2019 NEMA Conference
The 101st NEMA Conference returns to Burlington, Vermont, November 6 – 8. This year we once again have more than 100 sessions and events, including rapid-fire TED Talk-style “Story Telling Sessions” and one-hour time block sessions. Pre-conference events include several offsite museum tours on Tuesday, November 5 (don’t forget to vote beforehand!), plus our annual fun Tuesday night gathering, this year titled “’Vacuuming Porcupines’ and Other Museum Utterances,” hosted by the inimitable Betsy Loring. The 2019 Keynote Session will feature Dr. Gretchen Sorin, author of the upcoming book and PBS film Driving While Black: African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights. The NEMA Annual Meeting on Friday will honor Marilyn Hoffman with the NEMA Lifetime Achievement Award.
2019 New England Museum Salary, Benefits, and Workforce Survey
NEMA will be conducting a New England based salary survey this fall. Click here for details on how your organization can participate. The deadline for submissions is November 22, 2019. To show our appreciation for completing the survey, we'll email you a complimentary copy of the final report when we publish it early next year (a $100 value). Contact Heather A. Riggs at heather.riggs@nemanet.org for complete details.
PAG Updates
Are you interested in being a PAG Chair? We are currently looking for chairs for the Library & Archives, RACCs, and College and University Museums PAGs. Contact Meg Winikates at meg.winikates@nemanet.org for complete details.
Many thanks to our departing PAG chairs for their years of service and energy: Antonio Mendez, Elisabeth Nevins, Phillippa Pitts, Meredith Vasta
And many welcomes to our new PAG chairs: Camille Breeze, Barrett Keating, Tiffini Bowers, Amanda Goodheart Parks, and Erin Wederbrook Yuskaitis.
Three PAGs have Facebook groups! Join the Registrars & Collection Care Specialists (RACCS), Library & Archives, and the Development, Marketing, PR, Membership PAGs online. Don’t forget to follow the NEMA Young and Emerging Professionals page.
2019 Slate of Nominations
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.
2019/20 Officers: Doug Stark (President), Sue Goganian (1st Vice President), Kristina Durocher (Vice President), Becky Beaulieu (Vice President), Pat Morss (Treasurer), Doug Perkins (Clerk)
New Board Members: Raney Bench, Executive Director, Seal Cove Auto Museum, Seal Cove, ME; Brooke DiGiovanni Evans, Head of Gallery Learning, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; Cynthia Walker, Executive Director, Brick Store Museum, Kennebunk, ME
Renewing Board Members: Becky Beaulieu (2nd Term), Marieke Van Damme (2nd Term), Wyona Lynch-McWhite (3rd Term)
You can vote on the slate at the Awards Luncheon and Annual Meeting, which will take place at 12:15 pm on November 8, 2019 at the conference hotel.
Many thanks to the members of this year's nominating committee: Becky Beaulieu, Sue Goganian, Kristina Durocher, Margaret Middleton, and Lorén Spears.
Tainted Money Survey
"The only problem with tainted money is there t'aint enough of it." This is a long-held axiom of nonprofit fundraising, implying that it doesn't matter where money comes from as long as it goes to a good cause. But that philosophy today is being put to the test. Museums are wrestling with the ethical implications of accepting donations from people who make their money or espouse beliefs that are antithetical with the values of the institution or its audience. We want your opinion to benchmark our field's attitudes and practices surrounding this important topic. Please take a few minutes to respond to our survey: www.surveymonkey.com/r/LLXP279. Your answers will be anonymous and will help inform NEMA's thought leadership on the issue. Thanks for your help!
2019 Excellence Awards
Congratulations to the winners of NEMA’s Excellence Awards Competition! You can read more about this year’s winners here.
- Chris Newell, Education Supervisor, Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center
- David Ellis, President Emeritus, Museum of Science, Boston
- Juliette Bianco, Deputy Director, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth
- Maria Cabrera, Former Supervisor, Community Relations, Museum of Science, Boston
- Meredith Vasta, Collections Steward, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology
- Nina Ridhibhinyo, Director of Programs and Strategy, ECHO, Leahy Center for Lake Champlain
Awardees will be celebrated at the NEMA Annual Meeting on November 8. This year we received many impressive nominations for acts of excellence small and large. Our region is full of extraordinarily talented and empathetic museum folks. 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
Track your visitor attendance data? Then participate in NEMA Stats: A Monthly Museum Attendance Report. NEMA collects your museum visitor attendance data and issues a monthly report, with which you can compare your statistics against those of your colleagues from around the region. When you participate in NEMA Stats, you agree to share your museum’s visitor data with other program participants. Use the report to study region-wide trends, learn from the past, and chart your future. Enrollment for 2020 ends February 28, 2020. Click here for complete details of the program.
Call for Articles
Have a great idea for an article for New England Museums Now? Museums Now is the professional journal for the voices of museum professionals across the geography, genres, and job descriptions present in our field, and we want your voice to be represented! Submissions for articles are accepted on a rolling basis. Though Museums Now issues each focus on a particular theme relevant to our field, we welcome articles on all museum topics. Your submission is not required to fit a theme for an upcoming issue. For complete details about submitting an article, click here.
NEMA Executive Roundtables
Since 2016, NEMA has offered an executive roundtable program for museum leaders with annual budgets of between $800,000 and $1.4 million. The roundtable is a confidential peer-learning group that improves the institution’s long-term stability and the director’s life. If you’d like to explore participation, please contact Dan Yaeger, dan.yaeger@nemanet.org.
Museums Advocacy Day 2020
Once again, NEMA is partnering with the Alliance of American Museums for Museums Advocacy Day in Washington, DC, and would like to encourage as many members of the New England museum community who can to join us on Capitol Hill to represent the strength and diversity of our field. We hear from legislative staff that constituent input matters to our elected representatives, and it’s a great chance to network with your national friends and colleagues as well! NEMA members get the AAM member rate to register, using code 20NEMA. Registration is now open here: https://www.aam-us.org/programs/museums-advocacy-day/register-for-museums-advocacy-day/
Lunch with NEMA
We are now planning our 2020 Lunch with NEMA webinar schedule. If you have an idea for a Lunch with NEMA topic or are interested in speaking, please contact Meg Winikates at meg.winikates@nemanet.org We are especially interested in topics which focus on practical tools and skill building across various roles in the museum field, but we’re interested in hearing anything you’ve got in mind!
NEMA 911
The NEMA 911 team has added Dr. Roger Mandle to its list of “experts” who help museum leaders navigate their urgent, confidential issues. Roger’s own museum leadership includes service as president of the Rhode Island School of Design, executive directorships at the Qatar Museums Authority and Toledo Museum of Art, and senior positions at the Minneapolis Museum of Art and National Gallery of Art. Welcome Roger!
Since we started the program in May, the NEMA 911 team has handled 10 cases from NEMA members. For more information on this free service, go to nemanet.org/nema-911.
Executive Director Community of Practice
Beginning this past March, a group of 12 first-time executive directors have met monthly via web conference to gain knowledge, inspiration, and support. Known as “EDCoP” (short for executive director community of practice), the program combines peer support and guest speakers to help them do their jobs better. Guest speakers so far have included HR expert Purvi Patwari, finance expert Becky Beaulieu, and strategic planning expert Laura Roberts, who have all provided great insights into important topics. If you’re interested in joining EDCoP or would like to create a NEMA-supported community of practice yourself, contact Dan Yaeger, dan.yaeger@nemanet.org.