museum of Art, University of Vermont
Vice Presidents
Ron Potvin
Assistant Director of Professional Programs, John Nicholas Brown Center
Robert Wolterstorff
Director, Bennington Museum
Treasurer
Doug Stark
Director, International Tennis Hall of Fame and Museum, RI
Secretary
Michelle Stahl
Executive Director, The Monadnock Center for History & Culture, NH
Board Members for 2014-17
Doug Stark**
Director, International Tennis Hall of Fame and Museum, RI
Elaine Clements**
Director, Andover Historical Society, MA
Maria Cabrera*
Supervisor, Community Relations, Museum of Science, MA
Sheri Leahan*
Director, Washburn-Norlands Living History Center, ME
Mark Gold*
Partner, Parese, Sabin, Smith & Gold LLP
Sherman 'Pat' Morss, Jr.
Associate Principal for Historic Preservation, Finegold Alexander + Associates Inc
and
Life Trustee, USS Constitution Museum, MA
* Current board member serving in the same position.
** Current board member serving in a different position.